An Ongoing Struggle of Dedication

The weird thing about my blog is that the readership numbers (allegedly) continue to grow even as I don't blog as much. A less vain writer would take this as an indictment of his writing ability, but after running my own news site for (almost) a year, I realize that there is a lot of value in an extensive back catalog. (In a true sign of the height of my own vanity, I often find myself clicking through past entries I've done, thanks to the “You Might Like...” prompting at the bottom of each of my entries.)

Anyway. My own effort on this has wavered, obviously. I've almost restarted about five times in the ensuing, unplanned five month vacation of mine from writing. In fact, it's bizarre to look back at my last entry to realize that the last time I wrote was the first week I got my cat, which has now been with me for three months. (As a status update on the cat, he really enjoys my new apartment much more, since the windows are much lower to the ground and he can perch there. He's still really, really old.)

At least for now, there should be posts queued up for these next two weeks – another one on Thursday, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week. Beyond that, I'll have to see. If I continue writing, it will probably be on more evergreen topics, since the demands of work often don't leave me with time to do posts on the fly. I'm still a big fan of my workplace and what not, but it does take a full 40 to 50 hours a week, as compared to past journalism jobs, where I did get a bit more time to coast. (On the plus side, there are few things more joyous to me than being able to set my own hours.)

Addressing some of the comments that piled up in my absence: People are really quite into Kristen Wiig. I haven't seen Bridesmaids, but I kind of want to – it looks funny. However, to refine my earlier arguments on Wiig, it's not that I don't think she's funny. I just think she's way, way overused on Saturday Night Live. It's a habit Lorne Michaels can lapse into at times; some of the Jimmy Fallon years, he is in every single sketch too. But now that he has his own show and the humor isn't as forced, I've come to enjoy him much more. I imagine Wiig will be the same thing – I'll probably like her “Best Of” DVD, and whatever future endeavors she's into.

A ho-hum Saturday Night Live with the gorgeous Emma Stone

I didn't realize that Emma Stone was so tall, and had such great legs, until last night's Saturday Night Live. Also, there was a pretty funny sexual education skit in the final 30 minutes - It was much, much better than the lame ones with Kenan Thompson.

And hey, now that I think about it, there were several good moments in Weekend Update. It's silly, but I like the Stefon character. Furkels was great, and made me spit-take a bit. And Kenan was really good as that wacky "The rent is too damn high!" character. And the weird French dancing skit was something they would have done on an old school Saturday Night Live, and very effective.

As usual, anything Kristen Wiig was in made me recoil. And the opening monologue? I bet while Jay Pharoah was watching in the background, he was thinking, "Why does this Fred mother effer get to Obama?" That was long, drawn-out and not funny. Same thing goes with everything Wiig was featured prominently in. Another funny skit, the "my brother is awesome!" show, made that clear to me. Just start putting the new girls in every skit, Lorne Michaels.


Note: Sorry for the brevity of this entry, but I'm doing this, that and the other thing tonight - Packing for a two-day trip to New York, preparing for the initial high school newspaper edition of the year, planning for my site launch on November 1... Being an adult is tough work.

Denzel (and Jay Pharoah) make SNL tolerable

My buddy Tom and others have suggested a way to save Saturday Night Live that I'll sign off on - Just have Jay Pharoah in every skit. A blog at The Wall Street Journal is singing his praises (eerie fact: It's written by Christopher John Farley), and I will second them. He's only been in three skits so far, but he's been great in all of them. Much like when Eddie Murphy joined the show in 1980 and put it on his back, I think Pharoah should do the same with Andy Samburg.

The best skit this past Saturday featured Pharoah as a pitch-perfect Denzel Washington. He was immersing himself in his role as a worker at a customer service desk, and angryly cajoling a customer (a disappointing-as-host Jane Lynch) for trying to return a BLACK hand bag. "Is there something wrong with the color of this bag?" He completely nailed Denzel, and the clip is in the WSJ article linked above.

Unfortunately though, the rest of the show felt lackluster, as you can probably guess from my comment about Lynch. They showed glimpses of promise, like when they had a pretty funny skit about Glee...

... Only for the whole thing to be derailed with the inclusion of Gillie, the horrible character played by Kristen Wiig that almost nobody likes. (Sorry Picosita. And also, my 10-member anti-Wiig Facebook group can still be joined here!)

