Saturday Night Live

A few years ago, I asked my secretary at the time, Carolyn (Vietnamese name Phuong), if she’d seen SNL the weekend before.  Huh?  Blank stare.  Apparently she didn’t know what Saturday Night Live was.  Since I don’t recall many Asian – much less Vietnamese – cast members on SNL, I suppose this makes sense.  But she was one of those Viets who doesn’t watch ANY American TV. 

 Beginnings.  It began in October 1975, started by Lorne Michaels, who had much more hair back then.  He’s still prominent on screen.

 70s. This is considered the “classic” era, though to me the sketches are not that much funnier than 80s and 90s era SNL, to the point where these should be considered special.  The highlights, of course, are Ackroyd & Curtin’s “Coneheads” and their bickering back and forth on Weekend Update, plus the various “samurai” sketches with John Belushi as shouting “MAMA SAN!” and attacking something with a samurai sword.  Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Lorraine Newman, Garrett Morris (token black!), Steve Martin (common guest) are the classic cast members.

 80s.  This era includes Jim Belushi, Rich Hall, Joe Piscopo, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Brad Hall, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Billy Crystal, and Martin Short.  This era gets forgotten, but it’s no worse than the 70s or 90s era which get more attention.  Most of the alumni of this era went on to bigger and better things, most notably Eddie Murphy (who was great as “Velvet Jones” and “Buckwheat”) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, better known as “Elaine” from “Seinfeld”.  Harry Shearer is a regular voice on “The Simpsons”, and teams up with Guest and McKean for Spinal Tap and various Guest movies.  I liked the “Run, Jump, and Throw Like A Girl Olympics”, Martin Short’s Ed Grimley sketches (brought over almost verbatim from SCTV), and Billy Crystal’s “Fernando’s Hideaway” (“you look MAH-velous!”).  Piscopo did a great Frank Sinatra impression.  

 90s.  This era’s better cast members were Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Dennis Miller, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows.  Oddly, this is now considered quasi-classic, thanks to “Wayne’s World”, which was not only well done as sketches, but successfully translated into a full-length movie.  Dana Carvey’s “Church Chat” was quality, the obvious “Wayne’s World” sketches (Wayne: “No way!” Joe Perry: “Way!”), Dennis Miller’s Weekend Update, and Hartman’s great impressions of Reagan and Clinton – and Sinatra (to Jan Hooks, as Sinead O’Connor: “what’s with the bald chick?”).  I was disappointed that they cut the Reagan Iran-Contra sketch short on the Best of Phil Hartman compilation.

 00s.  Darrell Hammond (actually been on since 1995), Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Cheri Oteri, Jimmy Fallon, and Tracy Morgan are the best known cast members of this era.  Here I felt the quality began slipping considerably – particularly Ferrell’s inane recurring cheerleader sketches with Cheri Oteri.  Too many sketches had me wondering, “is THAT the punch line?” with only the opening sketch, ending in “live from New York, it’s SATURDAY NIGHT!” being any good.  One of the better ingredients of latter-day SNL is the TV Funhouse, with the “Ex-Presidents” and “Ambiguously Gay Duo”. 

 Musical Guests.  I really can’t stand 95% of these, as they’re usually some mainstream pop band who don’t offend anyone.  My favorite was Faith No More, who played in December 1990.

 Style.  It wasn’t slapstick; it wasn’t dry; it wasn’t nearly as oddball as Monty Python; it wasn’t risqué.  Really, SNL humor is middle of the road, marginally controversial, standard issue American humor.  It’s nowhere near as clever as “The Simpsons”; nowhere near as controversial as “South Park” or “The Family Guy”; and only sometimes, not consistently, laugh out loud funny.  Because it’s on network TV it has to go by the NBC censors, so even live the language wasn’t particularly obnoxious.  One element I found was consistently the funniest was the political humor, and the fake commercials.  

 Recurring characters.  As mentioned earlier, Belushi’s Samurai; Bill Murray’s lounge singer (who I hated); Billy Crystal’s Fernando; Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat – and foul-mouthed Gumby; the Coneheads (top quality); Wayne & Garth; the Church Lady; Chris Rock’s Nat X (zzz); Julia Sweeney’s androgynous Pat; Rob Schneider’s Richmeister “making COPIES”; Martin Short’s Ed Grimley (“…you know!”).  The list goes on…

 Unscheduled cameos.  This was probably the best: when the person being parodied would suddenly arrive on set.  Janet Reno showed up during Will Ferrell’s “Janet Reno’s Party Machine”; Steve Martin crashed David Spade’s Hollywood Minute (which dismissed him as a “has-been”); John McLaughlin crashed Dana Carvey’s Halloween version of The McLaughlin Group (“WRONG!”); Bob Dole challenged Norm McDonald that “Bob Dole does NOT speak in the third person!”  Also quality were Paul Simon (singer) and Paul Simon (senator) showing up at the same time.

 Great Political Parody. Darrell Hammond nailed not only Bill Clinton, but also Al Gore.  Phil Hartman did a good Clinton, but his Reagan was stunning.  I never cared for Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford, as there was zero resemblance.  Dan Ackroyd was great as Jimmy Carter (“you’ve got the brown acid.  Do you have any Allman Brothers?”) and Bob Dole (“PIERRE DuPont!”).  Dana Carvey killed as Ross Perot and George Bush Sr.  Ferrell, of course, nailed George W. Bush.  More recently, Fred Armison (sic) does a passable Barack Obama, and Amy Poehler captures Hillary Clinton’s acid cynicism (though she’s better as Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas).  Debates are always well done, and even quasi-political characters are nailed down (Darrell Hammond as Tim Russert, asking McCain if he’ll run in 2004 if Bush “forgets to run”).

 SNL is best condensed into “Best of” the top actors, but unfortunately there is no “Best of Darrell Hammond”, which is a shame, as he’s competitive with Will Ferrell and others who do have their own.