SNL - Rebuild Season

[bundabergdevil]

SNL's 48th season debuted last night w/ host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar as well as a few special appearances. Lots of stalwarts, particularly among the female cast, are no longer with the show --- Kate and Aidy, most notably. Pete Davison, Chris Redd and Kyle Mooney are all gone. IMO, the most promising / talented featured player from last season (Aristotle Athari) departed, too. Kenan continues his Brady-like career.

The new folks are Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker. We get brief introductions to all of them but Michael Longfellow got the most airtime on what was a pretty sharp weekend update. We'll see how the rest of them get used in the coming episodes.

Miles Teller was game, clearly excited to be there and funny when he was given good material. None of the skits really stood out to me but I enjoyed the show overall.
REALLY looking forward to Brendan Gleeson next week though.


BTW, my line for the number of people the chime in on this thread that SNL has not been funny since they found it funny at 7.

[ClemmonsDevil]

SNL's 48th season debuted last night w/ host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar as well as a few special appearances. Lots of stalwarts, particularly among the female cast, are no longer with the show --- Kate and Aidy, most notably. Pete Davison, Chris Redd and Kyle Mooney are all gone. IMO, the most promising / talented featured player from last season (Aristotle Athari) departed, too. Kenan continues his Brady-like career.

The new folks are Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker. We get brief introductions to all of them but Michael Longfellow got the most airtime on what was a pretty sharp weekend update. We'll see how the rest of them get used in the coming episodes.

Miles Teller was game, clearly excited to be there and funny when he was given good material. None of the skits really stood out to me but I enjoyed the show overall.
REALLY looking forward to Brendan Gleeson next week though.


BTW, my line for the number of people the chime in on this thread that SNL has not been funny since they found it funny at 7.

SNL has not been funny in forever. One.

[bundabergdevil]

SNL has not been funny in forever. One.

(Kind of like some posters I know).

[acdevil]

SNL's 48th season debuted last night w/ host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar as well as a few special appearances. Lots of stalwarts, particularly among the female cast, are no longer with the show --- Kate and Aidy, most notably. Pete Davison, Chris Redd and Kyle Mooney are all gone. IMO, the most promising / talented featured player from last season (Aristotle Athari) departed, too. Kenan continues his Brady-like career.

The new folks are Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker. We get brief introductions to all of them but Michael Longfellow got the most airtime on what was a pretty sharp weekend update. We'll see how the rest of them get used in the coming episodes.

Miles Teller was game, clearly excited to be there and funny when he was given good material. None of the skits really stood out to me but I enjoyed the show overall.
REALLY looking forward to Brendan Gleeson next week though.


BTW, my line for the number of people the chime in on this thread that SNL has not been funny since they found it funny at 7.

I’ll take the over

[Skydog]

SNL always seems funnier in a rear view mirror. I’ve watched it from the beginning and even in the early days there were many dud episodes where I’ve thought “that was 90 minutes I’ll never get back.” But we all tend to remember the classic sketches which just get better over time, so it always feels like we are past the good old days.
That being said I thought this season opener was pretty weak on the laugh/creativity meter. And it does seem like an unexciting lineup this season. Maybe someone will pleasantly surprise me.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

After not watching for a while I started watching a bit more last year. Kate McKinnon was great. I have mixed feelings about Pete Davidson as a human being but he could be really hilarious - he kind of had the Belushi role of you never knew what would come out of his mouth, sort of a dirtbag (though he is far from Belushi in terms of talent). I think the show was helped a lot by bringing back veterans. Guest hosts were hot and cold - I'm only in my late 40s but I didn't know who half of them were so that made it less enjoyable.

I will give this season a try but I am not too optimistic - too many losses. Thanks for your update.

[JasonEvans]

I thought the opening Manning skit was quite good. Lots of the show picking on itself and acknowledging its own shortcomings. I thought they did a great job getting Miles Teller to look like Peyton.

The rest of the skits were pretty forgettable. Weekend Update was strong, as usual.

[cato]

SNL's 48th season debuted last night w/ host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar as well as a few special appearances. Lots of stalwarts, particularly among the female cast, are no longer with the show --- Kate and Aidy, most notably. Pete Davison, Chris Redd and Kyle Mooney are all gone. IMO, the most promising / talented featured player from last season (Aristotle Athari) departed, too. Kenan continues his Brady-like career.

The new folks are Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker. We get brief introductions to all of them but Michael Longfellow got the most airtime on what was a pretty sharp weekend update. We'll see how the rest of them get used in the coming episodes.

Miles Teller was game, clearly excited to be there and funny when he was given good material. None of the skits really stood out to me but I enjoyed the show overall.
REALLY looking forward to Brendan Gleeson next week though.