The skit was going along fine, not hilarious but still funny, until she came on my screen. I instantly cringed and found something else to busy myself for the next couple minutes. Once she made an appearance, the only other funny part of the skit was the introduction of gay Kurt's dad.

I don't understand the thinking on involving Gillie at all. By itself, Glee is incredibly easy to mock, and they were doing a good job of that. You simply don't need to include a tired Kristen Wiig character. Is it in her contract that she has to be in 10 skits per week? Does she give head writer Seth Meyers a handy each time she makes an appearance?

Anyway. Outside of that horrible-ness, there was a funny bit or two. The FB application for mom-proofing your profile was pretty good, even if it didn't make logical sense, since there are plenty of privacy tools already to keep people out of your FB. I was also a big fan of the New Boyfriend Show, featuring Samburg as a kid who interviews his mom's boyfriends in the morning... and who gleefully tells today's guest that he's on the 100th episode.

Saturday Night Live - Now more average!

Last night's Saturday Night Live was better than the season opener, which is somewhat surprising, given the differences in cast. Yeah, Bryan Cranston is an upgrade on Amy Poheler, but there weren't nearly as many celebrity cameos.

But in contrast to the opener, the ones they did have were used in one of my favorite skits, "What Up With That?" My friend Tom noted that it's a bad sign when it's on early in the show, which turned out to be true, but the actual skit with Morgan Freeman, Ernest Borgnine and Lindsay Buckingham was as awesome as usual to me. (p.s. Morgan, drop the earring. It looks weird.)

Unfortunately, the rest of the show was just average, outside of the opening with Andy Samberg as the departing Rahm Emanuel. Also, WUWT was the only skit to use Jay Pharoah, who seems like he had breakout potential. After his awesome Will Smith impression in the first week, how can you not use him more, Lorne Michaels? Heck, he didn't even get to do Obama, even though Fred Armisen's version really, really sucks.

Part of the reason why the rest of the show was average, though, and not bad, was because Lorne obviously got my memo from last week. Wiig was in less skits this week, which helped the overall quality. What did suck was that she was the "sexy girl" in a skit that also had Abby Elliott, which makes absolutely no sense. Oh, and also, in this skit she was gagging, burping and farting, among other fun stuff. Lovely.

So, with that in mind, there is still time to join my anti-Kristen Wiig group on Facebook! Nine people strong against her, woohoo!

Dear Lorne Michaels, Kristen Wiig sucks.

After watching the premiere of Saturday Night Live yesterday, I've decided that something has to be done about Kristen Wiig.

Yes, she can be funny sometimes. However, as SNL is currently constituted, this seldom happens. I liked her in the opening sketch as Delware politician Christine O'Donnell. From there, it was a repeat of past shows, as she was unfunny in most of her skits playing the same neurotic, high-pitched character she plays in every sketch. On the whole, I agree with the review of the show by New York Magazine:

[Host Amy] Poehler ably carried the show, of course. Mostly, it was far from her best SNL work, and the return of all those former, funny cast members just made us miss better SNL line-ups, and it almost seemed a little desperate on NBC’s part.

Well said. Some of my friends bring up the point that Wiig is the one woman they can trust in the cast to give a decent performance, as if this is a good excuse. But how is anyone else in the cast going to develop if you keep giving the airtime to Wiig, Fred Armisen, etc.? Heck, Andy Samburg is the most popular cast member, and he was barely in anything last night.

Therefore, I proposed this deal to Lorne Michaels on Facebook:

Dear Lorne Michaels,

I have no idea why you feel a compulsive need to put Kristen Wiig in seemingly EVERY Saturday Night Live skit, but honestly, it needs to stop. Maybe you think it's awesome that she plays the same neurotic character with the silly voice in every sketch, but I'm not a fan.

In April of 1976, Lorne, you offered The Beatles $3,000 to appear on the show. Well, I'm doing the same for you - If you fire Kristen Wiig, I'll write you a check for $3,000. If this sweetens the pot for you, my checks have Sesame Street characters on them, and you can pick which one you like the best.

Anyway, let me know what you think, Lorne. (Can I call you Lorne? I realize I've already done it a couple times in this message.) I'm eagerly awaiting your response.

