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Yeah fair points.  I don't have the vocabulary but it was more of an issue of Lorne's dismissal method.  He has off-boarded cast members en masse as part of overhauls where it wasn't so much amicable, but not done outta anger or cliche termination.  Norm was a different animal altogether because of the NBC higher-ups and Lorne had to go along to get along.  Sandler and Rock were kinda mutual as they both wanted to pursue other shit and were tired of the ensemble cast deal.  But yeah to your point, Wayans and Silverman were "Fuck you, go home!" but then he came hat-in-hand to ask them back onto the show because of their newfound stardom.  Downey is a weird one.  He just fucking sucked on the show, got off the grid, and then just somehow got so fucking big that SNL had to have him back.  To this day, I still don't know how that guy got so fucking big.  He was funny in "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Kilmer, but other than that---his fame just baffles me.  Not trying to be "too cool for school" but that guy is just a weird enigma who must've blown the right people.  He's a tad funny and a tad handsome, but I just don't know in the fucking world he became such a huge star.  

Anyway, anxiously awaiting who they bring back to host for the 50th year next year.  I hope they don't burn the spots on "hip up-and-coming alt movie/streaming/pop stars" and just go with classic killers.  

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On 2/4/2024 at 6:50 PM, YGIFS said:

Yeah fair points.  I don't have the vocabulary but it was more of an issue of Lorne's dismissal method.  He has off-boarded cast members en masse as part of overhauls where it wasn't so much amicable, but not done outta anger or cliche termination.  Norm was a different animal altogether because of the NBC higher-ups and Lorne had to go along to get along.  Sandler and Rock were kinda mutual as they both wanted to pursue other shit and were tired of the ensemble cast deal.  But yeah to your point, Wayans and Silverman were "Fuck you, go home!" but then he came hat-in-hand to ask them back onto the show because of their newfound stardom.  Downey is a weird one.  He just fucking sucked on the show, got off the grid, and then just somehow got so fucking big that SNL had to have him back.  To this day, I still don't know how that guy got so fucking big.  He was funny in "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Kilmer, but other than that---his fame just baffles me.  Not trying to be "too cool for school" but that guy is just a weird enigma who must've blown the right people.  He's a tad funny and a tad handsome, but I just don't know in the fucking world he became such a huge star.  

Anyway, anxiously awaiting who they bring back to host for the 50th year next year.  I hope they don't burn the spots on "hip up-and-coming alt movie/streaming/pop stars" and just go with classic killers.  

Robert Downey?  I think he’s the classic Everyman but two degrees cooler actor.  He was the biggest reason for marvels success

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Agree that "Ironman" franchise boosted that whole MCU deal.  And he can certainly be funny.  And charming.  But I just never got his stardom level.  And he sucked on SNL.  But the guy is rocking it now, so good for him.  

But yeah, the SNL machine has a weird machination.  Some people who are incredibly talented leave the show and do absolutely jack-shit afterwards.  Others leave the show and go orbital with their fame.  The couple of writers I've known that worked there said that Lorne humbly claims to know who is gonna be a breakout and who is gonna be a dud, but after 50 years.......even he knows it's still something of a crap-shoot.  Case in point---I think Sarah Sherman is one of the ten funniest human beings on the planet right now.  But she could also get fired in two years and do dinner theater in Fort Myers.  And other than a few funny segments, I never thought Adam Sandler was anything resembling funny.  But he'll probably die a comedic billionaire.  So what the fuck do we know?  

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48 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Agree that "Ironman" franchise boosted that whole MCU deal.  And he can certainly be funny.  And charming.  But I just never got his stardom level.  And he sucked on SNL.  But the guy is rocking it now, so good for him.  

But yeah, the SNL machine has a weird machination.  Some people who are incredibly talented leave the show and do absolutely jack-shit afterwards.  Others leave the show and go orbital with their fame.  The couple of writers I've known that worked there said that Lorne humbly claims to know who is gonna be a breakout and who is gonna be a dud, but after 50 years.......even he knows it's still something of a crap-shoot.  Case in point---I think Sarah Sherman is one of the ten funniest human beings on the planet right now.  But she could also get fired in two years and do dinner theater in Fort Myers.  And other than a few funny segments, I never thought Adam Sandler was anything resembling funny.  But he'll probably die a comedic billionaire.  So what the fuck do we know?  

RDJ is one of those guys who can shift between comedic/snarky and heavy roles.  Even going back to his early days he would do comedies and then he would do shit like Less Than Zero and Chaplin (nominated for Best Actor in that one way back in 1992).  As CTH said, he has a great "Everyman" ability because he can do both. The Tony Stark character got to let him explore it all on the biggest stage of a mega-movie superhero franchise.  Be the emotional "center" of the Avengers but also get to be the snarky, wise-ass that RDJ is also very good at.  

