Author Topic: Saturday Night Live discussion  (Read 39097 times)

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Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #60 on: August 22, 2014, 04:54:59 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #61 on: August 23, 2014, 05:26:35 PM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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That link, in which you realize that everyone was right, and SNL has always kind of sucked.

That's a bunch of hooey.  Hooey, I say!

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #62 on: August 23, 2014, 05:42:12 PM »

Offline LarBrd33

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I figured some of the SNL fans around here may enjoy this.

http://grantland.com/snl/

It's crazy how many talented people have been on that show over the years.
The problem with rating SNL cast members is that people always retroactively glorify them once they've left the show for post-SNL superstardom.   I watch the show religiously... take someone like Will Ferrell for instance.  When he was actually on the show, there was no shortage of people complaining about how annoying some of his skits were.  "All he does is scream!!", "he's not funny!", "that cheerleader sketch is terrible!"...  but then he goes on to a movie career and everyone claims he was brilliant on SNL.   The previous generation is always funnier than the current generation until the current generation becomes the previous generation.  It's rare that anyone has enough perspective to actually accurately measure a member of the cast in the moment... partially because there aren't a lot of people like me who watch the show consistently every week.

Truth is, there's always plenty of crappy sketches on the show...  but there's also plenty of hilarious ones too.  You remember the hilarious ones from previous generations, because those are the ones that usually stick around.

For what it's worth,  I think Bill Hader was my favorite cast member of all time.  He was consistently great, in my opinion.  He's yet to have a huge break-out post-SNL career so I doubt he'll survive the later rounds of that Grantland poll when matched up with some of the "legends".  Compare him to someone from his own generation... Kristen Wiig.  She's brilliant in pretty much everything she does outside the show, but on SNL itself I found her consistently grating and annoying.  Too many of her characters veered into "MAD-TV" territory.  And yet, she'll probably go further than Hader, because "Bridesmaids" was a huge sensation and she's arguably a much bigger star already.   

I just feel like every time a discussion about the validity of someone's SNL career comes into question, people typically weigh the sum of their entire career.  I'm sure Fred Armison (who was actually pretty funny on SNL) will have a bunch of extra votes in that Grantland poll, because "Portlandia" is a huge hit right now.   And folks will look at cast members like Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon and Vanessa Bayer (who are actually pretty [dang] funny) as terrible, because they are the current generation.   

I'm telling you... it would be interesting to do this exact poll again in 5 years.  Bill Hader recently signed a developmental deal with HBO to create and star in a new TV series.  If that show ends up being a hit (I hope it does, I love that guy), I bet people retroactively claim he's their favorite SNL cast member of all time.   

That said, it's going to be hard for anyone to beat Murphy, Belushi or Hartman in that poll.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2014, 05:49:16 PM by LarBrd33 »

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #63 on: August 23, 2014, 05:52:01 PM »

Offline Nerf DPOY

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I think some of SNL's criticism stems from it's ubiquitousness , similar to Lebron or whoever our current president is. People can hate it and still watch it obsessively.

Also for me, it's hard  to not let a castmember's post SNL movies/etc. colour my opinion of who was best/worst. I think Bill Murray and Mike Myers are the two best SNL performers, but maybe not for strictly in a what they accomplished on SNL sense.

 I'll say one thing though that Kate Mckinnon from the current cast is hilarious to me. She may not have any reverence with anyone because of how relatively new she is to the standouts from the past, but I think when the dust clears she'll go down as one of the greats.

And for not much reason at all except that I like it, here's the Whipmaster skit. Not great quality but still watchable....

http://www.clipstr.com/videos/BillMurrayAsTheWhipMasterSNL/


Edit: Ha! LarBrd 33 beat me to the punch on a lot of what I just wrote. Flippin' stale old thread and it still happens....oh well.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #64 on: August 23, 2014, 06:01:35 PM »

Offline indeedproceed

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To echo some of what LB33 said, if you want to just talk about SNL (ha, I literally typed NBA there as my go-to 3-letter acronym), sometimes some of the funniest guys don't ever go on to do anything great.

But sometimes I think it cuts the other way too. Sometimes the guys who are on there the longest, they're either predominantly just really, really solid role players with a few memorable highlight sketches (Fred Armison, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, Phil Hartman). They're like the Ray Allen in the Celtics big-3, the Chris Bosh. You only really realize how much you miss them when Avery Bradley signs a 4 yr 32 million dollar contract while Chris Parnell goes on to do some of the best voice-work on your favorite shows and have really funny but pretty small roles on TV shows and movies you watch.

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Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #65 on: August 23, 2014, 08:44:40 PM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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Choosing an all-time favorite is tough.  My answer could be different tomorrow, but if you put a gun to my head right now I'd say Phil Hartman.  Dude was able to play wacky characters as well as the straight man with equal aplomb.  Such a talent.  If you ever have a chance watch his audition tape.  The brass usually tries to keep a straight face when they are watching auditions, but they can't help themselves with Hartman.  He basically had the gig within the first 90 seconds.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #66 on: August 28, 2014, 04:39:11 PM »

Offline Donoghus

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Grantland poll is down to the final two.  Hartman v. Ferrell.

