Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a show that airs on CBS every Saturday night, performing several skits and songs with a new host and musical appearance every week. The show began on October 11, 1975, and has been running every year since. The show is now on its 51st season, and with that, there have been at least a thousand skits and sketches done. How could SNL possibly keep the jokes and sketches going for so long after all these years? There is a group of people who believe that they have run out of good ideas, and that the modern SNL is not nearly as funny as it was back in the 70’s to 90’s. However, SNL still manages to gain millions of views online.
Casting and Hosts
What makes SNL iconic is its hilarious cast line. Obviously modern SNL does not have the same cast as the original, as the actors get older, but also usually branch off and gain bigger roles. Many popular actors today started on SNL, such as Adam Sandler, Will Farell, Eddie Murphy, and Bill Hader. The current cast includes actors such as Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, and Mikey Day. These actors are very diverse, but also play specific character roles well, or nail impressions, like James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump. The host that appears on the show, musical guests, and jokes are all dependent on the time and what or who is viewed as funny or popular. Therefore, someone who watched the old SNL may not understand or find the current humor funny or interesting, and a younger person watching the old SNL may not find it funny or interesting either.
YouTube Review
I find that the easiest way to catch SNL episodes and seasons is through YouTube videos and playlists of the weekly shows. I would assume most people do as well, as the SNL YouTube channel has almost 17 million subscribers and just about every video they post gains about a million views. I searched to find the skits from the very first season of SNL, specifically “The Wolverine” as it is the very first episode and skit. The statistics from the video are as follows: 825K views, 7.5K likes, 668 comments, one of which says, “Somewhere in the world there’s a grumpy old man saying, ‘Now THIS was the last time SNL was GOOD!’” and posted 12 years ago. I then searched to find the most recent season and episode of SNL, choosing “Trump’s Gas Prices Cold Open” as it was the first sketch for the episode. The statistics from the video are as follows: 5.3M views, 110K likes, 5,681 comments, and posted 9 days ago. The data from this would show that modern SNL gets more attention, but this could be very dependent on the time, popularity, and host.
My Review
I decided to watch the first episode and the most recent episode to determine if SNL isn’t funny anymore. The first episode was hosted by George Carlin, who I had truthfully never heard of before. I had expected him to be in some of the skits, however he kind of just stood around and threw some jokes at the crowd. The sketches were… okay? They ran arguably way shorter than modern episodes. Sketches seemed to be based on a joke, and it was a race to get to the punchline. I was also unfamiliar with the music guests, but they were actually pretty good! The production alongside everything was very outdated. Mediocre at best. The most recent episode was hosted by Harry Styles, an arguably more famous person than Carlin for his music. Modern SNL always provides a weekend update hosted by Colin Jost and Micheal Che, who make jokes about current news and have special guest appearances. The sketches were mostly themed around Harry Styles, while others were pretty good on their own. Harry also performed the music for his brand-new album. By far, much more entertaining to watch than old SNL. SNL is still funny.
(My opinion could also be biased because I took a photo with current cast member Tommy Brennan).
Edited and Reviewed by Kien Powell
