39,327
edits
Saturday Night Live: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 4:
{{quote|''"Live from New York, it's '''Saturday Night'''!"''}}
'''''Saturday Night Live''''' is a ground-breaking [[NBC]] sketch comedy/VarietyShow, broadcast live from New York City in what had been, up until its premiere in 1975, TVs "graveyard shift" slot.
Often shortened to ''SNL'' for ease of reference, the show was specifically designed by its creator, Lorne Michaels (who was once a writer on ''[[Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In]]''), to showcase young and edgy talent as a direct reaction to the older comedians who dominated primetime but were fundamentally clueless about the tastes, styles and preoccupations of young Americans circa 1975. Rotating celebrity guests added to the "fingers on the pulse of pop culture" vibe the show reveled in. Steve Martin has hosted and been in more episodes than some cast members have (and is likely the host that most viewers believe was actually a cast member). Other frequent and popular hosts are John Goodman, [[Tom Hanks]], Alec Baldwin, [[Christopher Walken]], and now, apparently, [[Justin Timberlake]]. Paul Simon of [[Simon and Garfunkel]] and Dave Grohl (who has performed with not just his main bands [[Nirvana]] and [[Foo Fighters]], but also with [[Tom Petty]], [[Them Crooked Vultures]] and Queens of the Stone Age) are the show's most frequent musical guests.
Line 23:
* '''[[Abby Elliott]]''', the first (and so far only) cast member who is the child of another cast member (her father is Chris Elliott, who was on ''Saturday Night Live'' during its 20th season [1994-1995]). Chris' own father was Bob Elliott of [[Bob and Ray]] (who appeared on a Christmas episode of ''SNL'' in 1978), making it three generations of Elliotts who have appeared on the show in some capacity. Elliott is also the youngest female cast member in the show's history (21 and five months when she first appeared as a cast member in 2009), beating out Julia Louis-Dreyfus (21 and eight months when she first came on the show in 1982).
* '''[[Seth Meyers]]''', the only cast member to have a family member who was on a rival show (Josh Meyers, his younger brother, was on ''[[Mad TV]]'' for Seasons 8-9; lampshaded on a season 28 episode of ''SNL'' when [[Seth Meyers]] tells his dad to stop watching his brother on ''[[Mad TV]]'' and pay attention to him). Meyers is now the longest-running male cast member on the show following Darrell Hammond's departure in 2009 (Meyers has been on the show since 2001, but he didn't become popular until he replaced [[Tina Fey]] as Weekend Update anchor).
* '''Jeff Richards''', the first cast member who was also a ''MADtv'' cast member (Richards was on ''MADtv'' from 2000-01, then left for ''SNL'' and stayed on there from 2001 to the middle of the 2003-04 season).
** As of 2010, another former ''MADtv'' cast member has been hired on ''SNL'' — '''Taran Killam''', one in a long string of feature players who were on ''MADtv'' for one to two seasons and rarely got any screentime (outside of a music video or movie trailer parody).
*** Killam is also the second ''SNL'' cast member who got his start on a Nickelodeon sketch show (for Killam, that would be ''[[All That]]'''s spin-off, ''The Amanda Show'').
* '''[[Eddie Murphy]]''', the first black ''SNL'' cast member to be famous, the youngest black male cast member to be hired (Murphy was only 19 when he joined the 1980-1981 cast) and the only host to host an episode while still a cast member <ref> also the only Jean Doumanian cast member to ever host an episode, the only black Dick Ebersol cast member to host, and one of four Dick Ebersol cast members to host an episode, joining Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Julia-Louis Dreyfus</ref> — specifically the December 11, 1982 show that was '''supposed''' to be helmed by Nick Nolte, but Nolte was too hungover from partying to make it to rehearsals, so Murphy took over...much to the shock and anger of the cast, who felt that Eddie Murphy (and his comedy partner in crime, Joe Piscopo) was overtaking the show.
Line 77:
* [[Cold Open]]: Almost invariably political since the 2008 election season, but it wasn't always so.
* [[The Comically Serious]]: Lorne Michaels' on-air personality is not only famous for how dry he acts, but also for the fact he has almost never lost his composure (he only did once, on the first time [[Hugh Laurie]] hosted on season 32, and ''that'' was because of a botched cue that happened off-screen).
* [[Corpsing]]: It's live comedy, after all. It was prevalent when [[Jimmy Fallon]] became a Weekend Update anchor (which most fans declared was distracting).
