SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Now Streaming on Netflix, New Episodes on HULU
*/5 Stars *varies Season to Season

Saturday Night Live has been the first name in sketch comedy for over 30 years. More than any other variety show it has entered the American zeitgeist, becoming a household name, a staple, and a tradition. But the show began as an upstart, with the “not-ready-for-primetime-players”, the rebels poking fun at the status quo. Now that the show is The Man, can we really count on it for the irreverent comedy we need? SNL has been accused of late as being stale, irrelevant, and worst of all, unfunny.
But there is hope for SNL, and that hope is the Internet. That’s right. YouTube is making Saturday Night Live funnier. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of amateur sketch comedy groups, anyone looking for a quick laugh can find it any time they want. It won’t have the production value of NBC/Universal, but it will be something you haven’t seen before. And that is the gauntlet laid down at the feet of SNL’s writers and performers. They have to step up their game to justify their existence in a world with FunnyOrDie, The Onion, and Derrick Comedy, a world where any college kid with a cell phone and a script can deliver big laughs. SNL doesn’t just have to be funnier; they have to be edgier. Most importantly, they have to be more original. Discerning comedy fans with long memories have been tired of the “recurring character in new location” formula for years, but now that people can watch their favorites whenever they want, putting on the same sketch week to week is coming off as more repetitive than ever. And it’s becoming clear from the past couple years that the writers are aware. So leave your prejudice at the door and give tradition another try. SNL is getting better. Because it has to.