SNL InstaReview - 17 February 1996
Aaron L Dickey
just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
tongue-tripping over the simplest lines. But by about 12:15, I'd changed
my mind: these guys simply aren't trying at all. The upswing we saw
earlier this season is showing less and less each week, and things are
fading fast. Shields are down to 40% Cap'n, we can't hold 'er together
much longer....
Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
Inside Politics - When a sketch manages to fail on so many levels, it's
usually a sign that at least something truly inventive was being
attempted. But this time it was just a fluke. This is the sort of sketch
that SNL has done a zillion times before, and the show's political humor
has traditionally been pretty good regardless of any carnage created by
the other skits. As such, it's a real letdown when this doesn't work
either. But to give them credit, it wasn't _horrible_; it just didn't
take, for a number of reasons. And here's a few of them: First of all, NO
humor can be extracted from Lamar Alexander...there's just nothing there
to work with. Second, "Pat Buchanan" looked like one of those aliens from
Babylon 5 (or the boss from Dilbert, take your pick). Third, nobody knows
who the hell Morry Taylor is, so no humor can come from him either.
Fourth, they completely wasted a VERY good Bob Dornan impression with very
limp lines. Fifth, and most importantly, they took a completely bizarre
premise (these guys are all stumping for Clinton) but executed it in a
severly straight manner. This skit could have worked very well only if
they had also let loose with equally bizarre, over-the-top
characterizations; between Dole, Buchanan, and Dornan it would have been
very simple to do, and the results could have been classic. Why didn't
they? Grade: C-.
Sidenote: I was surprised by how far they went to recreate the look of the
actual debate, from the same graphics right down to the same weird 3-D
designs from the real podiums. I haven't seen this much effort put into
SNL set design since the 70s. Looks like a lot of money went into this;
too bad not as much went into the script.
Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted", and performed as
if they'd not even rehearsed it once. Dead ending, too. Grade: D.
The Life We Lead - Now see, here's precisely the sort of of sketch that,
when proposed at the story meeting, someone should stand up and say,
"Whoa, one-joke sketch pal! If you're giving away the punchline in the
first two sentences, how are you gonna _possibly_ flesh this bit out for 2
1/2 minutes?" But bless 'em, they attempted the impossible yet again. And
failed, again. Grade: D. (N.B. the hospital room set, we'll be referring
back to it later.)
Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
Tupac - Sort of a microcosm of the entire show; several inventive takes on
the same old thing, but in the end you can't even understand what he's
saying and it's all just a bit off-key somehow. Grade: none as usual,
though Tupac should be credited with the single best line of the entire
show: "If there's no justice for the Dogg, there's no justice for anyone!"
A+ humor, Tupe!
Weekend Update - Certainly better than last week, but that was due mostly
to Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler. Norm, yer still treading water here.
These jokes are coming across like Norm just jots down whatever silly
comments people make around the office during the week and uses them on
the air. He's just got to stop relying on the sledgehammer humor so damn
much. The second OJ call worked well, but I'm not sure it was worth the 90
seconds it took to set the joke up. Grade: C.
Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
Doumanian era. There were almost literally ZERO laughs from the audience,
not even a chuckle. What makes this disaster even sadder is that this
skit probably would have worked at a C or C- level had there been _any_
timing whatsoever in the delivery. But the performances were so stilted,
so (In fairness, I was giggling slightly at how much the Brainiac
prosthesis made Tom Arnold look like Edwin Newman.) Grade: F.
Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
T-Bone in the hospital - Ah, so THIS is where they made up the money up
from the opening skit, by using the _same set twice in the same show_.
Blech. And it's skits like this that really have to make you wonder about
how much effort the writers are bothering to put into their work. After
all, this T-bone character was pretty damn funny the first time around
with Christopher Walken, so we KNOW a halfway-decent sketch can be
produced around him. So why wasn't this one as good? Gotta lay blame
squarely at the writer's feet in cases like this. Nice cat joke though.
Grade: C-.
Fuzzy Memories - So now even Jack Handey runs out of ideas. Or maybe Norm
just wrote this one; God knows it had all the hallmarks of Norm's
16-ton-weight-from-the ceiling-punchline style. Grade: D.
2-pac (get it? Hah! I _kill_ me! Sorry, just that ALF movie I was forced
to watch earlier tonight) - Just one question: did the audio completely
cut out for everyone on the one entire line he sang? Oh, make that two
questions: Did Tupac let out a halting "fuck" in there? Gotta give the guy
credit, he makes some damn inpenetrable music.
Ranger Sequoia - Speaking of impenetrable...oh wait, that would imply
there was something here to penetrate. We're sinking into suburban cable
access comedy here, folks. Grade: F.
Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
and they pulled back on us! Where are the dead dogs? As they let it stand,
it made very little sense, and it looks like they did it this way on
purpose....or else they never finished writing the damn thing. Either way,
inexcusable. Grade: D-.
Did the show end on time in New York: no
Do we care at this point: no
Next week: Elle Macpherson and Sting. Which one's the guest and which
one's the music I have no idea. Both possibilities sound equally bad.
BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
Aaron L Dickey
Brainiac disaster. One more try on this...
Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
Doumanian era. There were almost literally ZERO laughs from the audience,
not even a chuckle. What makes this disaster even sadder is that this
skit probably would have worked at a C or C- level had there been _any_
timing whatsoever in the delivery. But the performances were so stilted,
so hesitant, so lacking in preparation and filled with the realization
that they were _completely bombing_, that it completely exploded in their
faces. In fact, I was momentarily convinced that Tom Arnold was about to
rip the styrofoam off his head and stalk off the set, taking a cure from
his "Fuck this, I'm leaving!" colleague in disaster, Will Ferrell. (In
fairness, I was giggling slightly at how much the Brainiac prosthesis made
Tom Arnold look like Edwin Newman.) Grade: F.
Also, a quick postscript: I heard rumors from several sources that Teri
Hatcher was going to show up at some point tonight, doing a skit based on
Tom's little insult of her at some recent awards show. Didn't happen,
though Tom's entire monologue tonight was based on his foot-in-mouth
disease.
Michael W. Holl
Aaron L Dickey <kie...@interport.net> wrote:
>
>Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
>
>Inside Politics - When a sketch manages to fail on so many levels, it's
> This is the sort of sketch
>that SNL has done a zillion times before, and the show's political humor
>has traditionally been pretty good regardless of any carnage created by
>the other skits.
Actually, it seems to me that SNL _did_ do this sketch before, or at
least something extremely similar. Before the '92 election, when Bush
had his 90-odd percent approval rating, they had a sketch with
Clinton, Tsongas, and the rest of 'em, saying stuff like "You don't
want me to represent the democratic party in the upcoming election,
vote for so-and-so."