** It also happens ''every time'' Bill Hader appears as Stefon on Weekend Update ([[That Other Wiki]] and most late-night talk show interviews even claim that Bill Hader has ''never'' got through a Stefon segment -- both in dress rehearsal and on the live show -- without cracking up <ref>Though that may be an exaggeration, as there are actually four segments in which Bill Hader has played Stefon and not cracked up once -- the first sketch that introduced Stefon as Ben Affleck's estranged brother, a Weekend Update segment that had Stefon, Boby Moynihan as Snooki from ''[[Jersey Shore]]'', and Fred Armisen as David Patersen singing "O, Christmas Tree," another Weekend Update segment with [[Seth Meyers]] announcing to the audience that he's going on summer vacation with Stefon, and in the monologue of the Maya Rudolph episode, where Stefon appears as a background singer for Maya Rudolph. Still, the four times Hader hasn't cracked up compared to the ten times that he did -- as of May 2012 -- isn't really considered a good track record</ref>), though, unlike Jimmy Fallon's cracking up <ref> which is usually blamed on Fallon's lack of professionalism by his detractors. On the 2011 Christmas episode, Fallon himself even admitted that his cracking up ruined a lot of good sketches</ref>, there's a reason why it happens to Bill Hader. According to [[That Other Wiki]] and an interview on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', John Mulaney (one of the show writers) changes some of the lines without Bill Hader's knowledge and Hader is reading and reacting to them for the first time. Other contributing factors include the cue card man laughing (along with other crew members) and how absurdist the whole thing is.
* [[Cowboy Bebop at His Computer]]: There is a common misconception that Steve Martin (one of ''SNL'''s most frequent hosts) was a cast member. He was on Lorne Michaels' failed ABC sketch show ''The New Show'', but he was never an ''SNL'' cast member. The fact that he had a recurring character (one half of the "wild and crazy guys") doesn't help the misconception.
* [[Deadly Delivery]]: In season 1, a recurring character is a "land shark" (Chevy Chase in a cheap shark costume) that tries to get people to open their door. He always gets in when offering a candygram.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Most Weekend Update anchors, the snarkiest of which being Chevy Chase, Dennis Miller, [[Tina Fey]], Norm McDonald, and Seth Meyers (both with and without [[Amy Poehler]]).
* [[Didn't We Use This Joke Already?]]: "[[Winter's Bone]]! [[Heh
* [[Dueling Shows]]: ABC's ''Fridays'', ''[[SCTV]] Network 90'', ''[[In Living Color]]'', ''House of Buggin'', ''[[The WB|WB]]'s Hype'', FOX's ''Saturday Night Special'', and FOX's ''[[Mad TV]]'', to name a few — all of whom were canned for one reason or another
** ''Fridays'', despite being panned by critics for being the ''Cracked'' magazine to ''SNL'''s ''MAD'', did manage to find some success with audiences when ''SNL'' was struggling with its 1980-81 cast. Unfortunately, ''Fridays'' ended up suffering from a timeslot change and a failed attempt at trying to beat ''[[Dallas]]'' in the ratings as a primetime sketch show and was cancelled after its second season.
Line 93:
** Denny Dillon: Performed a stand-up routine on the Rob Reiner episode (season 1). Despite unsuccessfully auditioning for the show in 1975, Dillon was chosen for the 1980-81 cast.
** Ann Risley: Had a small speaking role in a pre-taped sketch called Mobile Shrink during season 2's Dick Cavett episode. Like Denny Dillon, Ann would be chosen for the 1980-81 cast.
** Yvonne Hudson: Before she became a credited featured player during the 1980-81 season, Yvonne often appeared in season 4 and 5 sketches that needed a black actress <ref>Lorne Michaels didn't have a black female cast member in his cast until 1985, when he hired Danitra Vance</ref>. Her most prominent role was during season 5, as a co-host (with Garrett Morris) of the talk show "Bad Clams."
** Terry Sweeney: Originally hired as a writer for the 1980-81 season, five years before he was hired as a castmember by [[Lorne Michaels]]. He makes one on-screen appearance that season, in the cold opening of the Sally Kellerman/Jimmy Cliff episode where [[Ronald Reagan]] (played by Charles Rocket) celebrates his 70th birthday.
** Rob Riggle: Appeared on the Donald Trump/Toots and the Maytals episode (from season 29) in a pretaped commercial parody called ''Fear Factor Junior''. Riggle played the father of a child who had to eat the maggots off a plate of eggs Benedict or risk watching his parents divorce.
Line 321:
** Turned on them when Rudy Giuliani hosted the show after 9/11. Lorne Michaels asked him if it was okay to be funny again. Rudy's response: "Why start now?"
* [[They Killed Kenny]]: Bobby Moynihan's Ass Dan character on the Kickspit Underground Rock Festival sketches. When the sketches first started in 2009, it was established that Ass Dan was dead at the age of 28 (Ass Dan was born in 1981). In 2010, another sketch (this time, an Insane Clown Posse music video parody) had Ass Dan alive and well -- until Jason Sudeikis's character, DJ Supersoak (who also was said to be dead at the end of the sketch at age 36 [DJ Supersoak was born in 1974], then brought back later without an explanation]) stated that "Ass Dan did just die when we were playin' that video there," moving Ass Dan's age of death to 29 (it was also confirmed on the "Crunkmas Carnival" sketch that Ass Dan was dead and he was finally going to get the wake he deserves -- until Ass Dan popped out of the casket and shouted, "''Yeah!'' You ''know'' I'm still alive, [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|bitch]]!" and before saying, "[[Tempting Fate|I'm gonna live forever]]!", was cut off by a memorial still that read, "Ass Dan: 1981-2010." Recently, there was a Kickspit Underground Easter Festival sketch that, once again, has Ass Dan alive again and cut off with a memorial still that now reads, "Ass Dan: 1981-2011," making Ass Dan 30 years old.
