Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Trimming the fat, the black and the cupcake guy!
Well folks, Lorne Michaels has done it. He has trimmed the fat from Saturday Night Live.
He has also trimmed the black and the skinny white guy with wild hair.
Announcing cuts to the cast, he has let Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell and Chris Parnell go, lowering the chances for "Chronicles of Narnia Rap: The Movie."
These firings, along with the volentary departure of head writer Tiny Fay, and cast members Rachel Dratch and Tracy Morgan, (All of which have jobs of Fay's new NBC Dramedy 30 Rock) leave eleven members in the cast.
Eleven not so funny people to carry on a rich legacy that started with John Belushi and Gilda Radner and is now a shadow of a shadow of it's former self.
Once upon a time Saturday Night Live was an institution. It undermined authority and politics with biting satire so sharp you could cut through any national monument and still slice this tomato into paper thin slices.
Today that knife can't even cut water.
Saturday Night Live is 32 years old. It is middle aged. It is at the time where, were it a rock and roll star it would release an album of slow songs. Trimming some of the middle aged fat is not the answer.
The answer is, I'm afraid, euthanasia.
SNL is long past it's prime and it's making Lorne Michaels look less like a subversive genius and more like a guy riding things out until retirement.
It's time to pull the plug. Death with dignity isn't even an option anymore. There is no dignity in putting this horse out to pasture.
The inevitable question is, if SNL dies, what will replace it?
Nothing, I hope. Whatever comes to fill the SNL void will be TRYING to fill the SNL void. More mediocre sketches low on comedy and high on possible full length motion picture deals ala "That's Pat."
Let the sketch comedy show die for a bit. When the time is right nature will decide to fill that void with something better. Something now, as opposed to something that desperately wants to be now but can't remember where he parked it.
And no, Mad TV is not the answer. Mad TV was also once good. Now it is also not good. Filling the void of bad with something just as bad but fifteen years younger will surely lead to the end of all we know.
Here ends the lesson.
He has also trimmed the black and the skinny white guy with wild hair.
Announcing cuts to the cast, he has let Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell and Chris Parnell go, lowering the chances for "Chronicles of Narnia Rap: The Movie."
These firings, along with the volentary departure of head writer Tiny Fay, and cast members Rachel Dratch and Tracy Morgan, (All of which have jobs of Fay's new NBC Dramedy 30 Rock) leave eleven members in the cast.
Eleven not so funny people to carry on a rich legacy that started with John Belushi and Gilda Radner and is now a shadow of a shadow of it's former self.
Once upon a time Saturday Night Live was an institution. It undermined authority and politics with biting satire so sharp you could cut through any national monument and still slice this tomato into paper thin slices.
Today that knife can't even cut water.
Saturday Night Live is 32 years old. It is middle aged. It is at the time where, were it a rock and roll star it would release an album of slow songs. Trimming some of the middle aged fat is not the answer.
The answer is, I'm afraid, euthanasia.
SNL is long past it's prime and it's making Lorne Michaels look less like a subversive genius and more like a guy riding things out until retirement.
It's time to pull the plug. Death with dignity isn't even an option anymore. There is no dignity in putting this horse out to pasture.
The inevitable question is, if SNL dies, what will replace it?
Nothing, I hope. Whatever comes to fill the SNL void will be TRYING to fill the SNL void. More mediocre sketches low on comedy and high on possible full length motion picture deals ala "That's Pat."
Let the sketch comedy show die for a bit. When the time is right nature will decide to fill that void with something better. Something now, as opposed to something that desperately wants to be now but can't remember where he parked it.
And no, Mad TV is not the answer. Mad TV was also once good. Now it is also not good. Filling the void of bad with something just as bad but fifteen years younger will surely lead to the end of all we know.
Here ends the lesson.
// posted by Gord @ 10:02 PM 
