From: cb366@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark B. Bendiksen)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: SNL Oct. 3/Hmmm....
Date: 5 Oct 1992 15:20:42 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


I just zipped up my flamesuit, and I'm now ready to give some
of my "deep thoughts" about SNL's generally dismal October 3
attempt at comedy.

Founding Fathers skit:
Not a bad idea, I guess. Executed horibbly, though. Not even
the very talented Phil Hartman could rescue it.

The Sunday Morning Preacher skit:
The skit never really took off. It was like the writers
didn't know what to do with it once they made the first
sex joke. Really flat.

Pizza commercial:
Mildly amusing at first, but then became tiresome and
predictable. Didn't seem like all the cast had practiced
their Italian dialects either....

Sinead:
Ugh! I've always tried to give this horrid creature the
benefit of the doubt. I like her voice, and I admire much
of her early music, but Geeeesh! Song number 1: potentially
interesting but overblown, Song number 2: (I use the term
"song" lightly here.) I don't mind A Capella singing. I
really enjoyed such a track from Tracy Chapman's first
album. But this song went nowhere. No trademark
Sinead exciting vocals. Just dry. And I won't even
begin to state my feelings regarding her wearing
a Star of David around her neck and ripping up a picture
of the Pope while she sings the word "evil"! Yikes, real
subtle, Sinead. Here's an idea. Next time why not take a
Holy Bible on stage and eat some of the pages . Geeesh.

Weekend Update:
Bad, as usual. Were for art thou, Dennis Miller? I agree
that David Spade's bit was cute.

Cooking with Dennis Miller:
Very funny at first. Dana Carvey's on-target impersonation
coupled with the bit about scrambling to get guests for
the cooking show was timely and humorous. Again,
though, the writer's apparently didn't know where to take
the skit, and it too fell flat.

Bob Roberts campfire skit:
Some so-so satirical ditties coupled with a lame
skit. For the record, I am a diehard conservative.
But I don't mind satire from the left, it just has to
be funny. I love the Simpsons, for instance, and
I used to love SNL, because I think everyone
should have a sense of humour to laugh at
themselves. However, dragging out a skit
about what book is going to be burned next
is uncreative and unfunny. I, too, didn't
understand Kevin Nealon's closing monologue.

That's not Yogurt commercial:
On the whole rather funny, in a silly sort of
way.

The Larry King Live skit:
Tiresome. I did like the idea of having the
spaced-out Brian Wilson freaking out at
King's bellowing voice, but it wasn't funny
after ten times. Same thing with Perot's 
phone calls. Funny once, not thrice.

The Sweet Pimp skit:
Completely average SNL stuff. Robbins' line
about offering the prostitute "profit-sharing"
seemed to be stolen from Ron Howard's
_Night Shift_. Yeah, I know, in that movie
Winkler's "sweet pimp" character offered
his employees a dental plan. Same difference.

Tori skit:
Well written, but not very good execution.
Regarding the SNL woman who played Tori, 
she did it very well. However, that seems
to be the only character she can do. She was
very similar in the sweet pimp sequence. And
at least three times on the show she flubbed
up her lines. Very distracting...

Stuart Small skit:
Hands-down the best skit on the show.
Unfortunately,  Lorne Michaels chose to make
it the LAST skit on the show, by which time
most of the viewers had gotten bored and tired
and turned their televisions off. Al Franken
is an SNL veteran, and his references to being
in all of those 12-step groups was an ingenious,
hilarious, and thoughtful bit. The other writers
and cast members on the show can learn alot
from Franken, I think. Maybe next time they'll
put his bit on an hour ealier, and move duds
like the sweet pimp skit to 85 minutes into
the show.

Suggestions for improvement in the future
(as if anybody from SNL is going to listen
to me!):

Hurry up and get Mike Meyers back! (In a
forthcoming post I will reprint an article from
the latest _Entertainment Weekly_ regarding
his leave of absence which may clear up
some questions people have had on the net
regarding this mystery)

Stop being so stuffy and do something
off-the-wall, weird and funny. The past
two episodes have been quiet and bland.
Whatever happened to the show that did
a wild bit not too long ago about a restaurant
where the waiters sexually molest the customers?
THAT was funny and more "on the edge".

Don't do heavy-handed preaching unless it
is also funny. In my book, SNL has always been
labelled comedy first, politics second. If you
can't make a political issue funny, then don't
do a tiresome sketch about it. If people want
something serious, they can flip to C-Span.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Maybe next
week's show with Joe Pesci will be an
improvement. But I'm not holding my breath.

One can only hope...


Mark B. Bendiksen
cb366@freenet.cwru.edu 
-- 
"If we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto,
 We'll just be bogus, too."-- Dr. Jeff Spicolli