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SNL
May 10, 2022 19:36:58 GMT
Post by mllemass on May 10, 2022 19:36:58 GMT
But it's interesting they describe it like a "strength" It’s also interesting that the question about Benedict kind of suggested that maybe he was just not following the script, because he wasn’t looking over at the cue cards the way Lizzo had done. It doesn’t even occur to people that actors actually learn lines!
I agree that these podcast people are only there for the SNL cast of regulars. Those two annoying women went on and on about how funny Cecile Strong was in the Chuck E Cheese sketch, pretty much saying that seeing her in the carrot costume was the funniest thing about the sketch. Huh? And in the other video I had seen, they absolutely loved Keanan Thompson in the prison chain-gang sketch. Did he even have any lines??
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Post by sgev1977 on May 10, 2022 21:59:17 GMT
I love Thompson and he indeed does very funny faces but it’s not exactly the most sophisticated comedy ever!
It’s interesting how some of the most talented SNL members are frequently overshadowed by “personalities”. For example, I think people like Dana Carvey, Darren Hammond or, even, someone like Seth Meyer were very versatile during their SNL years but more “simplistic” comedians that did the ticks, repeating phrases or over the top silly faces become the stars and that’s probably the issue with people not appreciating proper comedy acting (not that BC is a real comedian, of course! But certainly “versatility” was the “strength” of his performance. After all, he is indeed an actor)
I think one error of those “reviews” and some of the professionals one is that they are worried too much about the structure of the joke. I’m not an expert on SNL but I love the Pythons and, at least according to books about them, Lorne was inspired by their “stream of consciousness” “structure” or lack of structure. They were trying to rebel against the classical sketch comedies: the “anti Carol Burnett”. So, at least, in theory, structure shouldn’t be important as it wasn’t for the Python, right?
Also, some of them tried to analyze why the sketches didn’t worked as they wanted. That’s interesting! I have read essays about why certain comedies work (there are a few semiotic writings about Buster Keaton gags) but I think there is an issue when you are explaining to professional what they should do. You criticize what’s there not what it’s not. If you want to be a professional go for it but why to dictate others what to do. If it doesn’t make you laugh, it didn’t work. It’s not about adding your personal ideas. Just write your own stuff! Lol
Anyway, at the end of the day is about personal taste but it’s much better to have something intelligent to say and being actually informed. Claiming you don’t care for someone but still wanting people care for your opinion about that theme or person you didn’t bothered to research is not just rude but make you a bad critic.
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Post by sgev1977 on May 10, 2022 22:29:00 GMT
Also I’m not familiar with the new cast. Probably I haven’t watched new SNL since, well, the last time BC was the host! But I think the material and the cast is much better now than then and it was a surprise because I searched for reviews of recent episodes before this weekend airing and they weren’t very positive.
I knew Kenan Thompson (a very old member. I think he returned, actually!) and Kane McKinnon. I also recognized the actress playing the mother in the Mother’s Day sketch from when BC was a host for the first time but my favorites from what I watched were Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang. I didn’t know them! They both were BC’s parters in my two favorite sketches but I think I enjoyed them because, like him, they were acting and not just be over the top silly. They both were doing “serious” characters and that’s why they were funny to me!
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Post by mllemass on May 10, 2022 23:05:15 GMT
I think the ideas are what make the sketches funny, and not necessarily the jokes. There’s been tons of praise for the cold open, which Benedict surprised everyone by doing! It was a clever way to deal with that topic.
I have a vivid memory of a sketch from the old days, with cast members like Jane Curtain and Gilda Radner. It was set at Christmas or Thanksgiving or some other family holiday, with a large extended family sitting down for dinner. A group of family members found themselves seated at the “kids’ table”, down in the basement. We find out that they’ve done this since they were kids, and here they are as adults, still being sent to the kids’ table. As the meal progresses, their behaviour becomes more and more childish.
I loved that sketch! I remember wondering how they knew that we, too, had a kids’ table when everyone came over? Ours was in the kitchen while the grown-ups were in the dining room, but I was seated at it no matter how old I got. It never changes! When my cousin got married, his sisters threw a bridal shower for his fiancée at one of their houses. My cousin, a doctor, told me and my sister that we’d be eating in the living room with her while the grown-ups (my mother and my aunts) ate at the kitchen table. My cousin was nearly 40 at the time, and still wasn’t grown up enough to eat in the kitchen!
Was that the funniest SNL sketch ever? Probably not - but I’ve never forgotten it.
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SNL
May 10, 2022 23:17:00 GMT
Post by queenzod on May 10, 2022 23:17:00 GMT
BC absolutely was reading some of his lines from the cue cards. You can see the way his eyes flick offstage. I saw it most in the chain gang skit.