If they won't even try to hide their sad ripped-off sketches anymore,
I think it's time for me to leave the sinking ship.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Michael Holl "Now next Friday I didn't have the rent... //
// m-h...@uiuc.edu and out the door I went!" --George Thorogood //
// http://www.students.uiuc.edu./~m-holl/ //
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Matthew B. Tepper
says...
>
>After the first sketch or two, I was hypothesizing that these guys are
>just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
>tongue-tripping over the simplest lines. But by about 12:15, I'd changed
>my mind: these guys simply aren't trying at all. The upswing we saw
>earlier this season is showing less and less each week, and things are
>fading fast. Shields are down to 40% Cap'n, we can't hold 'er together
>much longer....
>
>Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
>
>Inside Politics - When a sketch manages to fail on so many levels, it's
>usually a sign that at least something truly inventive was being
>attempted. But this time it was just a fluke. This is the sort of sketch
>that SNL has done a zillion times before, and the show's political humor
>has traditionally been pretty good regardless of any carnage created by
This seemed to me to be eerily reminiscent of the Democratic debate four
years ago with the candidates arguing about which of them was going to lose
to George Bush.
>Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
>they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted", and performed as
>if they'd not even rehearsed it once. Dead ending, too. Grade: D.
Didn't dance either, fortunately.
>The Life We Lead - Now see, here's precisely the sort of of sketch that,
>when proposed at the story meeting, someone should stand up and say,
>"Whoa, one-joke sketch pal! If you're giving away the punchline in the
>first two sentences, how are you gonna _possibly_ flesh this bit out for 2
>1/2 minutes?" But bless 'em, they attempted the impossible yet again. And
>failed, again. Grade: D. (N.B. the hospital room set, we'll be referring
>back to it later.)
I thought it was cute, especially as they drained the idea completely and
then ended. I mean, come on, you have to try to do at least a whole soap
plot and work in all the appropriate elements of a local yokel newscast
(even to the clichéd wimpy black guy doing the weather and a loudmouth
blowhard doing sports).
>Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
>say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
And I can't think of a better example of how they need more women for
sketches just such as this. (Although I did like the second plump woman!)
>Tupac
Rap be crap, ignored.
>Weekend Update - Certainly better than last week, but that was due mostly
>to Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler. Norm, yer still treading water here.
>These jokes are coming across like Norm just jots down whatever silly
>comments people make around the office during the week and uses them on
>the air. He's just got to stop relying on the sledgehammer humor so damn
>much. The second OJ call worked well, but I'm not sure it was worth the 90
>seconds it took to set the joke up. Grade: C.
Norm should take a clue from Bob Newhart (whose show last season was one of
the big disappointments) and do a "funny phone call." That would have been
a much better set-up!
>Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
>is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
>Doumanian era... Grade: F.
Agreed. Should have pulled the plug in thirty seconds, if that. Nice
prosthesis, though. Shows how far they've come TECHNICALLY since the days
of the Coneheads!
>Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
>and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
And I suppose somebody is going to say this was a good use of KITH drag?
>T-Bone in the hospital - Ah, so THIS is where they made up the money up
>from the opening skit, by using the _same set twice in the same show_....
>Grade: C-.
But conceptually it's interesting that Tom and Tim *changed places*. Isn't
that cool? Still, not enough to make it actually funny.
>Fuzzy Memories - So now even Jack Handey runs out of ideas. Or maybe Norm
>just wrote this one; God knows it had all the hallmarks of Norm's
>16-ton-weight-from-the ceiling-punchline style. Grade: D.
I give it a B-minus, 'cause it fooled me.
>2-pac ...
Time to get the laundry out of the dryer.
>Ranger Sequoia - Speaking of impenetrable...oh wait, that would imply
>there was something here to penetrate. We're sinking into suburban cable
>access comedy here, folks. Grade: F.
Yup.
>Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
>and they pulled back on us! Where are the dead dogs? As they let it stand,
>it made very little sense, and it looks like they did it this way on
>purpose....or else they never finished writing the damn thing. Either way,
>inexcusable. Grade: D-.
I like the way it was a "near-miss." I think showing the dead dogs would
have been a no-no. This way it was an "aiee"! I give it a C.
>Did the show end on time in New York: no
>Do we care at this point: no
Here in Los Angeles it's tape delayed, so who cares here either?
>Next week: Elle Macpherson and Sting. Which one's the guest and which
>one's the music I have no idea. Both possibilities sound equally bad.
Great. Another guest host who'll read cue cards all through the show. But
at least there will be a music guest who at least *likes* classical music
(even though he doesn't perform it himself).
>BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
I think she was just "overlooked."
--
"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding
he sings." -- Ed Gardner
Matthew B. Tepper du...@deltanet.com CIS: 71031,2415
Visit my Berlioz page! http://www.deltanet.com/users/ducky/index.htm
Dave Mackey
: BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
They're pushing Nancy Walls these days! Notice she's getting lots more
characters and sketches thrown her way, like last week's Martha Stewart,
and this week's church bake sale ass kicking.
--
dma...@raven.cybercomm.net Dave Mackey
Visit my Home Page! http://raven.cybercomm.net/~dmackey
Albert Reischuck
: T-Bone in the hospital - Ah, so THIS is where they made up the money up
: from the opening skit, by using the _same set twice in the same show_.
: Blech. And it's skits like this that really have to make you wonder about
: how much effort the writers are bothering to put into their work. After
: all, this T-bone character was pretty damn funny the first time around
: with Christopher Walken, so we KNOW a halfway-decent sketch can be
: produced around him. So why wasn't this one as good? Gotta lay blame
: squarely at the writer's feet in cases like this. Nice cat joke though.
: Grade: C-.
The cat joke simply struck me as being cribbed from Steve
Martin's "Man with Two Brains" movie. Anyone else notice this?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x Albert W. Reischuck : "Guys, there's some dinner on the floor x
x arei...@phoenix.kent.edu : if you want it." x
x Kent State University : -Neil, The Young Ones x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
tomalhe
problems so hopefully this one makes it through.
>After the first sketch or two, I was hypothesizing that these guys are
>just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
>tongue-tripping over the simplest lines.
Agreed. A truly unexceptional show.
>Inside Politics - This is the sort of sketch that SNL has done a zillion
times before, and the show's political humor has traditionally been pretty
good regardless of any carnage created by the other skits.Grade: C-.
As with last weeks Dole vs. Forbes yawnfest, this thing didn't need to
exist except as a vehicle for Norm's Bob Dole franchise. Topical does not
always equal funny. I tuned in a minute late. Did they even bother with
portraying Lamar Alexander?
>Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
>they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted"Grade D.
