So, I can agree with part of this. I mostly like Murray’s comedy, but not Sandler or Farley, about half of Farrell, and McKinnon but not Wiig. I see these and so many other SNL performers to have real differences, and am often puzzled by the broad brush you use to dismiss almost all of them (except, inexplicably like the French with Jerry Lewis, Keenan Thompson).
Can you put your finger on some of the common elements you see in this brand of comedy that you dislike? Sandler/Farley is kind of low brow, but I don’t really see Murray or Fey or Hartman that way. I’m thinking what it is you don’t like about the Lorne Michaels comedy culture (maybe because you have said this before?) is it’s kind of smart alecky, sarcastic, disparaging tone - is that part of it? That maybe could be a kind of common thread in SNL style comedy, though it hardly seems unique to Lorne Michaels, and is a criticism that could be made of groups like the Pythons as well. I agree with the criticism of LM for running a simultaneously indulgent and abusive shop over the years. And he seems to have realized early on that putting on a new live 90 min show every night was just too hard, and so he has relied on a relatively small set of pre fabbed set ups and stock, repeatable characters that stifle creativity and innovation as much as they allowed strung out, overworked, exhausted and often traumatized writers and performers get a show on in a week. But I think he has also identified and attracted an unusually high level of comic talent to work for him over the years. While early on most of that talent went on to make broad, mass appeal comic films of questionable quality, his alumni have also gone on to produce some of the highest quality work in television after leaving him, or if not leaving him, at least SNL (Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis). Even without giving him any credit for folks like Julia Louis Dreyfus or Larry David, who he whiffed on, it’s a pretty impressive record. Sent from Gmail Mobile On Thu, 1 Aug 2024 at 11:02 PM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote: > For me, the biggest problem with SNL isn't that it's not funny (and, of > course, it isn't), it's that Lorne's questionable sense of humor has come > to be the mainstream model for American comedy by inflicting people like > Murray, Sandler, Farley, Farrell, Wiig, and McKinnon on the American and > world public and making them the standard. > > When he goes -- and that day can't come soon enough -- that model will > hopefully fade away. > > I'm reminded of what Stella Adler said to her class the day Lee Strasberg > died: "A great man of the theatre died today: Lee Strasberg. (Pause.) It > will take the American theatre fifty years to recover from what he did to > it." > > --Dave Sikula > > On Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 11:51:07 AM UTC-7 Tom Wolper wrote: > > There was a narrative about rock music that went music was stupid and > boring and was played by square people for square people. Then one day some > white boys plugged their electric guitars into amps and brought forth rock > and roll, which was and is awesome music, and freed everybody’s minds, and > then Woodstock and so on and so on. > > As time passed and the artists and audience matured, a much more > introspective and complex narrative emerged. It’s a lot more satisfying to > read and watch and it really points out the shallowness of the previous > narrative. > > There is a parallel narrative for comedy where comedy was square until SNL > came along and made it awesome. There has been a smaller amount of > introspection and those of us who are dreading the SNL movie feel that as > long as Lorne is in charge the shallow narrative is the only story that > will be allowed to air. > > -- > 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]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/eb468807-0676-4383-862b-7da1de33c404n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/eb468807-0676-4383-862b-7da1de33c404n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKaUsOwfu1655hQwiok-eHmUnsSv0hZGv5jADP2%3Dmgw1A%40mail.gmail.com.
