Giantrobo

It's fashionable to shit on SNL's recent seasons, recent being anything in the last 25 years, but the truth is it was ALWAYS a Hit or Miss show. People have romanticized certain seasons as being better or worst than they were for various reasons.

wishbone

Also Master Thespian (Acting!) and Mephistopheles.

Count Dooku

And now that I stop to think about it, wouldn't the idea of making a joke out of a person's indeterminate gender be considered incredibly offensive, today?

Count Dooku

https://archive.org/details/TheAmazingAlexandersnlSpoof

Lawrence O'Donnell (now) from MSNBC at the beginning

GoldenJCJ

Why yes, yes it would. Considering the entire premise of all those skits was having everyone around trying to sneakily quiz Pat on what gender he/she was and the fact that the joke was that no one could guess what gender Pat was, I think it’s safe to say that a character like Pat wouldn’t be given the ok today.

Decker

The same could be said for Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood.

Or this all-time classic :

Count Dooku

More's the pity

mwbmis

That was the original point of her being on the show (she and the main character become friends). The lead character played by comedian Abby McEnany had been frequently called Pat for most of her adult life (based on real experiences). As McEnany said in an inteview, "You're never called 'Pat' in a nice way".

Count Dooku

No idea what you're talking about.

Paff

And also also, Tales of Ribaldry, and the bit he used to do with Tom Hanks as they catcalled girls then self deprecated in the same manner.

"Hel-LO.......and GOOD-bye. My receding hairline is a definite turn-off"

wishbone

"The pleasure's all mine... and so's the pain!"

mcnabb

I am not one of these 'SNL was better in my day' type of people, as I always thought the show was only good until Weekend Update, as it could have easily been a 60 minute show all these years. I will say that I feel the strongest era of shows from start to finish were the Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman era simply because they had the best writers then. You had Conan, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel to name a few. They were able to take a pop culture or political event and put an original spin on it, and that is why that era was so strong. You look at today's skits and they almost mimic anything in pop culture, so there is nothing new to it. But I think back to how Hartman played Reagan as he had the Dual-Personality (Nice guy Reagan on the outside, Hardass Reagan behind close doors), or Dana Carvey doing George Bush and essentially doing things the President never did. Saying, "Not gonna do it' or 'Wouldn't be prudent' became pop culture phrases, as I don't believe Bush 41 ever said them. The William Shatner Star Trek sketch where he calls the fans a bunch of losers is still one of the greatest sketches ever. And the Clarence Thomas hearings were great too. Heck, those writers made The McLaughlin Group funny back then.

SNL sucks today simply because they don't take chances anymore as they have their establishment audience (my mom still watches it every week) and that is why a show like 'In Living Color', 'Mad TV' or 'Chappelle Show' is better when they come along. They are edgier and take chances. If those shows stayed on as long as SNL did, they would become just as lame and become a punchline too.

Paff

Ted Kennedy: Judge Thomas, have you ever walked out of the bathroom nude and pretended not to know a woman was there?
Clarence Thomas: No, senator
Ted Kennedy: Oh. Too bad. You should try it, sometimes it works.

And yeah, that McLaughlin Group parody The Sinatra Group was an all-time classic, with Hartman as Frank Sinatra, Jan Hooks as Sinead O'Connor, Sting as Billy Idol, Chris Rock as Luther Campbell, and Mike Myers/Victoria Jackson as Steve Lawrence/Eydie Gorme.

"Question #3, this bald chick, what's with her head? I see her and I'm thinking '14 ball, side pocket'"

mcnabb

I have to watch it again on Youtube, but I think Al Franken played Senator Paul Simon and kept hitting on Anita Hill talking about his bowtie every 5 seconds. And then Dana Carvey playing Senator Strom Thurmond and I'm pretty sure was talking about oversized genitalia in his southern twang. Then Chris Rock testifies as Long Dong Silver.

