Live from New York…
It's Saturday Night! [image error]
The first time I saw Saturday Night Live, I was in 5th Grade. Young, yes, but it wasn't a school night and Mom let us (my older sister and me) stay up late. We were all restless on a Saturday night for some reason, I don't know why. Cable was new to us, and I was the remote control. I clicked through the stations with the rotary dial, stopping now and then to see what was on, and I paused at Gilda Radner doing a sketch with a Barbie doll. It was ridiculous– and we were all entranced. That was it. We watched the whole show and laughed like crazy, even though my mom felt a little odd to let us watch something with lots of inappropriate references.
Mom shouldn't have felt too bad. I wasn't alone. I suddenly understood a lot of playground references that had been flying over my head. "Are you from Jersey?" "Candygram!" "Cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger, Pepsi." "Ohhh nooo Mr. Bill!"
[image error]SNL was all the rage among my classmates. Years later? I still stay up to watch. I'm often disappointed, and occasionally pleasantly surprised. There have been good years and bad. Some hosts handle comedy much better than others. Alec Baldwin and Justin Timberlake usually deliver. Tina Fey is one of my favorites, and I'm sorry she left the cast (but all good things for Tina now).
The recent cast? Bill Hader is adorable and I love him. He has a chemistry with Seth when he makes Weekend Update appearances that reminds me of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sans– when both of them would lose control of the script and burst out laughing. The best moments for me on SNL are when the cast can't stay in character and start laughing along.
Witness Bill Hader in his role as Stefon, the club-hopping hipster. Early on, he starts to laugh when speaking his lines, and he eventually can barely make it through the sketch. Seth starts to lose it, too. The character, Stefon, and his lines are just too ridiculously awful– but so what one might expect from the club scene. Outrageous! And funny (but sort of inappropriate, so you've been warned).
Click here to view the embedded video.
When was the last time you watched Saturday Night Live? Do you have a favorite cast or favorite cast member? Favorite skit? Favorite show? Who is your dream host/musical guest combination?