Suprised they didn't run this sucker longer, going through the entire cast.
Will we ever have an actual monologue ever again?
>The Life We Lead - Grade: D.
This would've been better as an extended promo ala tim meadows street smart
weather guy not too long back. With all the news/morning show sketches this
season, I 'm beginning to think the new writing staff used to write for Dan
Rather. (Dan's funnier.) Great soap hair, and Y&R opening montage, though.
>Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
>say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
I'd give it a B, merely because we actually had a sketch with religious
content without being tortured by Mary "when I get nervous I suck my
toenails" Catherine. Still high school talent show level writing.
>Weekend Update - These jokes are coming across like Norm just
>jots down whatever silly comments people make around the office
>during the week and uses them on the air. Grade: C.
They ain't jokes, they be lines. And while was Sandler at home in his old
Update slot from the "Kevin Nealon" era, I figured he'd have been given
space to pimp his new album during Spade in America... say... where was Mr.
Spade anyway? Pimping *his* movie on Bryon Allen, perhaps? Perhaps even
*he* found it too exhausting to fill an entire 5 minutes this week.
>Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
>is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
>Doumanian era. Grade: F.
Is it possible Arnold wrote it himself?
>Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
>and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
And what *would* SNL be without the weekly "guy-in-a-dress" sequence? SNL's
drag is startin' to. Garafolo was right, there is no point in having women
on the show.
>T-Bone in the hospital - After all, this T-bone character was pretty damn
funny the first time around with Christopher Walken... Grade: C-.
T'would appear T-Bone has now become part of SNL's new 1995-6 "T-shirt
character" collection. We'll be seein' him again... with Tim Meadows,
playing along... again... What's next for the new comedy team of Blackkguy
& Redneck?
>Fuzzy Memories - So now even Jack Handey runs out of ideas. Grade: D.
Come now, even bad Jack Handy morbidity beats the tar out of Tom Arnold's
sketches. Besides, I happen to like suicide jokes. B-
>Just one question: did the audio completely cut out for everyone
>on the one entire line he sang?
'Twas bleeped for the Mountain time zone. I wondered that myself. Perhaps
they never bother rehearsing the musicians either.
>Ranger Sequoia - Speaking of impenetrable... Grade: F.
Not even "funny strange." But at least Arnold didn't have to look
desperately for the cue cards... Nosiree, he merely had to look at the
well-labelled props for *his* lines.
>Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
>and they pulled back on us! Where are the dead dogs? Grade: D-.
No wonder the fake ads have been unseated from their once cushy post-
monologue slot and dropped in the last half hour graveyard. And as Jack
Handy proved a month or so back, dead dog heads *can* be funny. How 'bout
Bob Dole Rat Poison?
>Next week: Elle MacPherson and Sting. Which one's the guest and which
>one's the music I have no idea. Both possibilities sound equally bad.
Can't wait for Elle's musical monologue, can you? And she does have acting
expereience from either *Melrose Place* or *Baywatch*, I recall.
>BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
Not so much as the missing-in-action Spade in America. Then again
missing-in-action is better than dead-on-arrival. Actually I wondered
why Cheri wasn't playing old again this week as the "Goin' Campin" Mom.
Thank God, we only have three weeks 'til the Dana Carvey Show debuts on
ABC. (Then again... Paula Poundstone...)
TOMALHE
TOMALHE
>just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
>tongue-tripping over the simplest lines.
Agreed a truly unexceptional show.
>Inside Politics - This is the sort of sketch that SNL has done a zillion
times before, and the show's political humor has traditionally been pretty
good regardless of any carnage created by the other skits.Grade: C-.
As with last weeks Dole vs. Forbes yawnfest, this thing didn't need to
exist except as a vehicle for Norm's Bob Dole franchise. Topical does not
always equal funny. I tuned in a minute late. Did they even bother with
portraying Lamar Alexander?
>Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
>they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted"Grade D.
Suprised they didn't run this sucker longer, going through the entire
cast.
Will we ever have an actual monologue ever again?
>The Life We Lead - Grade: D.
With all the news/morning show sketches this season, I 'm beginning to
think the new writers used to write for Dan Rather. (Dan's funnier.) Great
Soap hair, & Y&R opening montage, though.
>Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else
to
>say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
I'd give it a B, merely because we actuallyhad a sketch with religious
content without being tortured by Mary "when I get nervous I suck my
toenails " Catherine. Still high school talent show level writing.
>Weekend Update - These jokes are coming across like Norm just
>jots down whatever silly comments people make around the office
>during the week and uses them on the air. Grade: C.
They ain't jokes, they be lines. And while was Sandler at home in his old
Update slot from the "Kevin Nealon" era, I figured he'd have been given
space to pimp his new album during Spade in America... say... where was
Mr.
Spade anyway? Standing out in the snow again? Or was even *he* not able to
fill an entire 5 minutes this week.
>Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here:
This
>is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
>Doumanian era. Grade: F.
Is it possible Arnold wrote it himself? F-
>Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
>and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
And what would SNL be without the weekly "guy-in-a-dress" sequence?
Garafolo was right, there is no point in having women on the show. D.
>T-Bone in the hospital - After all, this T-bone character was pretty damn
funny the first time around with Christopher Walken... Grade: C-.
T-Bone is now a franchise, part of SNL's new "T-shirt character"
collection. We'll be seein' him again... with Tim Meadows, playing
along...
again... D.
>Fuzzy Memories - So now even Jack Handey runs out of ideas. Grade: D.
Come now, even bad Jack handy beats the tar out of Tom Arnold's sketches.
Besides, I like suicide jokes. B-
>Just one question: did the audio completely cut out for everyone
>on the one entire line he sang?
'Twas bleeped for the Mountain time zone. I wondered that myself. Perhaps
they never bother rehersing the musicians either.
>Ranger Sequoia - Speaking of impenetrable... Grade: F.
Not even funny strange. But at least Arnold didn't have to look
desperately
for the cue cards... Nosiree, he look at the props for his lines.
>Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
>and they pulled back on us! Where are the dead dogs? Grade: D-.
No wonder the fake ads have been unseated from their once cushy post-
monologue slot and dropped in the last half hour graveyard. And as Jack
Handy proved a month or so back, dead dog heads *can* be funny.
>Next week: Elle Macpherson and Sting. Which one's the guest and which
>one's the music I have no idea. Both possibilities sound equally bad.
Can't wait for Elle's musical monologue, can you?
>BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
Not so much as the missing-in-action Spade in America. Actually I wondered
why Cheri wasn't playing old again this week as the "Goin' Campin" Mom.
Thank God, we only have three weeks til the Dana Carvey Show debuts on
ABC.
TOMALHE
TwoMileHi2
rarely characters that are supposed to speaking with one another actually
look at each other.
