Shark Bytes

The series jumped about 75% when the true masters of sketch comedy died or left to go make (crappy) movies. We all know about Belushi, Hartman and Farley dying in their prime, but Sandler, for instance, is a good example of the latter category. He was great on SNL, and then he decided he'd rather go get rich and left to headline in some of the dumbest lowest-common-denominator fart fest movies ever to curse the silver screen, to the detriment of everyone including himself.

There are several other examples of this, and those who left were replaced with local NYC sketch comedians who were chosen for their MTV demographic appeal instead of their talent. Jimmy Fallon and Chris Kattan are the posterboys for this. 100 years of sketch lessons still wouldn't make them funny enough to lick Farley or Hartman's boots.

The other 25% of the shark jump I lay squarely at Tina Fey's feet. Lorne Michaels may have started down the slope when he bowed to network pressure and started hiring pretty, stupid young also-rans to pull in the MTV-generation, but Fey hammered the last nail in the coffin when she became head writer and completely rebooted the comedic vision of the show. The new formula consists of 50% lowbrow Republican-bashing (think The Daily Show, except more ham-fisted), 25% lip-syncing pop musicians, and 25% tired, rehashed sketch plots (but only the ones that aren't too edgy or confusing; they've got advertisers to placate).

That "cowbell" sketch is the infamous Blue Oyster Cult sketch with Walken portraying Bruce Dickenson. It's on the SNL best of Christopher Walken DVD.
MORE COWBELL!!!!!!!!

There's been so many good and bad moments in SNL that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the show started to go downhill. I myself don't really care for the show anymore, since it's basically recycled plots and skits. One of the last hilarious moments was when Will Farrell and Christopher Walker were in that one skit, can't remember the title but I'll give a hint. NEEDS MORE COWBELL!!

It started to become less funny as the 80's and 90's cast started leaving....Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, et al.

There are some exceptions, like Will Ferrell and Norm McDonald, but other than that, it hasn't been very funny since.

Now that the election is over, this show, that jumped when Tina Fey turned it into SNTRL in 2001, should just go back and show oold episodes from the 1988-89 season instead of continuing thru with the 2008-09 season...

I agree with “Boris” and “GUEST”: maybe SNL should at least go into hibernation for four years (when the GOP regains the White House, God willing). I mean, who can they make fun of now that His Holiness, the Most High Messiah Barack ZERObama is President-elect?

Now that Sarah Palin is not going to be in the White House for at least four years, what is SNL to do? They seemed to rely on her to carry the show. Sorry to say it, but Tina Fey really isn't very funny, and I would credit her with the shark jump that occurred about 2001. She and Jimmy Fallon absolutely destroyed Weekend Update, after Colin Quinn barely saved it. Why were those Sarah Palin impersonations always making national news and banner headlines? That shows the sad state of affairs in the US, just like when American Idol makes national news.I don't know what it is going to take to get this show back on track but I can assure you that Chris Farley, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, and John Belushi are spinning in their graves. This is such a sad show now. The creativity has been sucked out of it. I only started watching the show in the 90s so do not remember the 80s or 70s, but I can't imagine any dry spell being worse than it is now.

Cancel SNL for 4 years. Without tasteless skits about Tod Palin raping his own daughters --- there will be not material.

How'd that whole McCain/Palin thing work out for you smiller??

I actually enjoyed the Nov 1 2008 episode (most of it anyway). It was good to see that John McCain can good-naturedly goof on himself, and he seemed to have fun doing so! God Forbid that his so-called opponent Obama bin STALIN do the same!! IMHO, McCain is definitely someone that most people can relate to, whereas his so-called opponent is just another aloof, uppity liberal elitist. Wouldn’t be ironic if McCain’s SNL appearance helped him win? God I hope so!!

McCain/Palin ‘08

I haven't seen an entire episode of SNL since probably the mid nineties and the show hasen't been great since the Carvey, Dunn, Hartman, Hooks, Lovitz, Miller, Nealon, and Myers cast. I watched the first half hour or so tonight (11/4/08), and while the opening with McCain and Tina Fey was not too bad, the rest of what I saw was hard to digest. The View parody was flat and Ben Affleck is extremely unfunny. Somebody please tell him his thirty seconds were up a long time ago.,

Well said Fernando, well said.

BTW, Charles Rocket died a couple of years ago...

Did anybody notice Charles Rocket in "Dances With Wolves"?????


Oh yea, this show jumped when the writers, led by the one and only Tina Fey, decided to tone down the humor and make it appealing to the MTV/TRL crowd, instead of the late night crowd...

Would've been like having Andy Gibb on as host and musical guest in 1977.....

You know that there is NO WAY IN HELL that John Belushi would've stood for that crap!!!

SNL is still on??? The first couple of years were great, then the Eddie Murphy years were pretty good and the Dana Carvey, et al years were great. After that, pure, unadulterated junk. If you want funny, I'm with Mike, re-runs of SCTV or better yet, Monty Python.

Remember Charles Rocket?....I didn't think so. <sigh>

I watched it to see Sarah Palin on it. While it was mildly amusing when Tina Fey impersonated her, it really wasn't that funny. The fart face joke was kind of funny but wasn't that great. The MaGruber sketch was terrible as was the orgasmic(?) woman at the restaraunt and the fall foliage skit. The Suze Orman one was a little funny, I may have cracked a smile. I think this is the first time I have watched Saturday Night Live since 2001. Something tells me I haven't been missing much on the seven year dry spell. I guess this show does need to be cancelled.