Saturday Night Live is one of the core pop cultural tentpoles that helped mold the person I am. From when I was first able to watch its prime time specials in the late Seventies, to when I started watching the show live in the early Eighties (along with the Seventies re-runs that played after midnight in Kansas City) it help establish my sense of humor and gave me a base to form friendships with like-minded classmates and neighbors.[1]
One of the SNL moments that had the biggest impact and stuck with me the longest was the 15th anniversary show, which aired on September 24, 1989. This was about a month into my freshman year of college, and several of us crowded around the small TV in my dorm room to watch. As we laughed, we could hear the laughs of other fools echoing up-and-down our hallway. We were not alone.
The key, though, was that I had my mom record the special for me. Eventually that show became one of the most watched tapes in my collection. And the same for so many other young SNL fans. Soon we were quoting not just Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey from the current cast, or Eddie Murphy who had the biggest impact on our part of our generation, but Dan Aykroyd saying “His name is spelled T-I-T, I-A-N, Titian, honest to God!” and Steve Martin’s, “Hey, who’s the barber here?” and countless other SNL cast members and hosts that our parents had watched live but we had just discovered. Those references almost became passwords to enter certain friend groups. You’d be hanging out with kids from another town or school and someone would mention how the Pope just waived – he just waived it – the fourth miracle for Mother Seton and it would be on.
That 15th anniversary was primarily a clip show, because there was a lot less material to work through. Sunday’s 50th anniversary show was basically a riff on the standard format of the show, with live sketches, musical acts, and pre-recorded bits with only a few classic clips sprinkled into the 200 or so minutes the show ran.
I thought it was very good. But fitting for SNL, every high point had an almost immediate downer to balance it. I think that was mostly because they were trying to squeeze so much in. There were awkward transitions in almost each live piece where one comedian, or set of them, would be hustled off the stage and replaced with others.
(Also, I should admit before I break things down that I had to leave the house to pick up L when Weekend Update started.[2] I was gone for about an hour and decided to finish the show Monday. So I may have ruined some of the momentum of the program.)
That was most notable, and damaging, in the Black Jeopardy sketch. This should have been the absolute high point of the night. Eddie Murphy doing a spot-on Tracy Morgan impersonation with the real Morgan standing right next to him was unbelievable! “I REFUSE TO INGEST THREE CHEESES!” is one of the funniest things ever said on the program.
Then Eddie snuck off and was replaced by Tom Hanks, repeating his outrageous MAGA voter from 2016. Only the transition was rough, the joke written for the moment fell completely flat, and a wonderful moment collapsed. If they had let Eddie riff for another three minutes, we’re talking about one of the great sketches ever, in a live anniversary show that had no dress rehearsal, no less!
But, again, I get it. There was a lot to cram in even with over three hours allotted to the program. There was no good way to pull this show off, and had they not done this in-sketch replacements, a lot of classic performers wouldn’t have been on air.
Many elements of the show were predictable. Paul Simon as the opening act was a no brainer. Pairing him with Sabrina Carpenter was a wonderful way to tie the shows roots to its most current version. Her line about not being born – nor were her parents – when Simon first hosted the show was fantastic. She’s a gem.
Like a later performer, Simon clearly doesn’t have his vocal fastball anymore, but he had to be there and Carpenter’s voice is nice enough to compliment his yet not so big she overpowered him. Plus she’s one of the few singers shorter than him, so it made for a nice visual.
Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard covering “Nothing Compares 2 U” did not work for me at all. Both are incredibly powerful singers, but there was zero magic in their performance. And it was, again, a sign of Lorne Michaels the politician. Where he turned his back on Sínead O’Connor after she tore the photo of the Pope on the show in 1992, he has in recent years acted like he supported her. I thought the selection of this song, no matter who sang it, was a bit cynical.
Lil Wayne? I fast forwarded through that. It seemed like he was rapping over a recorded vocal track in the few seconds I watched. That, more than the song, put me off. Especially after watching what Kendrick did a week ago.
And, finally, Paul McCartney comes out to close the show with the medley from Abbey Road. Paul is one of those dudes who never seemed to age. And, at first glance, he still looks remarkably young. Then you look at him longer and he genuinely looks creepy. His face reminds me of one of those zonked out kids in The Wall, with their eyes and mouths wide O’s of shock. And I hate to speak ill of one of the greatest singers ever, but there was zero power in his voice. It was a melancholy ending to the night. But maybe that’s what Lorne wanted.