The dependence on cue cards has reached an all-time high. Yet go back and
watch the Belushi-Ackroyd-Radner et. al shows -- almost no reading off cue
cards. Not only were they great comic actors, they actually memorized
their lines! What a revolutionary concept....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Mark A. Stoffan
>Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here:
This
>is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
>Doumanian era. There were almost literally ZERO laughs from the
audience,
>not even a chuckle. What makes this disaster even sadder is that this
>skit probably would have worked at a C or C- level had there been _any_
>timing whatsoever in the delivery. But the performances were so stilted,
>so (In fairness, I was giggling slightly at how much the Brainiac
>prosthesis made Tom Arnold look like Edwin Newman.) Grade: F.
I'm surprised you didn't mention that it was an almost complete take-off
on Jay Leno's "Mr. Brain" skits...except for the "conehead", it could
have been a Leno cameo. Same voice, same lines.
Mark
--
Mark A. Stoffan msto...@maine.maine.edu
Assistant Librarian MSTOFF41@MAINE (BITNET)
Moulton Library lib...@BTSgate.caps.maine.edu
Bangor Theological Seminary Tel. (207) 942-6781
Bangor, ME 04401
Home Page: http://maine.maine.edu/~mstoff41/index.html
Joseph Francis Nebus
>After the first sketch or two, I was hypothesizing that these guys are
>just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
>tongue-tripping over the simplest lines. But by about 12:15, I'd changed
>my mind: these guys simply aren't trying at all. The upswing we saw
>earlier this season is showing less and less each week, and things are
>fading fast. Shields are down to 40% Cap'n, we can't hold 'er together
>much longer....
Counterpoint: Well...maybe you have a point.
>
>Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
>Inside Politics -
Missed it. I got in late.
>Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
>they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted", and performed as
>if they'd not even rehearsed it once. Dead ending, too. Grade: D.
Wasn't any need to rehearse it. As soon as Tom said 'Teri Hatcher'
everyone in the entire Universe, even parts that have never heard of
Saturday Night Live, knew what was going to happen.
I would like to publicly request that any entertainers please
refrain from ever commenting on what happens to them at awards shows.
Nobody cares. I don't know anybody who would voluntarily watch an awards
show. I never would. If Tom Arnold were to burst into flames and
spontaneously go into labor during an award show, I would still not care.
>The Life We Lead - Now see, here's precisely the sort of of sketch that,
>when proposed at the story meeting, someone should stand up and say,
>"Whoa, one-joke sketch pal!"
Local TV News is a seemingly inexhaustible source of parody. (For
example, the local NBC affiliate now has its own Point/Counterpoint style
bit during the 11:00 news, just like Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd, except
that they're trying to play it straight and succeeding in being much more
ludicrous.) Soap operas, too, are inexhaustible.
Put together...they were exhausted.
Nice idea, but it had one or two scenes too many. Had they cut one
or two out (and that could be sliced out at random, basically), it would
have been significantly better.
>Weekend Update - Certainly better than last week, but that was due mostly
>to Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler.
Humor is never due to Adam Sandler. At best he is an unintentional
bystander, with no more involvement in it than a pretzel vendor has to the
New York subway system.
Colin Quinn, however, was funny. The O.J. joke could have been
funny had they decided to either actually become an infomercial (as with
Norm's, "Hey, can I do you a favor? Can I say that 800-number again?)
or just get the setup for the second call out of the way as soon as possible.
They tried to do both, though, and both gags stepped on each others' lines.
>Miracles of Science -
This ought to have been great. Had there been timing, and had they
gotten around to Brainiac's being a first-rate idiot more quickly--basically
had the line "Put all the racism in a giant rocket ship and shoot it into
space" come in the first minute--it could have been saved. This was a good
premise. I don't know how they managed to screw it up.
>Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
>and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
Once more, they had a framework for an idea. They just didn't know
how to turn a raw idea into comedy.
>T-Bone in the hospital - Ah, so THIS is where they made up the money up
>from the opening skit, by using the _same set twice in the same show_.
Reusing sets in the same show isn't new, although it's rarely been
that noticeable. But the was a very uninspired sketch.
>Fuzzy Memories - So now even Jack Handey runs out of ideas. Or maybe Norm
>just wrote this one; God knows it had all the hallmarks of Norm's
>16-ton-weight-from-the ceiling-punchline style. Grade: D.
I laughed.
>2-pac (get it? Hah! I _kill_ me! Sorry, just that ALF movie I was forced
>to watch earlier tonight) - Just one question: did the audio completely
>cut out for everyone on the one entire line he sang?
It cut out for me, but then I'm in the Eastern Time Zone too.
>Ranger Sequoia - Speaking of impenetrable...oh wait, that would imply
>there was something here to penetrate. We're sinking into suburban cable
>access comedy here, folks. Grade: F.
This was the excuse I was looking for to wash my dishes from dinner.
>Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
>and they pulled back on us!
Yes! That's it. That's the entire show. They pulled back from
the real (and logical) climax of the sketches for the entire night.
Had they gone ahead and gotten to the point of the sketches they
probably could have saved about half the sketches.
>Did the show end on time in New York: no
They almost got there, though, a lot closer than they have been.
>Do we care at this point: no
Though that promo for next week's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"
episodes looks fascinating.
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron L Dickey
A. Stoffan) wrote:
> I'm surprised you didn't mention that it was an almost complete take-off
> on Jay Leno's "Mr. Brain" skits...except for the "conehead", it could
> have been a Leno cameo. Same voice, same lines.
Yeah, I thought about that at first, but decided not to bring it up since:
a) the idea wasn't exactly a Leno original itself; if I said anything it
would probably just lead to a spinoff thread where we finally learned that
it was invented by Steve Allen (cf. the MST3K Steve-o-meter); and
b) When Leno does it, I at least chuckle.
--Aaron
Jeffleader
>years ago with the candidates arguing about which of them was going to
lose
>to George Bush.
Really--virtual plagiarism. Except not wanting to be the one who lost to
Bush
mad sense and hence was funny--this one made no sense! Why would they
want Clinton to win? What a waste of the revelation of Buchanon's white
supremacist campaign worker, etc.
The show is just pathetic these days.
PANTS Inc.
I hated the show this week (who do I write to to get that hour and a half
of my life back?), so I wont bother with that. I do have a question,
though.
> >Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
> >is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
> >Doumanian era. Grade: F.
I agree totally. This was the single worst sketch I have _ever_ seen.
Were there some screwed up special effects or something? Was his nose
supposed to bleed more?
Anyway, out of curiousity, can people that remember this fill the rest of
us in on Jean's reign? I have heard so much about how bad it was, but does
anyone remember the actual shows and skits? Does anyone have tapes of
the offending shows? I would love to hear about them.
