Tag Archives: snl

On This Week’s SNL: Holy Callback, Batman

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A bit of spoiler, but I don’t think I’m giving too much away. Besides, these days, I think I’m in the minority of people who watch Saturday Night Live fairly regularly and care about it.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this week’s episode, which can be summed up by this line.

“Wait a second… You’re the frigging Closet Organizer guy, aren’t you?”

I don’t remember a time when a multi-sketch callback was used on Saturday Night Live. Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a couple here and there, and HBO’s Mr. Show had only sketch transitions with callback.

But in Saturday Night Live? Someone comment if they have seen it before. I’d like to find that episode and watch it.

Callbacks in sketch shows make me enjoy the show all the more. I’d like to think that more effort was made to ensure that all associated sketches would melt harmoniously into one giant ball of funny. In this instance, Will Forte’s and Jon Hamm’s characters reliving the past infomercial sketch, followed by the suggestion to go home and help clean out a closet… hilarious.

Just wanted to share. Here it is on Hulu.

Saturday Night Live: “The Good Ol’ Days”

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I have a huge love for comedies, especially sketch comedies. Saturday Night Live (and MadTV, yes… I was a MadTV fan) has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember liking sketch comedies on television.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying this: Saturday Night Live has become less funny and relevant. The more talented and experienced cast members have moved on to other shows and movies, and the new members that have joined haven’t really proved themselves yet. I do enjoy the political sketches (which is why I watch The Daily Show religiously), but the rest of the show could just be replaced with Digital Shorts. But even the Digital Shorts are becoming hit-or-miss, with the majority of them being misses.

Even with these mixed feelings, I watch pretty regularly. On some weeks, I’ve seen them via an actual television (which let me see the f-bomb droppage in real time), but mostly I’ve caught them on Hulu.

As I’m writing this, I’m watching “SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas” which aired this past Thursday in place of NBC’s comedy lineup. Gilly, a recurring character played by the talented Kristen Wiig, serves as a transition between the some of the better holiday sketches put on by SNL. (I really don’t like this recurring character, by the way.)

One of the main reasons I keep watching is the hope that the show will actually get better… Maybe even return to the good ol’ days when the show was hilarious from start to end.

But maybe this wasn’t the case. I wasn’t alive when SNL started, when the cast members were called “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players.” Really, the great sketches that I’ve come to love and respect have been passed through many filters of producers and critics. Maybe if I actually saw them all I would feel differently about the good ol’ days.

Nostalgia is such a strong force. And actually, I feel it already with the early 20th season of SNL, when I got introduced to the show back in middle school. It was around the time when I finally felt comfortable with the English language, as well as started to dive deeper into the American experience.

Oh those days… so much to write on those days…