Paff

I think the line was "Women don't like pornography that features close-ups of oversized genitalia", but yeah, it was the way Carvey over-enunciated everything that made it so damn funny.

And don't forget Kevin Nealon in a bald-cap, as Joe Biden.

mwbmis

The Showtime show Work in Progress where she's confronted about the Pat character.

Count Dooku

I'm guessing she did not just come back at her confronter with "Fuck off! I'm a cancer survivor."

DVD Josh

I am a massive SNL fan. I have seen every episode multiple times, and I mean EVERY episode. The "my era was better" people fail to accept that not only every era had duds, EVERY SHOW has duds, and in fact, most of the sketches are really not that great. But you remember the standouts, just like you do the Shatner sketch, which actually isn't even the best sketch of that particular episode. You remember the "I Grok Spock" shirt, the "that mare had a foal" and "get a life lines" but for the most part that sketch was fairly average, but had its laughs.

But I still watch every week, hoping for that one sketch a night that makes the entire episode worth it.

Paff

I don't think anyone has ever argued that there was a time when SNL was hilarious for 90 straight minutes. There's always been clunkers in the last half hour of the show, often the only reason to make it to the end was to see the second song if you happened to be a fan of the musical artist.

But there was always an effort for the best sketch to be the one right after the monologue. And if that one's a clunker, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the show. Like that one a couple of months ago with the "study buddy", I didn't find that even slightly amusing and couldn't believe they chose to open the show with it.

I've seen some rankings of the best sketches of 20-21. It's too bad the African Tourism sketch was considered "culturally insensitive", cuz it was the high point of the season for me. Admittedly, it was partially because Adele totally lost it, but the fact that she was laughing only caused Kate McKinnon and Heidi Gardner to go even deeper into character was what put it over the top for me.

DVD Josh

The Africa sketch is ONLY funny because of Adele breaking. Otherwise, it's one note for four minutes.

I wish there were eps like Sterling K. Brown and Donald Glover. Those were fantastic episodes.

Paff

You just described about 90% of "classic" SNL sketches there.

mcnabb

As I mentioned in my original post, I thought SNL should have trimmed down to a 60 minutes way back in the 80's as the show usually took a nosedive after Weekend Update. The only reason the show is 90 minutes to begin with was that it took over for Johnny Carson rerun NBC would show on Saturday night before 1975. Carson's show was 90 minutes back then, so that is where they came up with that time for the show. Heck, even Carson went to a 60 minute show in 1979.

My point is that the Carvey/Hartman era had strong shows with multiple skits that were funny for atleast the first 45 minutes many times. No doubt if you go back today, there would be many misses. The reason I stopped watching SNL is the show started to take a nosedive in the first 1/2 hour. The opening skit was usually good because it reflected some pop culture event, the first fake commercial was usually funny, and than the first skit after that was the last funny thing of the night. When was the last time anyone cared about Weekend Update? Norm MacDonald? The only 2 Weekend Update Hosts that I have gone out of my way to watch were Dennis Miller and Norm. The others have been generic and as it felt manufactured. But in fairness to SNL, there are very few comedians like Norm so that's a tough spot to fill for 40 years. Which goes back to my original point that the show has just been on too long to actually be funny anymore.

fujishig

I like Weekend Update with Jost and Che. I mean I thought they were horrible initially but I think they've been doing fine for the past few years.

mcnabb

Overall, I think SNL works best when the cast is filled with people who can do good impressions. That's why I always felt the early 90's Farley, Sandler, Spade, Schneider era (post Hartman/Carvey) was overrated as they weren't good impressionists. I actually stopped watching for a few years after Carvey left in 1992 (and started watching again in the late 90's with Ferrell, Hammond and Norm), but SNL did fire that cast in 1995 so the ratings must have suffered. The show is at it's best when it is satiring pop culture and good impressionists can elevate the show because it makes you believe that person is real.

Count Dooku

When I read that, the CORK SOAKERS sketch came to mind. So I guess SNL does have a tradition of classic, one-note sketches about dicks.