I would like someone to explain to me why a show starring and written by a bunch of 20-30 year-olds, hoping to capture the attention of 18-29 year-olds, doesn't resonate with me, a 55 year-old.

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Back then we could laugh at our politics. Now, no way.

Might as well try to explain how to find happiness.
So I guess find Brick and ask him.

You’re 55?

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https://twitter.com/DrKenCast

Pretty sure he said happiness can be found in a heated garage.

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If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

Funny is funny though. It’s not funny. I could sit with my parents and watch the 90s stuff and the early cast was good too.

You say that as if it’s a bad thing. Also, as someone slightly older than that I would point out that I only know who the guest host is about half the time, the band about a 3rd and I’m asleep by the time they play the 2nd song 100% of the time.

_________________
If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

Seriously? (Note: I’m not being sarcastic). Even when it was star-studded I thought most skits fell flat.

_________________
If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed & we'll deserve it.- L Graham
I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.- DJT 2016
MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!- DJT 12/25/23

Yeah. It wasnt appointment tv for them but I’d have it on. My parents didn’t love it but I think they liked carved/Myers/Hartman/ spade/Farley etc cast. I know my dad liked the carvey bush and Perot impersonations. my kids are good ages to watch it and talk about they never do. If I watched goober the clown with them I don’t know what I’d say. I think the only thing I’ve watched and laughed at in the last 20 years is Stefan.

Well, I'm on the other side of 50 and this is the first year that I've had absolutely no idea who some of these people are.

The last few years I knew the names and a general idea. But now I just wait for the monologue for them to tell me why I should know who they are.

I've past the tipping point apparently.

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https://twitter.com/DrKenCast

They don't even HOPE to capture the 18-29 crowd. That show IS written for 35+.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yep...they know full well who is watching tv at 11:30 on a Saturday night.

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If that's the intent then I think it falls flat on its face. I believe you can classify comedy generationally - what's funny for one age bloc isn't going to necessarily connect with another. Millennial comedy has dominated SNL since maybe the late 2000s. I don't think prior generations find it all that funny, which is unsurprising to me. As the millennial cast ages out they'll be replaced by Gen z comedians with their own spin on things. And then millennial audiences will slowly progress into old man yells at cloud stage whenever they happen to be watching SNL. Rinse and repeat.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

SNL has always been mostly bad. It's obvious when they do whole show replays. At least 60% of the skits are terrible. They strike gold on 5% of them and that is the ones we remember. The Lonely Island guys seem to have been the last guys who could deliver those home runs. The closest they come now is copying the "Game show" format with pretty good impressions but it's basically just a copy of Celebrity Jeopardy, but it's not always Jeopardy.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yep

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I used to watch SNL religiously in my early teens (granted that was the Eddie Murphy cast). Kids talked about skits during the week from Buckwheat to Gumby to Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood. I have never heard my teenagers or their friends ever talk about SNL or imitate one of the character punch lines.

I know I'm old and I know when things have passed me by. I think I have a pretty good handle on the relevance of SNL to young people and pop culture generally.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Of course, but I think it's fair to state the media landscape is radically different than what it was when you were a teen. Your kids presumably have multiple options for comedy, most of which are probably short clips on TikTok, Snapchat, or whatever, posted by nonprofessional comedians. You'd know better than me but I highly doubt SNL is on the radar of most teens, not because it sucks (that's a subjective judgment I won't touch) but because it's now just one of maybe 20 options you have available to get some laughs in, and not the most accessible. I'd submit that's the major driver behind why your kids' experience vis-a-vis SNL is so different than yours.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

My wife and I found the "Man Park" skit mildly funny as it kind of hit home for me personally. Outside of golf season I don't have any buddies that I hang with on any kind of regular basis.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

you can find snl clips across platforms

it just doesn't stand out

It isn't even the best sketch show available

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I haven't watched SNL in quite some time. My wife watched it a few weeks ago and was surprised that they poked fun of Covidians. I have a real hard time believing this actually happened, but not curious enough to actually sit through an SNL episode to find out for myself.

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The way I'd look at it is through the prism of the market: I hate using this word, but direct to consumer/cord cutting mobile platforms and social media "disrupted" the landscape.

A cab ride in 1990 is just as good as a cab ride in 2021. The difference is the consumer now has more options. I wouldn't say cabs suck nowadays - they just lost out to competitors who leveraged new tech to blindside them. SNL is still a machine, but their "comedy market share" is lower due to these new-age disruptors. I see their challenge as similar to journalists and political/sports "experts" who used to complain about being forced to compete with random bloggers writing about sports or politics out of their mom's basement. There's more competition for looks/shares/views/etc than there ever was. If you're saying the quality of SNL is not as good as it used to be, then fine, but if you're saying lower quality is the reason why your teen and his/her friends are largely uninterested in SNL/not aware of it then I'd say you're ignoring the new crowded landscape in which SNL has to compete for your teen's attention.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

ha, i just watched that. it was funny. i laughed a little bit at weekend update too. still, the best way to consume SNL is to check this thread and then watch whatever skit might actually be funny on youtube

That's when I stopped watching. I tuned in thinking they really have something they can do something funny with and that's what we got.

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I'm saying they are not writing to the 18-29 crowd as a target audience.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Best political skit I've seen in years. Keenan was great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h_N80qKYOM

They are definitely not for 18-29 anymore. They've made the choice to grow old together with their audience. They don't even churn cast members anymore -- there was an article about Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and of course Kenan all sticking around way longer than they should be.

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My memory of the show was always that, much like the board, it was better 10 years ago.Didn't matter if it was 1988 or 2008 (Which was probably the last time I made time to watch it) our memories or other people would always say that the new cast was no good, and it was better when so and so was around. I remember watching some complete episodes from what I thought was the golden time of my teen years and from the early years and a lot of skits sucked ass. Occasionally I'll see skits that pop up on line and some of them are still very funny. My kids have never watched it.

this has been said before but you're lucky if 1 sketch hits out of 7.

I remember watching all the seasons of Monty Python, and I couldn't make it through it. So many terrible, unfunny sketches.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Think about all the stars that left to become much bigger than SNL and then those three are just like "Me? I'm good being average". They really are fellow millennials.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Cecily Strong is going on a decade there as well.

The word from back in the day was that being a cast member was a low paid grind that you used as a stepping stone and left as soon as you could.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.