The closest I came to any of this was the old Saturday Night book
(1985) that a friend loaned me, but even it was noticeably vague about
what actually happened during those shows. All it said was that Lorne
refused to allow those shows to *ever* be replayed.
Anyway, thanks.
PK
Patrick Keller
pke...@blue.wee.uiowa.edu
PANTS Inc.
On 18 Feb 1996, TwoMileHi2 wrote:
> There is one bright spot in all this -- it's greatly amusing to not how
> rarely characters that are supposed to speaking with one another actually
> look at each other.
>
> The dependence on cue cards has reached an all-time high. Yet go back and
> watch the Belushi-Ackroyd-Radner et. al shows -- almost no reading off cue
> cards. Not only were they great comic actors, they actually memorized
> their lines! What a revolutionary concept....
Well, I agree that they were good, but the fact is, many of the lines are
written just moments before the show goes on, and so most of the cast
members don't even bother memorizing their lines, because they might be
memorizing the wrong ones.
This used to go on in the old days too, they were just better at it.
>PK<
Patrick Keller
pke...@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
gi...@wpi.edu
> >and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
>
> And what would SNL be without the weekly "guy-in-a-dress" sequence?
> Garafolo was right, there is no point in having women on the show. D.
>
Hey that going campin skit waas funny as hell. And OJ call-in thing at
Update was killer(no pun intended).
Aaron L Dickey
"PANTS Inc." <pke...@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> wrote:
> I agree totally. This was the single worst sketch I have _ever_ seen.
> Were there some screwed up special effects or something? Was his nose
> supposed to bleed more?
I guess it's possible, but I don't think a little extra blood would have
saved this skit. This was just plain BAD all the way around:
1) The idea is of course completely derivative. As others have already
noted (and as we probably all noticed from the very beginning), just
seeing a guy with a big cranial prosthesis makes us think "Conehead!", and
Jay Leno does something _very_ similar all the time (the difference being
that Jay's is actually good for a few laughs). On this basis ALONE the
sketch should never have been approved; it just smells funny from the
get-go.
2) The writing, of course, sucked BIG. There were a few
sort-of-halfway-decent jokes in there, but they're jokes that would only
work with very specific phrasing and direction...which were not included.
3) The acting was just HORRID. Well, I take that back; there was almost
nothing either of them could have done, given the material.
> The closest I came to any of this was the old Saturday Night book
> (1985) that a friend loaned me, but even it was noticeably vague about
> what actually happened during those shows. All it said was that Lorne
> refused to allow those shows to *ever* be replayed.
Actually, some of these have been running recently, on Comedy Central I think.
tomalhe
In article <Pine.OSF.3.91.960218...@res.WPI.EDU> gino
wrote:
>> >Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian
>> >from concept to acting, and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
>>
>> And what would SNL be without the weekly "guy-in-a-dress" sequence?
>> Garafolo was right, there is no point in having women on the show. D.
>Hey that going campin skit was funny as hell. A
Gee... somehow in the lack of any actual laughter I forgot - regardless of
what actual dialogue, For some people : GUY IN DRESS = FUNNY!!!
Even Maxwell Q. Klinger stopped wearing the dress once the M*A*S*H writers
couldn't mine any good humor from it anymore.
TOMAHLE
Brad Grossman
: just trying too hard, leading to the halting performances and all the
: tongue-tripping over the simplest lines. But by about 12:15, I'd changed
: my mind: these guys simply aren't trying at all. The upswing we saw
: earlier this season is showing less and less each week, and things are
: fading fast. Shields are down to 40% Cap'n, we can't hold 'er together
: much longer...
Agreed. You can, at least for the past 2 seasons, tell how bad the 90
minutes will be by how long is it until a sketch falls flat on its face.
The first one did. Bad sign.
: Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
: The Life We Lead - Now see, here's precisely the sort of of sketch that,
: when proposed at the story meeting, someone should stand up and say,
: "Whoa, one-joke sketch pal! If you're giving away the punchline in the
: first two sentences, how are you gonna _possibly_ flesh this bit out for 2
: 1/2 minutes?" But bless 'em, they attempted the impossible yet again. And
: failed, again. Grade: D. (N.B. the hospital room set, we'll be referring
: back to it later.)
This is odd...just a 3/4 hour before this, I saw a bit on their
competitor, MAD TV. Something like the Happy News. Where they tried to
put the most positive spin on the most tragic events. THAT bit had me
rolling. Especially since L.A. news is often like this. THIS bit on SNL
had me cringing. In fact, this is often the case. Like the bit on MAD
TV where a sports fan (with the paint and wig) comes into the doctors
office complaining about blackouts. Doctor's prognosis: You're an
asshole....
: Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
: say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
Gee, another 1 joke sketch....yawn....
: Tupac - Sort of a microcosm of the entire show; several inventive takes on
Sean Vanderfluit
>The Life We Lead -
saying much, I guess) that they've been in a long time, and I actually
laughed. Down hill from here, tho.
>Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
>say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
>Goin' Campin' - Goin' nowhere. Purely pedestrian from concept to acting,
>and a total waste of Colin. Grade: C-.
>T-Bone in the hospital -
most of the show was)
Sean
Mark Tennenhouse
>BTW, did anyone else notice a distinct lack of Cheriness this week?
Not to mention a distinct lack of SPADE IN AMERICA! Maybe he needed a
breather after that disaster last week with Chris Farley... although this
does answer that question I read elsewhere about how the hell he found
the time to do the Tonight Show...
>Inside Politics
>Sidenote: I was surprised by how far they went to recreate the look of the
>actual debate, from the same graphics right down to the same weird 3-D
>designs from the real podiums. I haven't seen this much effort put into
>SNL set design since the 70s. Looks like a lot of money went into this;
>too bad not as much went into the script.
Actually, they've been putting quite a bit of effort into the "election
year debate" segments all the while: I myself was impressed by the way
they set up the Bush/Dukakis debate in '88. No, I didn't quite think
the "Clinton in '96!!" punchline really worked either... worse, those
critics of the "liberal media" who are absolutely incapable of understanding
irony are likely to view this as an attempt by the SNL staff to offer a
pro-Clinton sentiment in the context of the Republican debates.
I tried to capture the following lines for my electronic voice mail:
Buchanan: "[...] People look at me and cringe."
Dole: "HEY! HEY! I scare children, you know!"
But the damn Ameritech system refused to accept the setup... ;)
>Monologue - Thank GOD he didn't sing! But unfortunately, once again what
>they did do was the exact definition of "half-hearted", and performed as
>if they'd not even rehearsed it once. Dead ending, too. Grade: D.