And certainly the SNL gags do not follow the arc of, say, a Buster Keaton gag. How could they? Keaton gags were perfect circles of absurdity with the character sadly and funnily ending up back at his starting point, creating a zero sum (which was his nickname in France). SNL sketches aren’t built that way, and they’re not as mechanical as Keaton’s were. It’s different types of comedy. SNL is more akin to the Marx Brothers, just flailing around and then wandering off, a chaos approach with lots of nonsequitors and the occasional punny jab. Although Buster did work with the Marx brothers to create some of the physical stuff they did, like Harpo flying out onto the stage on the ropes. That was a Keaton gag.
Anyway, I haven’t listened to those podcasts. It sounds like they know next to nothing about the history of comedy or even what makes a joke work, lol.
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Post by mllemass on May 10, 2022 23:25:50 GMT
I did see him look off to the side a couple of times, but he never said his lines while looking away - like Lizzo did. He looked away and then looked right back. One thing they mentioned in that awful podcast was that at one point, Benedict didn’t say his line when he should have and had to get a prompt from someone off stage. That might explain his looking off to the side.
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SNL
May 10, 2022 23:57:23 GMT
Post by llminnowpea on May 10, 2022 23:57:23 GMT
I did see him look off to the side a couple of times, but he never said his lines while looking away - like Lizzo did. He looked away and then looked right back. One thing they mentioned in that awful podcast was that at one point, Benedict didn’t say his line when he should have and had to get a prompt from someone off stage. That might explain his looking off to the side. I think he might also have said a line too early, but it wasn't noticeable because it was in that Mother's Day sign sketch. You know, the one where, at first, I thought BC was paired with the guy next to him, not that he was the father married to the woman in the middle. At one point, he starts chuckling and the mother says "Wait. I am not finished yet." And, I think he says "Oh." Was it intentional? Was it not? The world will never know, but he kind of played that character like a really stupid father who was more like one of the children than a father, so who the hell knows. That sketch went on about 2-3 signs too long but I give them credit for keeping the bags straight.
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Post by sgev1977 on May 11, 2022 0:09:27 GMT
I think they said he did that during the rehearsal. They weren’t that bad. They were nice girls but at that moment they were indeed trying to show that he wasn’t different to other hosts (like Lizzo, who apparently was much more obvious) and that he also committed some “errors” but, even when I’m sure he indeed committed errors, the rehearsal doesn’t count! That’s why they do the rehearsal! Lol
IMHO that’s the best of the three podcast but they aren’t presented themselves as critics just like fans who happens to go to the shows and watch the rehearsals! The other two are fans trying to sound like critics but yeah, without too much knowledge.
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Post by sgev1977 on May 11, 2022 0:17:39 GMT
I did see him look off to the side a couple of times, but he never said his lines while looking away - like Lizzo did. He looked away and then looked right back. One thing they mentioned in that awful podcast was that at one point, Benedict didn’t say his line when he should have and had to get a prompt from someone off stage. That might explain his looking off to the side. I think he might also have said a line too early, but it wasn't noticeable because it was in that Mother's Day sign sketch. You know, the one where, at first, I thought BC was paired with the guy next to him, not that he was the father married to the woman in the middle. At one point, he starts chuckling and the mother says "Wait. I am not finished yet." And, I think he says "Oh." Was it intentional? Was it not? The world will never know, but he kind of played that character like a really stupid father who was more like one of the children than a father, so who the hell knows. That sketch went on about 2-3 signs too long but I give them credit for keeping the bags straight. I didn’t liked that sketch. I thought it wasn’t a good sign for the rest of the show but it quickly got better. They supposedly do the best sketches at the beginning! I loved the Chuck E Cheese one but, in part, because it was aired very late and the eccentricity of it, I thought no one will like it, except me! It seems it has a lot of fans but there is still comments by people who didn’t get it (it’s not complicated but maybe you have to know about those kind of bands) or think it’s more a kind of “cultish” sketch that something made for general audiences. Agreed that the sketches, in plural, felt too long. That was my major issue with the show.
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Post by sgev1977 on May 11, 2022 0:35:11 GMT
About Buster Keaton, I didn’t want to say his comedy was similar to SNL. The genre is just too different! He was a proper filmmaker (one of the best ever!) and he indeed planned meticulously every shot, in part, because it was life or death for him! He did his own stunts.
TV sketch comedy is something very different and because it’s live, it’s indeed much more chaotic but their original mission was not to be like the very structured sketch comedy from the 1960s. The Pythons claimed they added Terry Gilliam’s cartoons because they couldn’t think on how to end the sketches, which supposedly was the most important thing in classical sketch comedy: it had to be a punchline but that structure of not having a real structure and going from one place to other without caring for the punchline inspired Lorne Michael to do his originally “rebellious” comedy. He didn’t have the cartoons but they were trying to not follow sketch comedy rules. That’s why I found ironic to hear a guy saying this or that sketch “should have a crescendo but it didn’t have it” and things like that. Some professional reviews said similar things.
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