** [[Fridge Brilliance]] and [[Fridge Horror]]: The recent Kickspit Underground sketch reveals that {{spoiler|Ass Dan is susceptible to heart attacks, meaning that Ass Dan is, in fact, alive, and all the years he supposedly died was when he suffered a heart attack}}.
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks as The Girl Watchers, Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell as the two club-hoppers who dance to Haddaway's "What is Love?", Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin as the "Wild and Crazy Guys" (aka The Czech Brothers or The Fenstruk Brothers), Wayne and Garth from ''Wayne's World'', The Blues Brothers — ''SNL'' has a lot of recurring characters that can be described (or dismissed) as "[[Those Two Guys]]".
** A lot of cast member pairings count as [[Those Two Guys]] (or Those Two Girls or That Guy and That Girl). Some examples:
*** Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi,
*** Gilda Radner and either Laraine Newman (outside Weekend Update) or Jane Curtin (on Weekend Update),
*** Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo (a.k.a the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] who saved ''SNL'' from getting cancelled in the early 1980s),
*** Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole,
*** Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall (who later became husband and wife in reality)
*** Billy Crystal and Martin Short,
*** Billy Crystal and Rich Hall,
*** Randy Quaid and Terry Sweeney (often with Sweeney in drag; the two did play Ronald and Nancy Reagan a lot in sketches),
*** Robert Downey, Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall,
*** Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson (particularly on Weekend Update),
*** Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks,
*** Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman,
*** Dana Carvey and Mike Meyers,
*** Chris Farley and Adam Sandler
*** Chris Farley and David Spade
Line 359:
** On the episode hosted by [[My Name Is Earl|Jason Lee]], there was a "Falconer" sketch where a landowner (Lee) appears and calls Forte's character (the Falconer) a "dickhead" instead of a "dickweed". While Lee corrects himself, Forte ad-libs that he is neither a dickweed or a dickhead. The fact that this was done without anyone cracking up is nothing short of amazing.
** In a sketch entitled ''Black History Minute'', [[Eddie Murphy]] was playing an [[Angry Black Man]] giving a hectoring monologue to the camera. At one point he stumbled over some words, and a couple of audience members tittered. Without breaking character, he addressed the crowd: "So I messed up. Shut up!"
** In the infamous first ''Matt Foley'' sketch with [[Chris Farley]], near the end Matt tumbles over and breaks the table. This was purely accidental; Farley tripped and crashed into the table, and it went from there, thankfully managing to continue the sketch uninterrupted. The moment was so memorable though that most later Foley sketches had the character crashing into walls or furniture.
* [[Token Minority]]: ''SNL'' has a lot of them. Most were black (like Garrett Morris, Eddie Murphy, Ellen Cleghorne, Danitra Vance {the first black female repertory player; not to be confused with Season 6's Yvonne Hudson, who was only hired as a featured player/recurring extra}, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows {the longest-serving black male cast member as of 2012}, Jerry Minor, Dean Edwards, Finesse Mitchell, Kenan Thompson {first cast member to be born after ''SNL'' premiered and the first cast member from children's comedy shows to be on ''SNL''}, and Jay Pharoah), but there have been other cast members with different ethnic backgrounds:
** Horatio Sanz was the first Hispanic cast member (he was originally born in Chile).
Line 378:
* [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]]: An infamous sketch where a murder victim is apparently so gruesome that all the cops/coroners/reporters/etc who see pictures vomit everywhere. It was later parodied on ''[[30 Rock]]''.
* [[We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties]]: Parodied on the banned TV Funhouse cartoon "Mediaopoly"; late in the song, after exposing many dark secrets about General Electric, a "technical difficulties" title card appears, implying GE censored the sketch. However, it's actually part of the sketch, since the chorus keeps singing afterwards. The singers even lampshade the fact that [[We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties]] is used as a cheap way to censor out anything that the sponsors or network may find controversial.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: According to a later interview with [[Paul McCartney]], the famous skit where Lorne Michaels offered the bare minimum amount for a musical act if [[The Beatles]] would reunite and play on the show was actually watched by him and [[John Lennon]] who ''almost talked themselves into doing it'' [[For the Lulz]]...but then decided not to bother.
* [[When I Was Your Age]]: Dana Carvey's "Grumpy Old Man" segments on Weekend Update.
* [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?]]: Mr. Sluggo.
| |||