Oh, like we couldn't tell where THIS was headed after 30 seconds.
The punchline ("because I'M TOM ARNOLD!") was funny to Tom Arnold and
evidently no one else (myself included). When it's Tom Arnold telling
the joke, though, that should come as no surprise.
Griffey in '96 - That was GREAT! Oh, wait...
This wasn't SNL. My God, this was REAL. (Actually sponsored by NIKE)
Uh-oh...
>Ass-kickin' bake sale - Nice concept, mediocre execution, not much else to
>say. (Nice _guest appearance_ by Tom Arnold.) Grade: C.
Are the "Joe Pesci Show" jokes *SO* fucking funny that we've gotta see
them every week?! Are they really that funny?!? Are they?!?!
>Tupac - Sort of a microcosm of the entire show; several inventive takes on
>the same old thing, but in the end you can't even understand what he's
>saying and it's all just a bit off-key somehow.
Heh heh. (rim shot)
>though Tupac should be credited with the single best line of the entire
>show: "If there's no justice for the Dogg, there's no justice for anyone!"
True indeed. Of course, "justice" could technically be defined as
JAIL TIME...
>Weekend Update - Certainly better than last week, but that was due mostly
>to Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler. Norm, yer still treading water here.
Oh, I don't know... I got some BIG laughs out of his Phil Gramm &
Louis Farrakhan jokes. My favorite was his joke about critics of
Clinton's policy retaining HIV+ soldiers in the military: "They're
worried that our enemies will be AFRAID TO FIGHT US!" I just
about died...
>The second OJ call worked well, but I'm not sure it was worth the 90
>seconds it took to set the joke up. Grade: C.
Just a side comment: the phone number was 1-800-555-0165, which
could very easily translate to 1-800-555-"01OJ". (I have too
much fucking free time...)
"Joe Blow" - You could tell that Colin was desperately trying
not to crack up.
Adam Sandler's "Grandma Song" - You see? You see? When people
laugh at this shit, it's only going to encourage him to do more...
Another aside... with the guest appearances, Weekend Update lasted
16 minutes! Is it usually this long?
Joe Pesci Reads Cue Cards in Drag - Oh, wait, I think you called
this one "Goin' Campin'". The only time I laughed was at the
name "Crazy Julio."
[ . . . . . . ]
>Petchow Rat Poison - What the hell? This could have been a hilarious ad,
>and they pulled back on us! Where are the dead dogs? As they let it stand,
>it made very little sense, and it looks like they did it this way on
>purpose....or else they never finished writing the damn thing. Either way,
>inexcusable. Grade: D-.
I'm afraid that I disagree here. I thought it was damn funny as it
stood -- in fact, they should've put it a lot earlier in the show!
They didn't have to actually SHOW the dead dogs to make it funny...
I'm sure most viewers would be able to put two and two together to
figure out what might happen. It reminded me of those old bits where
Dan Aykroyd would come up with ridiculously unsafe products marketed
for little kids.
I know there's quite a few sketches I've left out, but there's
no point trying to come up with clever ways to diss the Tom Arnold
showcases like the park ranger or "Brainiac". (Besides, I'm missing
"The Simpsons"...)
MjT
--
Flapjack
m-h...@tvd0002.urh.uiuc.edu (Michael W. Holl) writes:
> In article <kieran-1802...@kieran.port.net>,
> Aaron L Dickey <kie...@interport.net> wrote:
> >
> >Host: Tom Arnold. Musical Guest: Tupac Shakur.
> >
> >Inside Politics - When a sketch manages to fail on so many levels, it's
> [...]
> > This is the sort of sketch
> >that SNL has done a zillion times before, and the show's political humor
> >has traditionally been pretty good regardless of any carnage created by
> >the other skits.
>
> Actually, it seems to me that SNL _did_ do this sketch before, or at
> least something extremely similar. Before the '92 election, when Bush
> had his 90-odd percent approval rating, they had a sketch with
> Clinton, Tsongas, and the rest of 'em, saying stuff like "You don't
> want me to represent the democratic party in the upcoming election,
> vote for so-and-so."
>
Actually, that was before Clinton and most of the candidates had
entered the race. It was all the potential Democratic candidates like
Mario Cuomo (Phil Hartman: "Aren't we overlooking the issue here? I
have mob ties."), Lloyd Benson (Kiefer Sutherland), Bill Bradley (Kevin
Nealon) and Victoria Jackson as Tipper Gore substuting for Al who was
taking their children to a pornographic movie. It was a considerably
better sketch than Saturday's. Actually, I think the main flaw in the
most recent sketch was direction. Cutting from candidate to candidate
constantly like that threw off the pace. Two-shots or pans would have
worked better. I think we may have been underrating Davey Wilson all
these years.
Overall, an extremely dissapointing episode. Elle MacPherson next?
Well, she was okay in Sirens. . .but there she could get naked.
flapjack-who watched the film as a critique on sexual roles and stuff.
. . or something
--
Flapjack, the Guilt Toad who got more votes that Phil Gramm in Iowa
"Can we ever truly know the universe? My God! It's hard enough trying
to find your way around in Chinatown!"--Woody Allen
The short-lived political phase is over at:
HTTP://students.vassar.edu/~nosmith/nosmith.html
T.K. Manning
aq...@detroit.freenet.org writes:
>Griffey in '96 - That was GREAT! Oh, wait...
>
>This wasn't SNL. My God, this was REAL. (Actually sponsored by NIKE)
>
>Uh-oh..
I'm almost positive this was a fake commercial. If not, the world has
gone completely crazy mad. Or both.
In fact, it smells very much like the work of two certain brilliant
writers (newer additions), who wrote the crying Jesus, AM Ale,
and the most splendid Robot commercials this season. They were
pretty famous around Chicago (as part of the Upright Citizens Brigade)
for pulling off agitprop pranks, but that ad (if it's theirs) may be
one of their most subtle and brilliant pranks, especially if even the
most critical among you accepted it as real without a blink.
Millionaire sports stars as de facto national heroes?
An election pre-bought and sold?
Nike coopting (and corrupting) everything in sight-- from the Beatles
to Gil Scot-Heron to the American political process, in order to
sell ATHLETIC SHOES made by slave labor in Indonesia?
At last, real parody on SNL, but the real joke is that no one
even noticed.
Not very funny huh.
____________________________________________________________________
T.K. Manning http://icarus.cc.uic.edu/~tmanni2/ tma...@uic.edu
REGISTER AND VOTE!
