"SNL" and the comedy genre taste stale
If you’re a shameless VH1 junkie like myself, then I’m sure you noticed the introduction of "Saturday Night Live" reruns into the schedule. You also might have noticed the original release dates conspicuously end around the year 2002 (The Will Ferrell Era). For some reason, "SNL" just isn’t relevant anymore.
When pressed for an answer, I could not name even one current member of "SNL." The last thing I’ve heard from SNL in the last few years have been the Sarah Palin sketches and the digital shorts. The Palin sketches involved Tina Fey actually returning to the show -- she retired from "SNL" in 2006 -- to impersonate Palin. The digital shorts seem to make waves because of the easy access. I can easily just get on YouTube and find it.
The fact of the matter is this: We do not have to wait for a weekly episode of "Saturday Night Live" to watch a pitch perfect parody, a scathing satire or even a ridiculously random character. All we have to do is search on YouTube for a second.
Everything "SNL" offers is now at our fingertips. Look up Derrik Comedy, Bo Burnam, Barats and Bareta or College Humor. It takes mere seconds to turn up videos of higher quality (and hilarity) than what "SNL" is putting out right now. Instead of putting in the years of hard work required to get a spot on "SNL," new talent can put together a YouTube channel in under five minutes.
These kids on YouTube are missing the most important part of the equation: Getting your name into the show business machine. Headshots, resumes and actual credits are being thrown to the wind. A YouTube channel is not exactly a filmography, and it will not be honored as such.
Still, "SNL" could theoretically recruit from the web, but these comedic actors are attempting to skip some very important steps in their rise to notoriety. They aren’t receiving the schooling in this particular art form as Steve Carell or Tina Fey did before the dawn of YouTube. Getting thousands of hits for some reason means you don’t have to enlist in a local comedy troup, a la Second City. As much as I want to see "SNL" return to its former glory, it won’t unless talented comedic writer/actors start going back to fundamentals.
It has become my assumption, at least, that this phenomenon is not only robbing "SNL," but its also robbing the comedy genre as a whole. Think about it, the biggest names in comedy are Zach Galifianakis, Steve Carell and Seth Rogan -- ages 41, 48 and 28, respectively. The youngest star that comes to mind is Michael Cera, who at the age of 22, might have shown us the only note he knows.
Dan Aykroyd was 23 years old when he started on "SNL," Adam Sandler was 24 years old and Eddie Murphy was a mere 19 years old. These men changed the landscape of comedy in their time and we need young minds like these to reinvigorate a genre that can easily become stale. Yes, "The Hangover" was hilarious, but how long can we watch journey-related comedies before getting bored?
I guess we’ll just have to wait until the next Eddie Murphy gets off of Youtube into "Saturday Night Live."