BTW, my line for the number of people the chime in on this thread that SNL has not been funny since they found it funny at 7.

SNL hasn’t been funny since Burt Reynolds died. He slayed in those Jeopardy skits.

[brevity]

SNL has always been hit-or-miss funny, whether in the golden era (when I was most interested) or in the bleaker eras (when everyone else was most interested).

The one consistent trend is that SNL season premieres are always a lost opportunity. Any decent writer -- comedy or otherwise -- would jot down ideas over the summer, ponder them further, and have months of abnormally well-developed material for the first episode. Not at SNL. The writers come in as blank slates and treat the season premiere like any other episode, if not a bit worse because they are so rusty. This could be by Lorne Michaels' design; I don't know.

I thought the opening Manning skit was quite good. Lots of the show picking on itself and acknowledging its own shortcomings. I thought they did a great job getting Miles Teller to look like Peyton.

The rest of the skits were pretty forgettable. Weekend Update was strong, as usual.

As always, opinions vary, and humor is entirely subjective.

Aside from the bold, much disagreement from me here. The cold open started with one really good idea: Miles Teller really does look like Peyton Manning. Look at any photo and picture him without hair. The skit itself was watchable for this reason, and while I do like it when things get meta, it just seemed like an excuse to trot out a series of bad or incomplete ideas. Sort of a "we know this is bad because we're telling you it's bad".

This Sporcle quiz might help explain my problems with Weekend Update, and why it needs fresh blood. There are several predecessors who have hosted Weekend Update in less than half as many episodes and left a stronger legacy. Colin Jost is secure knowing that he will never be the worst Colin to host the segment, and Michael Che has sacrificed his initial sharpness in order to provide less of a contrast with his bland partner. For years, Jost has coasted a bit on the meta as well -- who he married in real life, and how his fellow cast members (Leslie Jones, Pete Davidson, Sarah Sherman, now Michael Longfellow) react to his circumstances. If you think he has a punchable face, oh look, they did a skit about how he has a punchable face. He absorbs it all and keeps going. He could do this forever.

[rsvman]

I have discovered that I am able to live my life pretty well without it.

This is, however, not a comment about whether it was funnier in the past, so it doesn't go into the over-under.

[bundabergdevil]

SNL hasn’t been funny since Burt Reynolds died. He slayed in those Jeopardy skits.

And I see the spirit of Turd Ferguson lives on in this thread...

[fidel]

I miss Buck Henry. He really killed it.

https://youtu.be/C6XF4RxU7xQ

Hosted 10 times in four years.

1) January 17, 1976; 2) May 22, 1976; 3) October 30, 1976; 4) May 21, 1977; 5) November 19, 1977; 6) May 20, 1978; 7) November 11, 1978; 8) May 26, 1979; 9) November 10, 1979; 10) May 24, 1980

[luburch]

Got around to watching it last night and it was...fine. Which is how I've felt watching SNL most of my life. As others mentioned, some skits hit, others don't. We just look back fondly on the ones that did hit.

Last season introduced the Please Don't Destroy crew and I was hoping they would make an appearance last night. My favorite thing about the current SNL lineup.

[Skydog]

...
The cold open started with one really good idea: Miles Teller really does look like Peyton Manning. Look at any photo and picture him without hair. The skit itself was watchable for this reason, and while I do like it when things get meta, it just seemed like an excuse to trot out a series of bad or incomplete ideas. Sort of a "we know this is bad because we're telling you it's bad".
...

I had same reaction while watching - the skit took the lazy route of self-referentially mocking how lame the jokes were rather than doing the work of writing good jokes.

Somehow it is loosely akin to the cad who wants credit for being “honest” about his/her infidelities in lieu of actually being faithful.

(But I’m still a Colin Jost fan.)

[jimmymax]

The mid '70s-'80s was a good decade for SNL, which is impressive since the weed was so much weaker back then.

[rsvman]

The mid '70s-'80s was a good decade for SNL, which is impressive since the weed was so much weaker back then.

This one does count in the over-under.

[bundabergdevil]

SNL's Halloween episode was this weekend. Jack Harlow hosted (and shouldn't have, blah) and was the musical guest.

Tom Hanks made a surprise appearance returning as David S Pumpkins. Joke is never as funny the second time around but I still had fun.

https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/tom-...turns-snl.html

[Rich]

SNL's Halloween episode was this weekend.

I thought this was very funny regardless of political affiliation

[bundabergdevil]

I thought this was very funny regardless of political affiliation

Yeah, that was pretty sharp!

[JasonEvans]

SNL's Halloween episode was this weekend. Jack Harlow hosted (and shouldn't have, blah) and was the musical guest.

Tom Hanks made a surprise appearance returning as David S Pumpkins. Joke is never as funny the second time around but I still had fun.

https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/tom-...turns-snl.html