Steve Martin was perfect as the monologist.
Combining Lawrence Welk/Dooneese with Robert Goulet was another odd pairing. Dooneese is one of those characters you either get or really don’t get. Kristen Wiig usually makes me laugh until I cry, and that was the case Sunday, but that whole skit was a bit strange to me.
The Scared Straight sketch that featured both Murphy and Will Ferrell might have summed up the night best. On the one hand, you had the two greatest performers in the show’s history in a scene together. That alone delighted a lot of us SNL heads. While there were some great lines in the sketch, though, there were also a lot of moments that were rough. Ferrell seemed to mess up a whole series of lines, and not in a funny way. That scene needed better writing and a lot of tightening.
I enjoyed Bronx Beat. Debbie Downer recycled too many lines from THE classic DD sketch. As did the Miss Refferty alien abduction sketch, although that one worked just because Kate McKinnon never gives less than full effort.
I honestly expected more from Weekend Update, perhaps a cycling-though of all the living hosts. No matter how awkward and cumbersome that would have been, they all needed to be at least behind the desk even if they didn’t all get a line. However, Dan Aykroyd did not attend, so perhaps that alone blew it up.
Bill Murray’s ranking of the WU hosts, though, was fantastic. His timing and side eye looks are so great. He managed to both extend an olive branch to Chevy Chase and skewer him at the same time. And his payoff at #1 was super funny.
Where was Chevy, by the way? I only saw him in the closing credits as cast members waved from the stage. There was chatter on Simmons’ pod that Chevy was poorly received at Friday’s concert, and hints that he remains difficult to deal with. Not shocking, but disappointing.
Dana Carvey and Bill Hader also being MIA was equally as disappointing.
I am not a huge Adam Sandler fan, but his song was one of the best moments of the night. Normal callbacks, some insider stuff, and then the emotional shout outs to several deceased cast members. That was good stuff.
I loved how the In Memoriam segment was not for cast members who have passed, but for sketches that, for one reason or another, became problematic over the years. Listen, it’s ok to laugh at stuff that we thought was funny 20, 30, 40, and now 50 years ago but which you can’t say today. Well, most of it. There’s some shit you should never say. I thought this segment was a good way of showing how tastes change as the times do.
In the end, the show was about perfect. Not because every joke hit, but because it reflected the flaws that have always been present in the show. On even the best episodes, there was a clunker of a sketch somewhere along the way, or a musical guest who did not deliver. Or an ambitious sketch that should have run for 2:30 that stretched out over 5:00 and you just wanted it to end. Despite the weaknesses in Sunday’s show, I still mostly laughed through the entire thing.
I don’t watch SNL anymore. I tried to get into it a few years back but it just didn’t stick. I’ll still check out sketches that people talk about the next week when they hit YouTube, which seems like the way a lot of people consume the show these days. I’m glad it’s still around, though. It’s not really aimed at me any more, which is fine. Whether I get what they are doing these days doesn’t matter. Because, like the music of your teen years you can never escape, I’ll always have the connection to the Eddie years and the late 80s/early 90s cast.
I have not watched the other stuff that popped up over the weekend on Peacock. I’m currently boycotting Peacock and, as much as I wanted to see these pieces, decided I would put them off until my war with Peacock ends.[3]
Here are a bunch of pieces I worked through over the weekend, though.
THE 50 BEST ‘SNL’ COMMERCIAL PARODIES OF ALL TIME
The Best Saturday Night Live Sketches According To The People Who Made Them
After 50 years, Ars staffers pick their favorite Saturday Night Live sketches
The Lorne Michaels Book-Event Thread Is the Reply-All Disaster We Need
- A few of them are in this site’s audience. What up? ↩
- She went to birthday party about 30 minutes away and the roads were slick, so I thought it best that we drive her rather than turn her loose in snow for the first time. ↩
- Long story short, we are supposed to get Peacock for free after our last cable package upgrade, but it has never worked properly. One day I spent literally two hours working with the support chat feature and eventually I was told they couldn’t help me and I needed to use Google to find someone who could. THEY LITERALLY TOLD ME TO GOOGLE FOR AN ANSWER! I’m done with those fools for a while. ↩