Do you actually find SNL funny?

39 comments

1. No, not really tbh. It was more of our parents thing when they were young (mid 20s), but now they are old and don’t stay up and watch it. The exception are those very very into the comedy scene. I think that’s mostly because of the names on SNL.

   Sometimes a clip will go viral, and people watch that clip on the internet. I don’t know anyone who stays up for SNL though, of any age. Something you watch if you’re bored on Saturday night in front of the TV and realize it’s on.

2. I has it’s moments, but I’ve never been a regular watcher.

3. It’s fairly popular here in the US. Personally, I’ve got better things to do on a Saturday night, but I watch some of the funnier skits afterward on social media. It was much more popular in the 90’s when the cast consisted of much bigger names

4. It’s been on for 47 years. Some years have had amazing casts of the funniest comedians in American television. Some less so. So yes, some seasons have been very very funny. I don’t know about the current crop, though.

5. You aren’t “meant to believe” anything.

   Yup, I find SNL funny. Not all sketches, not all hosts, but I generally have a good laugh or two an episode and even when not laughing out loud, I’m amused.

   It’s been around for like 46 seasons and virtually every year, it’s proclaimed “not funny”.

6. Not really. Most of their sketches go on another 5 minutes after they should have ended.

7. Yeah sometimes it makes me laugh, though I’m not a religious viewer or anything. Weekend Update is usually solid, especially when they write jokes for each other. There’s some great talent on the cast, even if the writing isn’t up to par some of the time.

8. Not in a long time really

9. Not really, they used to hit a really good stride. The poked at politics but it wasn’t really in judgement it was meant to be mostly silly. They also dipped into some stuff that was funny just because of how stupid it was (a lot of Will Ferrell stuff for example).

   Their political stuff drifted into being extremely one sided and sometimes demeaning, and honestly their stupid funny stuff just isn’t good anymore.

   They also used to really not care or worry about being politically incorrect. For example there was a skit I remember where Will Ferrell played a manager conducted a job interview and he would interrupt the interview to go out and physically attack his employees and hurl racial and gender insults at them. It was only funny because of how it was executed and it is subject matter they would never touch in 2022.

10. It used to be very popular in the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Many comedians have achieved fame on the show. A lot of people think the quality has declined for years but it’s still extremely prominent, in no small part due to its history.

11. Off and on. If I’m home for whatever reason I’ll put it on but the quality is really bad at the moment. Weekend Update is just about the only consistently funny part.

12. Going over it’s what? 50 year history, I can probably put together a pretty funny hour-long montage.

    Generally speaking I’m not really interested in it at this point.

13. Yes

14. People like the era of SNL they grew up with or was on when they were in their young adult/college years

    My mother thinks all the jokes they made in the 70s are peak comedy. I…don’t really find the humor in most of them.

    We are can both vibe to the early 2000s

    I like the episodes now because they joke about pop culture and the politics that I’m living through as a young adult. When my mother watches with me it’s just “huh? “whos that” “what are saying? from her because she tuned out from pop culture/politics in 2008.

15. It entirely depends on the cast and the sketches.

    It’s been going for 47 years and it can be hot or miss. It is live. Some jokes flop. Others are gold.

    If you don’t like it then you don’t have to watch it. I mean, go ahead and tell the ghost of Norm Macdonald that he was trash so he haunts you with brutally funny shaggy dog jokes.

16. It’s a sketch show. It’s by nature hit or miss.

    This is such a weird question because I live in Europe. I know sketch shows exist here too. This really can’t be that foreign of a concept for you aS a EuRoPeAn.

17. Wow, someone is judgmental. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean others don’t. That’s how life works.

18. Nope, I’ve never found it very funny.

19. No, I think it’s stupid

20. Over the past 40+ years it has had some amazing highs, and some devastating lows. The lows probably outnumber the highs, but the cream rises to the top and we only remember the good bits.

21. Some of it is hilarious. Some of is painfully bad. A good amount of it, you have to know American politics, culture, or humor to “get”.

    It’s an American institution, so it’s hard to separate well known from popular.

22. It’s alright. I usually watch a recording and skip the musical acts and sometimes just go straight to Weekend Update.

23. > As a European

    Why in god’s name should we care about anything after this?

24. Why do all Europeans talk like this? Is this what you’re taught is polite?

25. Rarely. Maybe one sketch pet show.

    The current stuff just seems pandering to people with the same beliefs. “people with other people dumb. Let’s laugh at them.”

    Or breaking in skits. Annoying.

26. It’s funny sometimes. They had this one about mailing in your doodoo that makes me laugh whenever I remember it.

27. Yes. SNL has a lot of experimental/creative humor, which sometimes misses, but I respect the creativity. It’s also supposed to be somewhat amateurish with the players breaking character and laughing sometimes. Relax and don’t take it too seriously.

    I do enjoy Weekend Update.

28. Not for the last, idk, 15 years or so.

29. SNLs peak popularity was decades ago. Every now and then I stumble across one I like but I don’t seek out the show and a lot of what I do see falls flat for me.

30. This thread needs more cowbell.

31. Even Monty Python was hit or miss. The nature of sketch comedy.

32. I don’t watch the show but some of the clips on YouTube are pretty hilarious. I have no idea what percentage of skits on the actual show are hilarious. I assume the better ones make it to YouTube.

    And keep in mind comedy doesn’t always export well. National psyches are different. I’ve seen some pretty lame British comedians who I’m sure are considered funny over there.

    As someone else in this thread said, he likes the episodes that were made when he was growing up and his mother likes the episodes made when she was growing up. Much of the comedy relates to pop culture references and intra-American cultural differences. If you are not grounded in that knowledge (due to age or nationality), many of the references probably go straight over your head. Do you know who JTT is…and the Menendez brothers? There is a certain skit that mentions both.

33. Much better in the 70s, 80s, and 90s

34. The nature of live comedy is that it’s hit or miss. SNL is probably the last place on TV where comedians and writers can bomb. There aren’t really ‘test audiences’, the jokes have *at most* a week to be developed. In a sense, it’s the ‘sports’ of comedy because anything can happen. And in that sense – it’s somewhat revered.

    It’s also been around for about 50 years. And a lot of comedians, writers, actors end up going on to bigger and better careers. Among them are Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Will Farrell – and my favorite – Norm MacDonald.

    I’m a fan of the show. I don’t know how popular it is – because I don’t know anyone else that regularly watches it.

    For the record, there’s a ton of trashy popular European television. Why are you acting like your poo doesn’t smell?

35. Hey’ we don’t come over there and give the Eurovision song contest the mocking it deserves.

36. >As a European

    Thank you so much for starting your sentence with this and letting me know I can disregard anything that follows.

37. Straight up trash? Wow… that’s condescending.

    I started watching SNL in 1975. In fact, I watched the very first episode–I was a freshman in college.

    I’ve been watching it ever since then. There are episodes–and skits within those episodes–that are not as funny as others. But I still watch it because some skits are damn hilarious.

    Frankly I think the reason you consider it “trash” is because the show references current events in America with which you may be unfamiliar. And American humor is different from the humor to which you may be accustomed.

    And frankly… why would you even care? You being forced to watch it?

38. No

39. Sometimes.

    At this point it’s just one of those staples of American culture. McDonald’s serves burgers,, Presidential elections are every four years, and SNL is on every Saturday night.

    I guess it isn’t the sophisticated humor of Benny Hill running around in a dress though.