“Saturday Night Live” Dying A Slow, Torturous Death

Do you ever watch Saturday Night Live?

If not, don’t worry. Not many people do… any more.

Like millions of other Americans, I do NOT watch it, and rather, see but snippets of it online every now and then, and occasionally see it mentioned in various news items here, there, and yon.

The reason I ask, is because a thought occurred to me, which is that, even though it’s circling the proverbial drain, it is salvageable.

In fact, in this now seemingly not-so funny time, it could quite possibly rise beyond its highest ratings period, which was its heyday, and perhaps even surpass it. But, the writers now ALL need to be fired. Why? They’re… Just. Not. Funny.

The track the show’s been on is eventually going to land it in the graveyard, and that’s not where longtime producer Lorne Michaels would like it to end up. But, at this point, it seems all but certain. The post mortem would read: Died for lack of humor caused by bad writing.

More to the point, as I pondered the matter, a thought occurred to me:

I do not ever recall having seen any skits or jokes about,
or references to,
the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

That thought occurred to me after reading an OpEd about the committee, which lead with this sentence,

“The U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee has performed its task with a dignity that verges on parody.”

If you’ve ever seen SNL, even once, then

Conan the Barbarian O’Brien

By now, it’s painfully evident that NBC made a critical programming error by ousting longtime funnyman and Tonight Show host Jay Leno, and substituting with the former Saturday night Live writer and most definitely un-funny Late Night host, Conan O’Brien.

Almost immediately, NBC’s viewership numbers  for its venerable Tonight Show declined. The honeymoon was over in under a week.

It’s no wonder.

O’Brien once wrote for SNL – which has been beating that dead horse ever since its initial hey day run from 1975-80 when the late John Belushi and Gilda Radner, with their equally genius comedic companions Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Bill Murray ruled the weekend comedy airwaves.

SNL has not been funny since. Well, perhaps there’s an episodic exception when Chris Farley appeared to take the spot emptied by Bellushi’s untimely death. Then Chris died… in much the same fashion and same age as Belushi. Not funny.

But back to O’Brien.

His abusive tenor, gutter “humor” – a masturbating bear? – and physical gesticulations are reminiscent of something painfully UNfunny.

Physical gags were John Ritter’s forte, but O’Brien’s intentionally spastic movements remind one of nothing more than a late teen attempting to be funny by behaving as a child.

Palinly… er, plainly, they’re a painful chore to watch, and his “jokes” are even worse to hear.

So, “goodbye,” and good riddance, Conan!

Maybe Fox will do you some good.

Oh, and by the way… it’s a masturbating bull – beef stroganoff.