Sincerely,
Steve

-----
The group is open to the public, and you can look at it and join the crusade by clicking here. I don't think it'll actually work, but hey, it sure would be sweet if it did.

Noting trends about Saturday Night Live

I am a pretty devoted follower of Saturday Night Live, so of course, I have been very disappointed about the quality this season. I'm normally the last to be a SNL naysayer - I don't think the show fell of as much in the various eras as is always claimed, with the exception of a small period segueing from Will Ferrell to this newer cast.

Therefore, the complete fall of the cliff in terms of quality this year has been puzzling to me. To compensate, I'm going to note some other things form my years of watching:

- Phil Hartman was the best cast member ever. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He does have a Best Of DVD, but it feels incomplete as compared to Ferrell, who somehow got two DVDs. I think Hartman's death, and the fact that he wasn't really ever in much besides SNL and Newsradio, limits people's recollection of how great he was.

For example, Darrell Hammond is a pretty good cast member, and does a ton of impressions... and he does like half as many as Hartman did, and Hartman's were generally better. While Hammond does a better Clinton, it's basically just a refinement of Hartman's, and Hartman did some other classic celebrity impressions like Frank Sinatra, Admiral Stockdale, Telly Savalas, Johnny Cash and Ronald Reagan.

However, Hartman also deserves credit for being more than an impression guy. Some of his original characters and voices, whether they be Simpsons characters Lionel Hutz and the monorail salesman or SNL creations like the Anal-Retentive Chef and the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (not Johnny Damon). A lot of cast members have one skill but not the other, whereas Hartman could handle both.

Speaking of impressionists...

- Saturday Night Live is the one solid outlet for funny people who do comedy but aren't stand-ups. There are sitcoms, but because they rely on set characters and somewhat-set situations, there isn't as much room for off-the-wall creations. I think It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the best comedy on television right now, but I'd argue it has more in common with classic SNL and Monty Python than a traditional sitcom.

Meanwhile, SNL and to a lesser extent Mad TV require a steady flow of weird characters and political commentary to flourish, which means there is always a need to have a diverse cast of people with actual acting chops, people with an improv background and people who are traditional stand-ups. In a good year of SNL, all three groups have standout sketches.

Getting into this a bit...

- Hosting Saturday Night Live is a good test for whether a personality has staying power or not. The guys who have hosted the show the most - Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin and Christopher Walken - are all unquestionably talented and great. And all four have been successful in a variety of roles in their career.

I think either Bill Simmons or Adam Carolla made the point that SNL really does show you whether or not someone has some chops. For example, Paris Hilton was god awful, and Lindsay Lohan was great pre-cocaine and awful post-cocaine. I finally came around a bit on Justin Timberlake's talents after his hosting stints - The dude is seriously funny, and because of that, I think he sticks around for the next 20 years somehow.

This also applies to musical guests. Kanye West is unquestionably a jerk, but all of his performances on SNL have been incredible. The same thing goes with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello. And a final, maybe-controversial point...

- Black performers aren't used to their full talents. I'm excluding Garrett Morris from this discussion, because he was deep, deep into drugs according to most SNL accounts of those years.

Get past him though, and you have Eddie Murphy, who while great on SNL, is now known more for his movies and stand-up. Chris Rock didn't do much on the show, and neither did Damon Wayans.

Tracy Morgan's Best Of DVD has a lot of standout skits, half of which I don't remember because they clearly were on in the last half of the show, after Weekend Update, when the audience falls off dramatically. He is better on 30 Rock, what little I've seen of it, and he's much better as a guest on various late night talk shows and radio spots.

In this year's cast, I feel like Kenan Thompson isn't used to the best of his abilities. He was more amusing on a recent episode of Psych, co-guest starring with Urkel, than in most of his SNL skits. He is also their only black cast member, which means you have weird things like Fred Armisen playing Obama.

I'm not sure why this quirk exists. Back in the day, SNL was accused of having a sort of Harvard's boys club of white writers, so maybe it still persists to this day. They have shown themselves to be able to rise to the occasion at times though, such as in Chris Rock's Nat X show, but the effort isn't consistent at all. I feel like a lot of comedy is being missed out on because black performers aren't being used to the extent of their talents.

The Blue Oyster Cult picture comes from here. Astronaut Jones comes from here. Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer is from here. Wayne's World photo is from here.