On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 1:53 AM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > The Elizabeth Banks episode confirms that the current regime is entirely > capable of making a non-funny show without tanking for political reasons. >
I appreciate any all potshots taken at the current unfunny state of SNL, and am not a defender (though I do think Weekend Update is noticeably stronger than the rest of the show most weeks). I like Banks, but can't remember laughing very much during this episode (I can't remember, and I just watched it this morning). But just to re-emphasize my original point, the Trump episode was unfunny in a different way (in addition to being unfunny in the regular way). I thought the Fresh Air interview referred to above did shed some light on this - Che and Jost perceived the audience as being afraid to laugh, for fear they would be tricked into laughing against whichever political interest they had. They also said that, unlike most weeks, almost none of the show played well in the dress rehearsal, and the tension was palpable in the studio, with the performers very aware that the audience was not laughing or buying in. My perception watching was that the audience could not tell where the jokes were supposed to me (as opposed to detecting a joke, and just not finding it funny). But I can see how maybe Che and Jost might be more right about this - the audience could tell where the jokes were supposed to be, but did not give even courtesy laughs because they were wary of which way the joke was going to break. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
