SNL hasn't been particularly funny for years. At one time, it trafficked in satire and parody, frequently biting. Sometimes it was brilliant, the commentary getting to the heart of real issues and the jokes taking on a life of their own. Sure, by the 1980s and 1990s it was trying too hard to promote the next catchphrase or "breakthrough" character to make a cheap movie around, but that was the legacy of the Reagan Bush era, when people largely checked out and cashed in.
The 2000s weren't always kind, though it got a bump from America's renewed love for NYC after 9/11.. The show became more a habit, like a brand of toothpaste you buy without really thinking about it because you've been tossing it in the cart for years. It teetered between the occasional moment of social relevance and laughs that seemed less earned than reflex. But it chugged along because, really, what else is on at the same time to compete that can also promote Target, Ford pick ups, and Domino's Pizza?
It's clear there's been generational shifts regarding comedy. The social irreverence of the 1970s gave way to the sarcasm of the 1980s and the franchise building of the 1990s, for example. The current one prefers a combination of playing it safe -- usually with characters who are unusual but not so much they can be accused anymore of racism or picking on neurodivergents -- and sketches about social faux pas that go on and on long after the point has been made.
That brings us to this season and its first episode. Many of the more talented performers -- Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Cecily Strong, and Melissa Villasenor, for example -- have left. Of the ones who are left, Sarah Sherman and Chloe Fineman have the most promise, Sherman in particular being woefully underused (like Villasenor had been).
The rest are largely forgettable. Heidi Gardner is basically Chloe Fineman, so you could lose one or the other and not miss them. Kenan Thompson has been playing the same tedious, predictable guy for 20 years, and it's even more tiresome. Punkie Johnson never really seems present in anything -- she's like someone in the crew back in the old days who got a bit in a sketch. James Austin Johnson is a good mimic, but he's as memorable as Paul Brittain was.
Bowen Yang -- shamefully the first and only publicly Asian American cast member in a half century of the show -- keeps getting sketches that seem to be built around him declaring he's gay. If they're not defining him by his race, they're defining him by his sexual orientation. Good job writers!
Tonight's episode had the audience in stitches, which means the laughs at home were few and far between. Look, if you're going to get tickets, get dressed up, go down to the studio, stand in line, and then sit and wait for the show to begin, you're going to laugh whether you're having a good time or not. It's a social obligation. Plus, given the intensity of the laughs tonight -- like they turned up the mic volume on them -- it's likely they were giving electrical shocks and snaps from a whip to those who weren't laughing or laughing loud enough.
Just some dumb sketches. Something about the toilet paper bears. Yet another game show where the premise is in the name of the show but they beat it to death for seven minutes anyway. Some new cast member whose named after a poet I didn't care for either. I think they want him to be the next Pete Davison, but he looks like someone whose face would be on the label for a can of soup. He's as funny as that, too. You know you're in trouble, too, when sketches require people to sing and dance. The worse the show, the more singing sketches they'll have.
It's a shame. Too bad it's not an entertaining one.
