Has there ever been a worse SNL?
Here's the way it goes for bad SNLs. You watch the first skit. They open with the strongest thing they have. In the first half hour, they usually have a filmed skit (often a commercial parody) that has some humor in it. Then you wait for Weekend Update and then you turn the TV off.
Last night, they kicked off with Fred as Muammar Gaddafi, delivering a speech that CSpan aired. Does it sound funny? That's because it wasn't. The long portrayed tyrant (portrayed as a tyrant by the US media) was reduced to a fuzzy-wuzzy carping about missing Liam Neeson's Taken and more. It played like a Tim Conway skit Carol Burnett would have cut from her own show. Instead, the embarrassment opened the season for the series -- a static shot of a talking head. It was not a good portent.
Megan Fox hosted. They weren't too sure what to do with her. A sure sign that she has talent. In one early skit, she and Kirsten Wiig played flight attendants and both got in a few laughs. But why was it that the skit never took off? Maybe because to be really funny, people would need to be screaming and yelling and running as flight attendants Megan and Kirsten explained the plane might need to 'land' on the water and other things. You never bought the skit for a moment because even when they were saying the plane would likely tear in half, none of the 'passengers' seemed especially alarmed.
Between that and the opening it was a long, long stretch. Weekend Update? So awful that a former SNL cast member confessed he fell asleep during it when we called to get his take on it. At one point, we stopped listening to the words (why bother, there's no care taken in attempting to craft a joke) and instead just noted how Seth has one rhythm. Ignore the words, listen to any Seth 'joke' and grasp how he's all one-aged-trick pony. Then notice that Kenan Thompson is trapped in the same rhythm. You'll quickly grasp why Weekend Update has become so laugh free and they have to work the "APPLAUSE" sign overtime.
We were applauding. Last Sunday. At the Emmys. Applauding like crazy when Toni Collette won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Showtime's United States of Tara. We were so happy for the highly deserving Collette and so thrilled that Tina Fey had lost.
Remember that used up sour-puss? We told you last year that her little stunt didn't go over well. That you don't confess you hate a character you're playing. That when you do that, the ha-has become less and less as people grasp that you're impersonating someone solely to ridicule them. It was beneath the profession and it was certainly beneath an award winner. It's among the many reasons that Tina Fey lost.
And we knew she would.
And we knew every member of the press was saying she'd win which made her loss all the more wonderful. Now, as Isaiah pointed out Sunday night, all she has left is that lousy TV show. She better get down on her knees and pray that Sarah Palin runs for president in 2012 (and that Jami Gertz has no interest in developing a Palin routine) because, otherwise, America's done with Tina Fey.
America's close to being done with Saturday Night Live as well and we grasped why when it did it's prime time hand-jive on Thursday.
As we sat there watching Darrell Hammond do 'jokes' as Bill Clinton wanting to 'nail' Megan Fox and how he forgot about Hillary, we had to wonder what decade we were in?
The material wasn't fresh and it wasn't funny.
But it made two things painfully clear.
First, SNL never gave a damn about protecting Bill Clinton. With Bill, they trashed him every chance they got and did so claiming it was about humor and nothing personal. Yet today they claim they can't make fun of Barack. Which is how Thursday opened with a skit about Barack appearing on every TV show on broadcast or basic cable (with the exception of Fox News) and never had time to do a joke about Barack's ego.
As we've repeatedly pointed out, during the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Hillary was drug through the gutter in the name of 'humor' on Saturday Night Live while they never did insulting jokes about Barack. Hillary was conniving and evil while Barack was like Linus holding a blanket.
All this time later, they still want to play it that way.
And pretend that they play fair.
But there was no John Edwards skit, was there?
Last Sunday, The New York Times was all over the story that John Edwards promised his mistress that he would marry her as soon as Elizabeth Edwards died of cancer and that he'd get Dave Matthews Band to perform at the wedding. One would assume that would lead to a skit Thursday night.
John Edwards ran for president. Yet over a decade later, SNL still has its nose in Bill Clinton's boxers. But John Edwards?
On Saturday, Seth appeared to mumble his way through what would have been the first nod to John Edwards' trashy ways.
As a friend said Friday, whatever happened in the 90s, Bill and Hillary have made the decision to stay together and these 'jokes' about their marriage are getting pretty old.
Especially when Barack is treated like Ghandi by SNL.
SNL likes to pretend those who criticize Corporatist War Hawk Barack are racists. But it's Seth Meyers as writer that repeatedly demonstrates racism. It was Seth Meyers, for example, who blamed the housing crisis on low-income people. When other people push that argument, they're called out for ignorance and/or racism -- however, we're the only ones who called out Seth.
His racism appeared in full force Thursday night.
David Paterson is the governor of New York City. He's the first African-American governor. And he can be lampooned and has been before. We've even defended Fred at one point when he was being slammed for the portrayal. But it was watching the one on Thursday, the one that had Seth's racism all over it, that should have had America howling.
There are many things you can poke fun (gentle or mean-spirited) about David Paterson. But one thing we're not aware of is a sex scandal. We're not aware of that.
And when 'David Paterson' is given lines about blow jobs in New Jersey, we have to wonder why that is?
(We also have to wonder about a writer who thinks it's 'brave' or 'new' for New Yorkers to make fun of New Jersey. We'd refer to the writers to American Dad's "Irregarding Steve" which aired back in 2006.)
So why is 'Paterson' -- as conceived by SNL -- making all those sex jokes?
Because he's Black?
Is that it? Seth sees Black and immediately goes to sex?
David Paterson, whom we're no fans of, has never conducted himself in public in any manner that could be considered less than gentlemanly. So why is it that he's been portrayed as a crass, sex maniac?
Seth wants to finger point at others and insist they're racist and that's why they oppose the bi-racial Barack Obama (whom Seth insists is "Black"). But time and again, it's the skits that Seth writes that repeatedly come off racist.
Barack, they won't even make a joke about his ego. But with David Paterson, they will portray this man as sleaze. Repeating, he's never conducted himself in public as anything less than a gentleman. But the way SNL portrays him is how they always portray Black men. They've repeatedly portrayed them as sex-obsessed, slobbering fools.
And they wonder why each year the show matters less and less. And why you have so much time to reflect on how much the show sucks and how, despite promises that they'd add more women to the cast, the fall season kicked off with Kirsten Wiig as the only female in the cast. (Just like last year.) They gave Michaela Watkins the axe which is especially appalling when you grasp all the non-funny men kept on in the cast and kept on as featured players. Watkins actually delivered last year every chance she got. These days, actually being funny appears the quickest way to the get the axe on the long-in-the-tooth series.
Unfunny was SNL Thursday and Saturday night. Funny was Tina Fey's what-just-happened expression when they called out Toni Collette's name. If Lorne were smart, instead of attempting to offer filler each Saturday, he'd do a loop of Tina's face as she realizes she's no longer belle of the ball and that it's over. All over.