This week is your last chance to register or to update your
registration before the Presidential primaries. Bring two pieces
of ID (one with your current address) to any branch of the Chicago
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you registered under Governor Edgar's joke version of "Motor Voter",
YOU ARE NOT FULLY REGISTERED and will not be allowed to vote in
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Don't forget! Don't delay! Register to vote today!
tomalhe
In article <kieran-1802...@kieran.port.net> Aaron L Dickey wrote:
>> I agree totally. This was the single worst sketch I have _ever_ seen.
>> Were there some screwed up special effects or something? Was his nose
>> supposed to bleed more?
>I guess it's possible, but I don't think a little extra blood would have
>saved this skit. This was just plain BAD all the way around:
Anyone surprised Arnold's nose wasn't blkeeding the entire show?
TOMALHE (BTW, what was Tom Arnold promoting? his already-out-of-theatres
"Big Bully"?)
Bob Williams
>Weekend Update - Certainly better than last week, but that was due mostly
>to Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler. Norm, yer still treading water here.
>These jokes are coming across like Norm just jots down whatever silly
>comments people make around the office during the week and uses them on
>the air. He's just got to stop relying on the sledgehammer humor so damn
>much. The second OJ call worked well, but I'm not sure it was worth the 90
>seconds it took to set the joke up. Grade: C.
No it was not better than last week.!!! Norm's jokes this week were
pitiful especially the internal stopwatch. What the hell is
happening? The show was on it's way back. This sets them back to
where they were at the end of 93-94 season. I mean the last 5 shows
have been and solid and even if they weren't Norm was always funny.
The first week was funnier than this shitty show. I'm a big fan of SNL
I am always defending it and this makes me want to quit.
Visit my new SNL page at http://www.icontech.com/~bobw/snl.html
Aaron L Dickey
wrote:
> I'm almost positive this was a fake commercial. If not, the world has
> gone completely crazy mad. Or both.
The world's gone crazy mad then, cause that was a REAL commercial. It's
part of an entire _series_ of Nike ads, which are airing all over the
place.
T.K. Manning
Anthony Kyle Monday, akmo...@uclink3.berkeley.edu writes:
>No, it's a real Nike commercial. I have no idea who wrote it. It's
>obviously tongue in cheek. There are variations of it running all over the
>place. I saw it about twenty times yesterday on Comedy Central.
Yeah, a couple people told me the "Griffey '96" ad is real. I
don't watch much TV, and that Nike ad is a damn good reason why.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a company who exploits
and promotes global slavery for profit, and then pretends to
befriend people of color by coopting radical slogans ("The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised Because We've Bought Your Copyright and
We Own Your Revolution") would so blatantly trivialize the
American political process this way. Apathy helps sales.
Question though: how much did Nike pay to replace the traditional,
expected fake-ad spot on Saturday Night Live, immediately following
the monologue? Couldn't this be perceived as a content conflict,
placing that kind of fake ad where we'd expect a *real* fake ad?
What's next: Time-Warner pr execs writing the weekend update bits?
Pepsi insisting on product placement in sketches? A board of
corporate censors editing and writing the show from start to
finish.
The world's gone crazy mad.
___________________________________________________________________
T.K. Manning http://icarus.cc.uic.edu/~tmanni2/ tma...@uic.edu
REGISTER AND VOTE!
Today is your last chance to register or to update your registration
before the Presidential primaries. Bring two piecesof ID (one with
your current address) to any branch of the Chicago Public Library. If
Aaron L Dickey
(Mark Tennenhouse) wrote:
> Not to mention a distinct lack of SPADE IN AMERICA! Maybe he needed a
> breather after that disaster last week with Chris Farley... although this
> does answer that question I read elsewhere about how the hell he found
> the time to do the Tonight Show...
I think we're overanalyzing the missing Spade here. SNL cast members have
often been given a week off here are there to plug a new movie (which
Lorne probably has a stake in anyway). If Spade doesn't show up next week,
then we can wonder.
> No, I didn't quite think
> the "Clinton in '96!!" punchline really worked either... worse, those
> critics of the "liberal media" who are absolutely incapable of understanding
> irony are likely to view this as an attempt by the SNL staff to offer a
> pro-Clinton sentiment in the context of the Republican debates.
Well, they'd probably be wrong to say that (I don't think the writers
would pass up easy humor to make a political point), but there's not much
question which way the average SNL writer leans. (Al Franken, anyone?)
> Oh, I don't know... I got some BIG laughs out of his Phil Gramm &
> Louis Farrakhan jokes. My favorite was his joke about critics of
> Clinton's policy retaining HIV+ soldiers in the military: "They're
> worried that our enemies will be AFRAID TO FIGHT US!" I just
> about died...
Yeah, I liked that one I admit.
> Adam Sandler's "Grandma Song" - You see? You see? When people
> laugh at this shit, it's only going to encourage him to do more...
Oh, come on, it was a cool song. It wasn't the most INTELLECTUAL humor
we've ever seen, but it was funny.
> Another aside... with the guest appearances, Weekend Update lasted
> 16 minutes! Is it usually this long?
WU is all over the map, timewise. I think they just let it go as long as
they have jokes for it.
Matt Ackeret
Matthew B. Tepper <du...@deltanet.com> wrote:
>>Tupac
>
>Rap be crap, ignored.
Agreed, but using ungrammatical English to attack something is
pretty dumb.
Anyway, I hate rap, but we were watching this with the sound off
most of the time (I think we listened to part of the first song).. Anyway,
we had closed captioning on during the songs. At one point, it said:
"[indecipherable lyrics]" for 20 seconds or more.
We laughed very hard at this.
(As an aside, I really hope I never go deaf, because closed
captioning really sucks. The amount of times they screw up and even
just make typos is amazing. I mean, during the news skit, there were a
couple of _non words_ thrown in there. I mean just gibberish with the
person making up words or something. Note I'm not _just_ complaining about
live events because I've tried watching during taped shows too, which
are better but still not even close to perfect. I thought the point was
to read everything they say! I mean, the little I've heard of the
"audio narration for sight impaired people", that does a far better job of
explaining one sense in another than CC does.)
>>Did the show end on time in New York: no
I see this a bunch, so what do they do in New York, literally go
over? By how much?
--
unk...@apple.com Apple II Forever
These opinions are mine, not Apple's.
Scott S. Francis
ever seen. Tom Arnold is the anti-talent!! That
Brainiac was the worst sketch I have seen them do!
If SNL were a dog, I'd take it out to the
back and put it out of its misery!
MAD TV is worlds more funnier, and they can
come up with material every week, unlike SNL.
Scott
Mordea
: In article <4g8j17$f...@detroit.freenet.org> Mark Tennenhouse,
: aq...@detroit.freenet.org writes:
: >Griffey in '96 - That was GREAT! Oh, wait...
: >
: >This wasn't SNL. My God, this was REAL. (Actually sponsored by NIKE)
: >
: >Uh-oh..
