Monday, January 16, 2012

My Weekly Wonders: Saturday Night Live

Last week I forgot to do a weekly wonder! I know you were all very heart broken.  And yes I know the only person that ever looks at this blog is my teacher to count how many posts I have written, but I don't care. I will continue to address my lack of an audience as if I have a large viewership.

Anyway, this week I would like to spend some time talking about something that is very near and dear to my heart.  I have talked about this show before, but never in such detail that I am right now.  Saturday Night Live, has and will always be a classic. There's no doubt about it.  If someone says "Oh SNL? That used to be good..." they can shut-up, because humor is a timeless medium that travel throughout generations altering its ways as it finds its audiences.  Basically what I'm trying to say is, the youth have a different sense of humor than you. So calm down. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Is this babbling bringing a little deja vu to you invisible audience? If so you are a true because it's on television.. member? addict? follower? I'm not sure. When SNL first started its season in the beginning of the year I posted a blog-post about how annoyed I was with people saying SNL isn't good anymore. I also talked about how excited I was for the season to start considering elections were coming up in a year. Here's the post, check it out!

I started watching SNL either late elementary school or early middle school. Of course at that time I understood absolutely none of the jokes, but that was okay because there was also a lot of physical humor that I found to be quite amusing.  As I progressed in school and learned more about life outside of a middle schooler brain, I began to pick up on the "adult humor." My parents were always pretty cool about me watching the show, which surprises me now as I watch some the sketches. I mean, I've watched sex scenes with my parents in movies, but I still get uncomfortable during Keenan Thompson's skit where he is an old man selling a DVD with various "sexual poses." What was even more awkward was the fact that when I was a freshman I had a foreign exchange student from Japan stay with my family for two weeks and of course we thought it would be a good idea to watch SNL. Of course she didn't get any of the verbal jokes because most of them are culture related and use specific social/political/economical jargon that no foreign person who is still trying to learn English would get. Therefore, once again, like the twelve year old me, she picked up on the physical humor.  And what comes up? The Keenan Thompson pose skit of course! Fun time with a Japanese person and your parents all watching together!

As you can see, SNL has really become a central TV show in my life. Many of my friends enjoy it as well (some of them watch only after being forced).  I quote SNL all the time with family and friends. One of my favorites? The "just-kidding lady" that appears on Weekend Update.  If you've never seen this, you're in for a horrible surprise... just kidding!


So why has Saturday Night Live lasted so long? What's the secret? It's simple actually, it's original.  A new host and music guest each week. Creative writers writing new material each week.  Plus, it's live! You get to see real performers in their raw form.  This is especially enjoyable for me because I absolutely love seeing actors in SNL crack. Cracking simply means that they start to laugh during a sketch.  There's one that I like specifically like watching because the material is so good that he comes on the Weekend Update all the time, but every time he starts laughing.  Yes, it's the beloved Stephan. Here's a clip:


This not have been the greatest explanation of why SNL is so amazing.  But I promise you, there may be some iffy skits, but many of them are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.  I don't laugh easily, but a Saturday night on NBC will always have me smiling and giggling endlessly.

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