Sketch Comedy
Mar222005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
SNL guest host David Spade used a Owen Wilson impersonation to sneak a penis nose past the censors. Aristophanes would approve. I’ve been thinking that if a FCC crackdown does happen, that we’d go back to more veiled allusions of sexuality in comedy like early film and television. And strangely enough this is an example of that. Nobody really noticed until a week after broadcast and there wasn’t a single complaint the night it happened. Sounds veiled to me, even if it was plain as the nose on Spade’s face.
Comedians hate standards and practices, but these censors are, in some ways, the best thing to happen to comedy. You need real human cruelty and stupidity to make great targets for jokes. And you need watchdogs so you aren’t just making the crudest joke you can think up. Having something or someone to resist against makes something funnier. It forces you to use innuendo, suggestion and wit to hit a target. As well as make-ups jobs apparently. The cat and mouse game of what you can and can’t say isn’t fun for comedians, not to mention tedious with the splitting of hairs (saying “ass” is just fine, but imply there’s a hole in it...). But the process as a whole is probably better for comedy. Standards that are too loose make nothing shocking. No shock = no surprise. No surprise = not funny.
Jan282005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Reader Mike Gerber commented that I was far too charitable with Lorne Michaels in a previous post on Saturday Night Live. At the time, I was imagining I was damming with faint praise, but I can see how describing someone as a “good producer” in the most mercenary sense isn’t really damming enough.
Mike’s right. Just keeping something running isn’t enough. How much brain surgery does it take to pick guests that excite tweens? I’m surprised this week’s host, Paris Hilton, wasn’t made sooner. (Naturally it got bloggers talking look at suggestions for sketches here and here from Gawker.) The important thing is, when you make these concessions to keep something running, if you must make concessions at all, what can you do to keep it funny. To make it something of quality.
I’ve mentioned how cast and writer bloat and the ultra competitive nature of getting something, anything on air hurt the show. But reader Rob Bates (who knows a little of how SNL goes wrong considering he’s a writer/performer in the excellent SNL Rewritten show. Go see it.) pointed out how so few of the sketches even seem to have points to them anymore. During last week’s sketch featuring the Bush daughters in their rooms talking about the inauguration, I realized that SNL has completely dropped premise-based sketch comedy all together. They’ve simply replaced it with character sketches which are all middle, nothing to grab onto but a performer’s ticks, catchphrases and vocal mimicry.
Weekend Update remains the best part of the show, simply because it’s the only part of the show which seems to have comedic targets (though it misses all the time, at least it’s aiming). But the rest of the show has left behind any sort of notions of take-no-prisoners comedy, because how can you expect to kill anything if you’re not even hunting. The best thing the writers can do is simply pick something that they hate and then write a sketch that destroys it without consideration for characters at all. It’s Comedy 101, but they need the remedial education. Desperately.
Jan042005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
The second article from Sunday’s NY Times was on everyone’s favorite comedy punching bag, Saturday Night Live and it’s recent fascination with celeb-focused sketches. I don’t say “punching bag” because they don’t deserve being slammed. They do. But reading this article reminded me how good a producer Lorne Michaels is. A producer keeps his show on the air, period. It chills me to think of teen stars doing sketch comedy, but Michaels knows that they’ll get an audience. Particularly when he’s got the fractured network audience he describes ("a big tent show"). For a producer, he’s got his priorities in order. Ratings before funny.
The NY Times story laments the lack of quality political material on the show. It’s rather strange, because if anyone understand politics (at least of the office variety) it’s an SNL writer. The immense pressure to get on air is so big, it’s no wonder SNL writers begin to act like network executives… as soon as sketches about X start working, they’ll make as many sketches of X as possible. I caught an episode of “Dinner for Five” when David Cross asked Molly Shannon how she could stand working in such a poltical place. He argued that anything political between co-workers simply just gets in the way of creating funny stuff and he’s right.
Even more disheartening was to hear was the self-censoring writers did themselves… cutting poltical sketches because they feared the backlash from 9/11 patriotism. To hear SNL really run away from any sort of satirical bent means it’s become the establishment show it was meant to buck 30 years ago. It’s “Carol Burnett” with better fart jokes.
When I first read E! had gotten the rerun rights for SNL instead of Comedy Central a few years ago, I questioned the change. It didn’t make sense. Now it does. SNL is just part of the tabloid spectacle… a “funny” version of “Celebrities Uncensored.”
Nov182004
Filed Under Sketch Comedy, Stand-Up Comedy
Though I admire The Onion, I pretty much skip over the front page headlines these days. They’re still very funny, but I know their format and voice well enough that the surprise is gone. Instead I head for the AV Club section, which this week features a great interview with Chris Rock.
You definitely get the sense that in the 10/90 split of Inspiration/Perspiration, Chris likes to sweat. Early this year, when Entertainment Weekly dubbed Chris the Funniest Man, the image of Chris treating comedy clubs like gyms definitely came through. With one of his two iPods completely loaded like comedy albums, even his restful moments are absorbed in one thing… being a funny motherfucker.
