Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Admiral Yi]

I'll watch an occasional youtube clip.  Bill Burr was funny, whenever he was on.  The full time cast is dull, dull, dull.

Even when SNL was good it was one, two, or maybe three (golden age) funny people with everybody else playing props.  Now they're all props.

[Eddie Teach]

Same, the occasional clip.

[grumbler]

I'll watch an occasional youtube clip.  Bill Burr was funny, whenever he was on.  The full time cast is dull, dull, dull.

Even when SNL was good it was one, two, or maybe three (golden age) funny people with everybody else playing props.  Now they're all props.

1986-1990 (the Second Golden Age) had a bunch of very funny people: Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, John Lovitz, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, and (towards the end), Mike Meyers.  I agree that they never again came close to that kind of lineup.

Nowadays the show seems like a zombie show; dead, but doesn't realize it.

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think it's that the show has declined but our receptiveness has. There are people out there posting about how it's better than ever or waxing nostalgic about the 2010 cast. I suspect mostly youngsters.

[The Larch]

I truly wonder how SNL is still on the air. Does anyone here watch it?

It is a bit of an institution, I'd say, so it still carries plenty of gravitas. Also, I think it sitll does pretty good ratings for a tv network show in this day and age, which is not that common anymore.

As for the show itself, back in the day I did try to more or less follow it, and still follow it on and off nowadays, mostly through youtube (although they're quite stingy with the more recent clips in YT, making the more recent ones unavailable from outside the US, so I'm not super up to date). That said, in the last few years they have been criticized of being overtly reliant on big name guests and sometimes controversial hosts (for instance Trump's turn as host in the run-up to the 2016 elections) to drive up ratings, so having Musk as host falls in this category, I'd say.

Bill Burr was funny, whenever he was on.

Bill Burr has only been a guest once and has never been part of the cast, so you must be thinking about somebody else.

I don't think it's that the show has declined but our receptiveness has. There are people out there posting about how it's better than ever or waxing nostalgic about the 2010 cast. I suspect mostly youngsters.

Yeah, as I said it still does solid ratings, has a pretty large online following, and it still produces plenty of talent for tv and cinema, as well as fodder for celebrity media. No idea about the age profile of their viewers, so no idea if it's mostly watched by younger people or not, but I guess that, being such a long-standing show, people might feel nostalgic about the casts of their youth, or back when they watched it regularly, and have the ususal "nowadays cast is terrible, it was much better back in the day when so and so were the stars of the show" kind of reaction.

[DGuller]

I think it's tough to objectively compare SNL across different eras, unless you were watching it fully throughout.  It's one of those shows where usually a couple of gems are hidden in a pile of shit.  We probably remember just the extracted and washed gems from the past, whereas the shit of today is still fresh on our mind.

[Sheilbh]

I think it's tough to objectively compare SNL across different eras, unless you were watching it fully throughout.  It's one of those shows where usually a couple of gems are hidden in a pile of shit.  We probably remember just the extracted and washed gems from the past, whereas the shit of today is still fresh on our mind.

Also I think it's probably one of those shows - and a bit like football - in that there's an age/period of your life when you are most receptive to it and you get attached to that incarnation. Plus, as you say, you judge against the best bits you remember. It may well be that for the target audience right now, it's a golden age

[The Larch]

Also for some of the more "timely" humour that is more rooted in the mores of the time it was made, watching it many years afterwards just makes it not that funny, but if you watched it at the moment it might have been really good because you were "in" on the subtleties and background of the sketch. I guess it's inevitable in such a long-running show.

[Admiral Yi]

Bill Burr has only been a guest once and has never been part of the cast, so you must be thinking about somebody else.

Or maybe I was aware he was a guest, and then went on to contrast him with the everyday cast?

[celedhring]

I didn't watch a single SNL skit until the youtube era, so I don't have any kind of emotional attachment to it. But certainly the golden era ones were funnier. That said, Sheilbh's argument about selection bias (and who's making this selection) has weight.

Nonetheless, I've never been that much of a fan. Not my favorite sketch comedy show by long shot.

[Sheilbh]

Nonetheless, I've never been that much of a fan. Not my favorite sketch comedy show by long shot.

And it's quite rare that a sketch show lives up to your memories when you revisit it. The only exception I can think of is Smack the Pony which is consistently and enduringly brilliant.

In most cases you forget a lot of filler.

[celedhring]

Nonetheless, I've never been that much of a fan. Not my favorite sketch comedy show by long shot.

And it's quite rare that a sketch show lives up to your memories when you revisit it. The only exception I can think of is Smack the Pony which is consistently and enduringly brilliant.

In most cases you forget a lot of filler.

Oh absolutely. That's why I rely on internet curation for most of these shows 

Incidentally: writing sketch comedy is one of these things I've never got the chance to do, and I would love to do at some point. But it's fallen relatively out of fashion over here.

[The Larch]

Nonetheless, I've never been that much of a fan. Not my favorite sketch comedy show by long shot.

And it's quite rare that a sketch show lives up to your memories when you revisit it. The only exception I can think of is Smack the Pony which is consistently and enduringly brilliant.

In most cases you forget a lot of filler.

I'm going to assume that Smack the Pony is a quaint British show that nobody outside of the UK has ever heard of. 

But yeah, by nature there's plenty of filler in these kind of sketch shows that is forgotten over time when the greatest hits are filtered out. Even Monty Python's Flying Circus had plenty of weird sketches that are not that well remembered.

A sketch show I really liked and whose sketches I kept finding funny even after many years (although some are pretty dated by now) is Chappelle's Show, which only lasted for 3 seasons (that might help in hindsight as it didn't have time to lose quality). Key & Peele (only 5 seasons) has some very good sketches as well, but many of them don't hit at all for me. SNL has been on for... (goes to check) 46 seasons ( ), so besides their greatest hits it must have produced industrial amounts of filler material as well.

[The Larch]

Nonetheless, I've never been that much of a fan. Not my favorite sketch comedy show by long shot.

And it's quite rare that a sketch show lives up to your memories when you revisit it. The only exception I can think of is Smack the Pony which is consistently and enduringly brilliant.

In most cases you forget a lot of filler.

Oh absolutely. That's why I rely on internet curation for most of these shows 

Incidentally: writing sketch comedy is one of these things I've never got the chance to do, and I would love to do at some point. But it's fallen relatively out of fashion over here.

Well, at least over there you guys have "Polonia".  At the national level it has fallen out of fashion quite spectacularly, yeah, nowadays it's a format that is only used for end of the year specials by José Mota.

[Admiral Yi]

I've seen a couple episodes of Smack the Pony.  All girl comedy show.  I remember the Finnish Prime Minister from Veep was in it.