SNL then and now

People like to go on about how Saturday Night

Live is just not as funny as it was "..." And "..." could be in

reference to the dog days of Kevin Nealon doing the news

or Chris Farley showing everyone his butt crack for all it
matters. Point is, every year since I can remember, people

act like the show is just so much worse than it was in the past,

but the truth is that even when the original cast was doing their

thing, you could easily see some of the same symptoms of

crappiness that you see today.

For example, one of the first sketches on SNL -- maybe THE

first sketch -- was one of the writers and John Belushi sitting

on stage. Belushi pretended to be a foreigner, the other guy

was teaching him mildly amusing phrases in English. Belushi

sounded like Andy Kaufman.Then after a few phrases, he

pretends to keel over with a heart attack. "Live from New York

it's Saturday Night!" Wow, that was awesome. And how about

this for beating a dead horse. Belushi's samurai character

was about a one-trick dead pony that amounted to Belushi

going "hoobadadoo, huddadubbaduhduh" really fast like

fake Japanese and whipping out his sword every now and

then to chop a salami or a sleeve off depending on what

samurai profession he was riffing on that week: samurai

tailor, samurai deli counter guy, samurai accountant.

Dan Ackroyd's Jimmy Carter imitation was almost as bad

as his Richard Nixon imitation and Chevy Chase's Gerald

Ford imitation was just Chevy Chase acting like an idiot and

falling down at the end of the sketch. The political content

wasn't as sharp as it is today and the last half hour of the show

has always sucked.

The musical guests were better, but that is because they

were genuinely talented people and not just "artists" like

Ashley Simpson who clearly pay to get on the show. It

is NOT talent that brings you back for a second attempt

after you've been busted lip-syncing, that's for sure.

I'd put Tina Fey and Amy Poehler up against Jane Curtain

and Lorraine Newman any day of the week. Hell, I'd put Tina

Fey up against Norm MacDonald, Dennis Miller or Chevy
Chase at the news desk.

Dana Carvey, though not my cup of tea, did some very
good work and was wildly popular. During what most
people would admit were some bleak years, Eddie
Murphy was just about the only bright spot in a cast
that tried hard but couldn't live up to expectations.
And remember, when they got rid of everyone on
the show's second incarnation but two people, they
kept Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscapo because he
was the money back then.

This is not to say that SNL was not ground-breaking
in it's early days. It was. Even if they were just
flinging poo at politicos, that kind of thing hadn't
really been done on TV in quite that way before.

So I tend to watch SNL with a grain of salt. If they
do one or two things I find genuinely hilarious, I
figure job well done.