Saturday Night Live Is Dead Again

 

Okay, I like to brag that I haven't watched this show in years.   Well, I can tell you that the last episode that I saw from beginning to end was two years ago when Eddie Murphy hosted the Christmas show.  So, I'm really fibbing when I say I haven't tuned in.   Because they air it live here in Los Angeles and we have all been locked up in our COVID chambers, I will admit to checking in for the first 15 or so minutes of each installment.   I mean, even when the show was good several decades ago, that was always the best part of the program.   The opening sketch and the monologue.   The rest of it?  Meh.

So, with my conscience now cleared, I will tell you that I am fully aware of the direction SNL took since 2016.   Almost every week, it began with an elongated sketch featuring the unctuous Alec Baldwin skewering Donald Trump.  The jabbing for almost five years was relentless.  Sometimes funny.   Most times, not.  And I found the constant reading off cue cards so frustrating.   I mean, look at the old Carol Burnett show and see if you can any cue card recitations at all.   It's because they were professionals and learned their lines.

But I digress...

Indeed, the lampooning of Trump was no different than other times in SNL history.   Historians will tell you that Chevy Chase's portrayal of a bumbling Gerry Ford contributed to his losing the Oval Office.   But they also didn't spare Jimmy Carter or Reagan or the Bushes or Clinton.   Indeed, the only President who really got a pass on SNL was the sainted Barack Obama.   Obviously, NBC told them hands off.  And, of course, you would get no argument from the bloated carcass of Lorne Michaels, who I suspect died several years ago and his body still propped week-to-week a la "Weekend at Bernie's."

But it was the Trump attacks that supposedly made SNL important appointment television every weekend.  All of a sudden, it was fostering a brilliance not seen since the days of Bill Murray and Gilda Radner.   I didn't see it, but millions of lemmings did.  Guffaw, guffaw.

So the occupant of the Oval Office changes last month and I am looking forward to how the addled and dim witted Joe Biden will be spotlighted.  Except...as soon as the inauguration happened, the tone of the show changed.

In the three episodes I have been surveyed since January 20, the political content, save for a few pokes at Republicans, has been virtually nil.   So, once again, the word has come down from on high at 30 Rock.

This guy gets a pass.  And Lorne the fat slob acts as the perfect bobblehead.   

Of course, from what I have seen on the air, the sketches are now even flatter.  The acting is even more uninspired.   The only real creative activity at SNL comes from the teleprompter's choice of magic marker color for the cue cards.

Yep, SNL is dead again.

And, oh, by the way, here's another pet peeve I have.   How is it that this show during our long running pandemic allowed to have a studio audience???  Oh, they are all masked but sitting shoulder to shoulder.   Social distancing is essentially just a rumor at Studio 8-H.   

I read that they have lots of protocols in place.   Temperature checks, contact tracing, etc..   Hmmm.   I am not sure I believe that.   Perhaps the powers that be wanted to ensure that their political mouthpiece was intact and could be heard loud and clear to gales of laughter in their final attempts to dethrone Trump.   

If SNL can have a studio audience, so can everything else.

But, from what I am seeing with the content on the air, the studio might be the only place where SNL can find any fans.

Hopefully, this mess stays dead this time.

Dinner last night:  Leftover meatballs.