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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Americans SNL?

84 replies

Banrockmystation · 17/02/2025 17:57

Does anyone else not get the humour AT ALL in Saturday Night Live?
Im English so maybe it’s just a real culture difference but I do not find any of the skits funny at all?! Not necessarily even offensive, just completely boring and I don’t get them!
The audience seems to find it hilarious, am I missing something??

OP posts:
UnhappyAndYouKnowIt · 17/02/2025 20:17

Back in the day I loved it. I grew up watching re-runs of Dan Akroyd and Steve Martin, Martin Short, Bill Murray... it was where they all started.

When I was in school and uni it was mandatory viewing. They always had the best political impressions and the fake newscast was brilliant when Phil Hartman or Kevin Nealon were doing it. I know Wayne's World and Happy Gilmore spin-offs weren't as popular over here, but some of the sketches from around that time still crack me up.

dapsnotplimsolls · 17/02/2025 20:25

I imagine it's a bit like an American listening to Dead Ringers and wondering what the hell is going on.

Princessconsuelabananahammock9 · 17/02/2025 20:31

I’m Canadian and love it.
Kate McKinnon and Ryan Gosling space alien sketch kills me!

Also Colin Jost and Michael Che for the weekend update is hilarious.

I like British comedy and American.

I also love Corner Gas which is very Canadian humour, and this hour has 22 minutes.

Potsofpetals · 17/02/2025 20:37

I was 18 and living at college in the US. I found Faulty Towers on BBC America. My roommate sat stony faced the whole way through.

It’s fine. I spent four years avoiding clapping at any old shit, my roommates 6am bible studies and syrup on my bacon.

We may be cousins but we are cut from very different cloth

Hhoudini · 17/02/2025 20:40

The alien abduction sketches are so funny but much of if just leaves me a bit meh.

Potsofpetals · 17/02/2025 20:40

My only issue with SNL this week is having those two lunatics Reynolds and Lively there.

They were there making light of their current situation. I mean, we all know Blakes lying out of her ass but I didn’t think they’d openly be so brazen about it.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 17/02/2025 20:42

The recent sketches done by Nate Bargatze were amusing and clever. I do like his comedy though so may be biased.

Cosycover · 17/02/2025 20:45

I love Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island. But that's about it.

The Domingo skit that went viral not long ago was just awful. Not funny at all.

steff13 · 17/02/2025 20:49

I don't think it's been funny since the 90s. Maybe early 2000s.

ZZTopGuitarSolo · 17/02/2025 20:54

HermioneWeasley · 17/02/2025 19:39

It still has absolute gems - the recent “Washington’s dream” sketches are up there with the best of them

also “almost pizza” and their take on Pandora bracelets are classics

Someone at work sent me Washington’s Dream the other day and I laughed out loud several times.

JackJarvisEsq · 17/02/2025 20:59

I’m not a huge fan but I could watch the Blue Oyster Cult sketch a million times

FrivolousKitchenRollUse · 17/02/2025 21:13

Some of it is hilarious, some of it goes over my head but I think that's par for the course for political comedy. The Jost/Che stuff is brilliant as is the Nate Bargatze stuff on the founding of America and it's contradictions.

JustJoinedRightNow · 17/02/2025 21:19

Doingtheboxerbeat · 17/02/2025 19:52

The White Lotus parody, the Christmas Candle and a couple of others have had me a puddle on the floor, but that's because they were super niche and specific. As others have said, they are so hit and mostly miss .

Thank you for this. I just went and watched those two - they are hilarious!

MasterBeth · 17/02/2025 21:30

I don't think it's the subject matter that lets it down, it's the format.

The sketches are so loooooooong (even the titles are stupidly long). The structure of the show feels dated and formulaic: the pattern of ad breaks, the musical guest , the inconsistency of the guest host etc.

wizzbitt · 17/02/2025 21:32

I don't think it's funny at all. Childish humour and everyone looking so pleased with themselves because the audience are laughing. Not a fan of it but love the films of many of the actors like Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig. I do love this video though.

www.instagram.com/share/BBLWmnUkQ1

MasterBeth · 17/02/2025 21:32

I don't think it's the subject matter that lets it down, it's the format.

The sketches are so loooooooong (even the titles are stupidly long). The structure of the show feels dated and formulaic: the pattern of ad breaks, the musical guest , the inconsistency of the guest host etc.

CymruChris · 17/02/2025 21:33

Love Lonely Island, didn't realise they were SNL.

And although I've never watched an episode of SNL, I love clips of Colin Jost and Mikey Che!

Banrockmystation · 17/02/2025 22:01

So glad I posted about this and that I’m not alone!!! I now no longer feel like I’m on the outside of a joke!

OP posts:
ThisIsMyYearToFindMyself · 18/02/2025 02:23

Melissa McCarthy was brilliant as Sean Spicer.

Oh I loved these, I’d completely forgotten them!

realsavagelike · 18/02/2025 03:00

@Princessconsuelabananahammock9 can't beat an episode of Corner Gas!

realsavagelike · 18/02/2025 03:12

@Princessconsuelabananahammock9 You think there's not a lot going on...

EachandEveryone · 18/02/2025 03:27

It is very niche. I love Debbie Downer though and Alec Bawldwins Schweddy Balls. Meet your second wife is questionable but also hysterical.

mathanxiety · 18/02/2025 03:47

I'm in America and thought it was genuinely funny off and on in the 90s, maybe the early 2000s. I still chuckle at Shprockets.

knitnerd90 · 18/02/2025 05:22

Not American but have lived there for almost 15 years now...

First, it's scattershot. The whole premise is that the whole thing is done in under a week. Sometimes the writers are brilliant and sometimes they scrape the bottom of the barrel. It also depends on the host: Some are good live, some are game for anything, some are awful. You can really tell when they're bad because they'll try to keep them out of the live sketches. My kids watch so I do.

Some of the humour is definitely American specific, like the ones dealing with specifically American culture. Great example: The John Mulaney and Ego Nwodim sketch where he goes to a Black wedding, and you think the whole setup is that he's nervous just because he's white, but it turns out he's very familiar with Black culture. All the references are great, but I don't think it's funny if you don't know them. Or the skit where Marcello Hernández brings home his white girlfriend and Pedro Pascal plays his mom and 3/4 of the skit is in Spanish. And of course some things are parodying American shows or ads.

(The lingerie store skit with Anya Taylor-Joy is one of my favourites, but it's also very clearly a parody of certain NYC bra stores. Anya really nails the accent, too.)

SNL also has a tendency to run characters into the ground if they're successful and it usually brings diminishing returns. Last night's anniversary special had a lot of those. I'm not sure Dooneese needed that many airings, no matter how funny Kristen Wiig is (and again, most British people don't know anything about Lawrence Welk).

They also repeat setups too much, like game show skits. The political comedy is incredibly up and down. It depends partly on the writing, partly on how the impressionist sets up their version of the character. Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer was brilliant because she latched onto his bombast and turned it up to 11. One of the Biden impressionists was terrible because his take was simply "He's old and gaffe-prone."

At the moment I would say the cast is middling and the writers need a refresh, but honestly the fun of SNL is the not knowing what's going to happen. It might be funny, it might be terrible, and you've got to stay up till the end if you want to see the writers pull out their weirdest ideas.

RingoJuice · 18/02/2025 06:18

It’s not funny and it’s rarely been considered funny even by Americans. The odd funny sketch gets shared nowadays on social media so really no reason to ever watch it. Some says it’s not been funny since the 70s although it had its moments in the 90s