Personally, I'm shocked that Murphy got ousted.   I have absolutely no qualms with Hartman making it to the final and have always thought that Ferrell is over-rated. 

Ferrell probably takes it down because of recency bias but I think Hartman was a better performer.  He really was the ultimate glue guy on the show.


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Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #67 on: August 28, 2014, 06:31:34 PM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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One other aspect that may have hurt Murphy is that he was on the show during what is considered by many as the worst era of the show's history.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #68 on: August 28, 2014, 06:53:58 PM »

Offline GreenWarrior

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I used to love SNL. I couldn't tell you one member of the cast right now.

I turned it on a week or so ago and had never seen any of actors before. and none of what I saw was funny in the least. it was the 1st time I watched in many yrs. and it wasn't long

it always seemed back in the day you always thought to yourself - "this cast isn't as good as the cast before". then with a little time that new cast grew on ya and became your favorite. I can't even relate to this show anymore.

it started with Tina Fey being the lead writer for me. she really pushed too many of her political views into any skit she could and not being a politician fan it quickly made me lose interest. since her departure though it has not improved apparently.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #69 on: August 28, 2014, 07:29:42 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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Grantland poll is down to the final two.  Hartman v. Ferrell.

Personally, I'm shocked that Murphy got ousted.   I have absolutely no qualms with Hartman making it to the final and have always thought that Ferrell is over-rated. 

Ferrell probably takes it down because of recency bias but I think Hartman was a better performer.  He really was the ultimate glue guy on the show.

Who would you put in the final instead of Ferrell, given how the bracket was laid out?  There's not a ton of strong alternatives in the "modern" era.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #70 on: August 28, 2014, 07:31:09 PM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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Grantland poll is down to the final two.  Hartman v. Ferrell.

Personally, I'm shocked that Murphy got ousted.   I have absolutely no qualms with Hartman making it to the final and have always thought that Ferrell is over-rated. 

Ferrell probably takes it down because of recency bias but I think Hartman was a better performer.  He really was the ultimate glue guy on the show.

Who would you put in the final instead of Ferrell, given how the bracket was laid out?  There's not a ton of strong alternatives in the "modern" era.

I think Wiig is the only one in the last 20 years that could challenge Ferrell, but I'm also a fan of his stuff.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #71 on: August 28, 2014, 08:02:56 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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It's too bad they didn't slide Farley over to the other half of the bracket, since he didn't leave til 95, a couple years after most of the other guys on his side.  He would've been a worthy finalist over Ferrell.

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #72 on: August 28, 2014, 10:38:20 PM »

Offline slamtheking

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hadn't heard of the bracket voting on Grantland.  for me, the finalists would have to be Murphy and Farrell with Murphy winning out. 

Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #73 on: August 29, 2014, 08:43:43 AM »

Offline Donoghus

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Grantland poll is down to the final two.  Hartman v. Ferrell.

Personally, I'm shocked that Murphy got ousted.   I have absolutely no qualms with Hartman making it to the final and have always thought that Ferrell is over-rated. 

Ferrell probably takes it down because of recency bias but I think Hartman was a better performer.  He really was the ultimate glue guy on the show.

Who would you put in the final instead of Ferrell, given how the bracket was laid out?  There's not a ton of strong alternatives in the "modern" era.

In the way the bracket was set up, you pretty much would expect Ferrell to be in the final.  Big picture-wise, I just think he's always been over-rated.  Thought he was more into the cheap laughs and I just think SNL Murphy was a genius and Hartman really was so versatile and rock solid. 

I think both Hartman & Murphy were better performers.  I was really glad to see Hader make it so far in the bracket, though.


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Re: Saturday Night Live discussion
« Reply #74 on: September 05, 2014, 08:51:56 AM »

Offline slamtheking

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just to kick the SNL discussion around some more with a new question:

Who were your favorite and least favorite hosts?  who surprised you as better than expected and who was a disappointment?  Anyone you think would make a great host but hasn't done it yet?

for me, I think my favorites over the years have been Alec Baldwin, Justin Timberlake (couldn't stand hiim before SNL) and new favorite of mine Melissa Mccarthy.  A very pleasant surprise was Pam Anderson--got right into the characters without hesitation.  Same with Kerry Washington--would really like to see her come back again.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck do a pretty decent job when they host too--seem to go along with whatever characters they're asked to play and get into the roles.

for me, the biggest disappointments were Robert Deniro (by a large margin) and Robin Williams.  Deniro's shows always came off like he put the kebosh on anything really funny----only play-it-safe skits that weren't funny.  I could picture Deniro going through the walkthroughs saying "I'm not doing that".  probably only happened in my head but the shows were so bad that I could actually picture it happening.

Robin Williams was just too fast for the writers and cast.  He was buzzing along doing his thing and trying to be funny but the writing/skits were weak compared to what he could freelance and the cast didn't look like they knew how to work with him.  Jim Carrey had the same issue too but to a much lesser extent.

I don't recall seeing George Clooney or Brad Pitt doing it but they seem like they'd do well at getting into character.  of course, it all depends on the writing.