The Onion interview gives some insights into why that is, with Chris recounting a story Al Franken told him about a major league pitcher allowing some batters hits early on so that they won’t try so hard later in the game. Chris was like that, apparently. It’s a rather strange thing to tell someone and says a lot about the power struggles to get a sketch on Saturday Night Live. (Let a guy have one sketch so you don’t have worry about him writing another… what happened to picking the funniest material?) Chris, obviously, ain’t that kind of hitter no more.
The most intriguing parts of the Onion interview are where Chris Rock smacks down Jay Mohr for complaining about SNL in Gasping For Airtime, including a spirited defense of Ellen Cleghorne (who Jay slags in the book), which argues she had to be damn funny to get on the show as a black woman. Some would argue its the other way around… Comedic Affirmative Action. I don’t think we’ll ever know how funny Ellen Cleghorne is because how good could she be in a organization that couldn’t see how funny Chris was?
The best part, Chris doesn’t say no to a special edition Pootie Tang DVD (though I could do without Pootie 2, thank you).
Nov082004
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
As a successor (and possible replacement) of Last Comic Standing, but with an obvious Apprentice twist, NBC reportedly is working on a reality competition to become an SNL player. Lorne Michaels would obviously play the Donald Trump role.
With the enigmatic nature of Lorne Michaels firmly established in the media
along with rumors that Mike Myers’ “Dr. Evil” is just a really great impression of the SNL impresario, why NBC didn’t try this sooner become the question. On the other hand, Michaels trademark unflappability under pressure (to paraphrase a quote I’ve read: “Lorne gets more British every year.") might radiate too much cool to be a compelling TV-style boss.
Just like LCS, this won’t necessarily find the funniest sketch player, but maybe it’ll give fans and detractors insight into making the show, if the competitions are made relevant at all to the truly destructive pace the show is assembled under. Much as I hate the idea of reality funny taking place of actual funny, I’m curious.
Sep172004
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Not really a Nickelodeon viewer. I’m way out of the demographic and when I was in the demographic, my parents thought cable was a waste of money. So I’m almost a year behind Nick’s discovery of the “Funniest Kid in America.” Her name is Christina Kirkman, and at least one journalist is impressed with her satirical chops. Thanks to the votes of Nick-addicted youth, she won a gig as a cast member of the kinda juvenile SNL All That (I mean juvenile in a good way, unless you think juvenile SNL is an oxymoron in the first place).
Number one cool thing about her, she’s a girl. I think one of the reasons why female comedians have a hard time is that women aren’t encouraged to be funny when they’re younger. So bully for you kids of America. I found what I suppose was her winning video. It’s rather like watching a proto-Robin-Williams on a sugar rush rather than a coke binge. Didn’t catch many words, but watching Christina switch characters was a little impressive and a bit exhausting. (Like I said, not the demo.)
The scary thing: comedian used to be one of those things you fell into after you realized you weren’t good at anything else. Between Christina and a 15-year-old in my UCB improv class, I’ve started to think that’s not true anymore. I ain’t a geeza, but I’m preparing some flashcards of set-ups and punchlines for Toddi or Todd Jr. just in case.
Aug102004
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Last night, I came home to catch The Daily Show and discovered that Blue Collar TV now reruns on Comedy Central. As a former Atlantan and Southerner, I felt the need to rewind the TiVo to see what I missed. (I should clarify that I’m technically more of a son of carbetbaggers, as my folks are Yankees and we didn’t move there ‘til I was six.)
Blue Collar TV isn’t exactly my mason jar of moonshine as far as humor goes. But it’s interesting to watch because believe it or not, Jeff Foxworthy has the all-time best selling comedy album ever. And his buddies Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy are huge themselves. Comedy Central got it’s best ratings ever featuring these guys during a “Redneck Weekend.” With networks always chasing the young male demo, it’s kind of easy to forget what the rest of America finds funny. Sure we’ll make a Joe Dirt or a Ronnie Dobbs, but there’s a sense that to laugh at unsophisticated white folks, the people making it need to be unsophisticated white folk (at least in persona… Larry the Cable Guy probably loves a good Chateau Lafite after doing his Elton John Impression. “He’s queer! That’s my impression of him.")
Another bizarre fact: Blue Collar TV apparently draws more women to Comedy Central than it’s regular programming. Sure with The Man Show, South Park and others, Comedy Central isn’t always the most appealing choice for women. But I don’t really see how these three guys are. Engvall and Foxworthy are pretty forward about being family men in their comedy… is that all there is to it?
For the show itself, I felt the absence of Ron White (who joined the trio for the Blue Collar Comedy Movie) , who I always found the funniest of them all. It makes sense when I think about it… White’s a bit more Texas renegade to Foxworthy and Co’s southern rebels. He seems to be doing lots of guest shots so I won’t miss him too much (if I watch again, which I might).
Foxworthy started an episode I saw with a stand-up routine that quoted the bible to begin a riff about being “nekkid.” Never seen that before. I found it ingenious in a way. So many people in these country love God (or profess to), having someone a bible verse as a base for some racy comedy (a blurred out naked Grandma and a “risqué” cheerleader routine) seems almost subversive. Almost. It makes me wonder which side of the Parents TV Council’s Best and Worst Shows list Blue Collar TV will ultimately fall.
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