: I'm almost positive this was a fake commercial. If not, the world has
: gone completely crazy mad. Or both.
Um....
I don't know what the hell the purpose of the commercial is, but it
is airing on other networks at other times. Most noticably, it is
running on Comedy Central (channel 48 on Cox Cable, San Diego!) almost
continually. I think that I've also seen it on either The Late Show or
the Tonight Show, or maybe even both.
Ok...it's a fake commercial. But..... _who the hell is sponsering
the thing_! Ok...the above says that it is sponsered by NIKE. But
nowhere in the commercial itself have I seen it say that. How do we
_know_ it's NIKE's fault?
Mordea <- Thinks that it's Satan's work
--
Note: _ALL_ flames will be ignored. -------
| X |
You have mail. -------
Aaron L Dickey
> >>Did the show end on time in New York: no
>
> I see this a bunch, so what do they do in New York, literally go
> over? By how much?
They wish. It's simply a notation of whether they make it all the way to
the end of the credits (complete with peacock and Broadway Video logos),
or if master control cuts out to go to an NBC promo of some sort. Why
this is a big deal I don't know, but if I don't include it, someone will
ask.
--Aaron
Brian Wolters
I have to disagree. With the exception of the last two shows, this season
has been very good...the best in 2 years! Though the comedy may not be
everyone's taste, the actors are great and talented!
Ross Garmil
: Hey all.
: I hated the show this week (who do I write to to get that hour and a half
: of my life back?), so I wont bother with that. I do have a question,
: though.
: > >Miracles of Science - I must say, I think a record has been set here: This
: > >is very probably the most laugh-free skit aired on SNL since the Jean
: > >Doumanian era. Grade: F.
: I agree totally. This was the single worst sketch I have _ever_ seen.
: Were there some screwed up special effects or something? Was his nose
: supposed to bleed more?
Actually I thought the racism line was funny--even if it was screwed up. So
I must declare that I have seen worse skits, and within the last year and a
half of the show. Besides, this should have been good, some you just can't
figure out why they write it at all.
: Anyway, out of curiousity, can people that remember this fill the rest of
: us in on Jean's reign? I have heard so much about how bad it was, but does
: anyone remember the actual shows and skits? Does anyone have tapes of
: the offending shows? I would love to hear about them.
Well I don't remember much, but Comedy Central actually showed Doumanian's
last show (with the lame Who Shot CR theme that let Charlie Rocket to have
a slight slip of the tounge). Anyways, I think the season can best be summed
up in this one skit--a commercial starring Gilbert Godfried (who by the way
was unfunny and lifeless (regular voice); if you can make Gilbert boring,
then you can really ruin a comedy show), anyways it was a commercial for
a record collection. The collection was of odd recordings, and basically
it's the Golden Throats record. But it was about a two minute spot, and
none of the laugh lines were written by the writers, they merely found
some funny actual recordings, made a list of them and presented it as a
skit. No commentary, no original writing, just a list of already existing
songs. And it received the most laughs of all the show I could bear to watch.
Man, it was bad.
But so was this week, and most of this season, and more of last season...
man it was bad.
Ross
Aaron L Dickey
Tepper) wrote:
> I remember one time a few years ago, not only did they get to run all of the
> credits, but they got to include a dolly shot as the camera went back
> through a pair of double doors, which were then closed by a couple of NBC
> pages. Classy ending.
I think this was at the same time the show always opened going through
those same doors and all the way up the stage; classy opening too. I don't
know why there ever dropped it.
Matthew B. Tepper
says...
I remember one time a few years ago, not only did they get to run all of the
credits, but they got to include a dolly shot as the camera went back
through a pair of double doors, which were then closed by a couple of NBC
pages. Classy ending.
--
"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding
he sings." -- Ed Gardner
Matthew B. Tepper du...@deltanet.com CIS: 71031,2415
Visit my Berlioz page! http://www.deltanet.com/users/ducky/index.htm
to...@fred.net
:
: Griffey in '96 - That was GREAT! Oh, wait...
:
: This wasn't SNL. My God, this was REAL. (Actually sponsored by NIKE)
:
: Uh-oh...
Constitutionally, he's too young to run. Ironically, he's more mature
than the rest of the candidates. ;P
Then again, can we vote for his dad?
To...@Fred.Net
http://www.fred.net/tomr
Andrew Hicks
Republican debate they had in 88 with Dan Aykroyd as Dole (ten times better than
Norm MacDonald), Al Franken as Pat Robertson (one of the most dead-on hilarious
impressions I've ever seen), Carvey as Bush (of course) and a bunch of others, was a
classic. As I recall, it was from the justine Bateman Valentine episode, which also
had the classic "Family Ties" sketch ("It seems so sad that Jennifer's dying."
"Yeah, but you know the doctor said we could do more good for her if we'd just stay
in this kitchen." "Yeah.")
--Andrew
http://www.missouri.edu/~c667778
Andrew Hicks
(I like his stuff but live rap always sucks.)
And I also thought that soap opera / newscast was a clever, original idea, even if
it was used up after the first minute or so. That was the only worthwile sketch in
the show.
--Andrew
Matt Ackeret
Joseph Francis Nebus <neb...@theorem.math.rpi.edu> wrote:
> I would like to publicly request that any entertainers please
>refrain from ever commenting on what happens to them at awards shows.
>Nobody cares. I don't know anybody who would voluntarily watch an awards
>show. I never would. If Tom Arnold were to burst into flames and
I dunno, I think the Oscars and Emmies are either sometimes
entertaining in themselves or sometimes so cheesy that they're entertaining.
The latter is mostly the Oscars, with the overblown musical numbers. The
Grammies will at least have a couple of good musical performances (whoever
realized they could make big $$$ by selling a CD of Grammies performances
deserves a big raise --- plus they admittedly suckered me into buying 4 CDs with
about 1.5 - CDs worth of good stuff -- but I got a couple of them 'free' from
BMG, so it's no big deal)..
The only good recently-invented awards show is the American Comedy
Awards, or whatever they call it.. Another Schlatter (?) production..
This guy probably makes a gazillion dollars by just inventing new shows.
Matt Ackeret
T.K. Manning <tma...@uic.edu> wrote:
>Question though: how much did Nike pay to replace the traditional,
>expected fake-ad spot on Saturday Night Live, immediately following
>the monologue? Couldn't this be perceived as a content conflict,
>placing that kind of fake ad where we'd expect a *real* fake ad?
I have no inside knowledge of SNL, but I would expect they didn't
pay any more than any other ad spot.
Though we all expect a fake ad there, they don't have a fake ad
there fairly often.. I'd say at least 10-20% of the time.