Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
That's the right observation. I don't think folks understand how much of a surprise it is whether and when an audience laughs --- or reacts in any fashion --- to the players. You get a pretty good sense of things in a broadway show, night after night, but every audience is different and when you're doing something like SNL, you have no idea what's going to work because it's a one-off. You could get crickets or comic magic, you really don't know.

The SNLers (and late night hosts) doing remote work are having a time of it because they're used to real-time performance ratings. Most of them cut their teeth on a stand up stage or an improv troupe like Second City with an audience. This is new territory for them and I appreciate it.
Sometimes when something gets a laugh that has never gotten a laugh before, it can throw you off for a bit. You're up there thinking, "Wait, what? That's funny? What did I do differently tonight? Oh crap, what's my next line?".