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Yeah, he's rocking it.  Good for him.  I just don't quite get his allure.  But then, I don't get much.  If we take off our current-day blinders and watch him on SNL or even "Weird Science", lets be honest---he doesn't seem bound for stardom but he got a second and third act.  I still don't get it.  But he's obviously doing something right and I'm certainly not a showbiz scout.  After 50 years, there is kind of a formula to post-SNL success but there are certainly plenty of outliers who should have made it big but didn't and then others who were duds that exploded into stardom.  The show remains an enigmatic institution for a reason.  It has propelled more people to fame and caused more premature deaths than any other pillar of our culture.  I forget who said it but to this day nothing is anything until SNL has commented on it. 

I guess I just came of age with it.  Watching it with my father late at night when my mom had gone to bed and he told me not to tell her I was up late watching with him.  I was probably 7 when I stayed up to finish an episode at midnight-Chicago Time.  Then the Christopher Guest/Marty Short years.  Then it got shitty again.  And then all the kids at school bragged about being too busy to watch it on a Saturday night but along comes the Farley years.  And then in college, we'd watch Farrell and company before heading to the bars.  Then got married and watched Netflix & Chill.  But still tune in and got to know some folks who work(ed) on the show.  We are going to miss it when it's gone and we'll never be able to accurately explain to our children why this fake news thing was so damn funny to us as young people.  It has has some absolutely horrific low-points and casts and spin-off movies and recurring characters.  And it's certainly pissed off people of all political stripes at one time or another.  But I never had a genuine laugh with my dad like I did during "Two Wild & Crazy Guys."  The bellyache never felt like that again.  

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I think a large part of the RDJ draw, particularly for those over the age of 35, is that he was a drug addled loser who destroyed an easy nepo career in Hollywood, who then scratched and crawled his way back to become the A+ of the A list. In another world, Iron Man is a decent little flick and seen as nothing more than a nice redemption story for RDJ. In this world, it became the launching point of a second career, this time without the self-destruction. He's a comeback kid who went from the gifted penthouse to the deserving sewer and made it back to an earned penthouse. America has always fallen for that story.

In cinema terms, he followed Iron Man with Tropic Thunder in the same year and the zeitgeist became his.

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18 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Agree that "Ironman" franchise boosted that whole MCU deal.  And he can certainly be funny.  And charming.  But I just never got his stardom level.  And he sucked on SNL.  But the guy is rocking it now, so good for him.  

But yeah, the SNL machine has a weird machination.  Some people who are incredibly talented leave the show and do absolutely jack-shit afterwards.  Others leave the show and go orbital with their fame.  The couple of writers I've known that worked there said that Lorne humbly claims to know who is gonna be a breakout and who is gonna be a dud, but after 50 years.......even he knows it's still something of a crap-shoot.  Case in point---I think Sarah Sherman is one of the ten funniest human beings on the planet right now.  But she could also get fired in two years and do dinner theater in Fort Myers.  And other than a few funny segments, I never thought Adam Sandler was anything resembling funny.  But he'll probably die a comedic billionaire.  So what the fuck do we know?  

I’m not real sure but he may have been on drugs then. Chris Farley as great on snl but he’s not in Downey league as far as an actor 

 

my opinion again Downey has range, is the cool dude we want to be but not intimidating like say Chris hemsworth.   
 

Downey is witty funny.  Not caricatures like Sandler and Farley. Sometimes the latter does better in sketch comedy shows

 

and he’s certainly had rough roles that didn’t fit him like back to school and Johnny be good.  
 

but he’s grown and elevated.  I thought he was perfect for Ironman and stood out against your typical muscleheads like hemsworth and Evans. 

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1 hour ago, Herpa Derpa said:

I think a large part of the RDJ draw, particularly for those over the age of 35, is that he was a drug addled loser who destroyed an easy nepo career in Hollywood, who then scratched and crawled his way back to become the A+ of the A list. In another world, Iron Man is a decent little flick and seen as nothing more than a nice redemption story for RDJ. In this world, it became the launching point of a second career, this time without the self-destruction. He's a comeback kid who went from the gifted penthouse to the deserving sewer and made it back to an earned penthouse. America has always fallen for that story.

In cinema terms, he followed Iron Man with Tropic Thunder in the same year and the zeitgeist became his.

I remember watching Downey in some kids show around probably 2004. He had a bit part in it that he was phoning in, and I remember telling my then-wife "Man, this guy could have been one of the greats, if not for drugs and booze." 

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Huge Shane Gillis fan, but that was pretty bad. Could have added context about quitting West Point football. Gonna be a huge backlash about leaning heavily on retard jokes (this is some of his best material about the volunteer work he does).

And his story about being canceled was the appropriate low hanging fruit, just ignored it.

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Monologue better upon second viewing just because I listen to MSSP. It's funny to see him bomb, and know what subtle touches he could have added.

It's also funny to see the progressive female rhythm guitarist not want to give up anything, but fight a smile. And the black bassist up front pretty much dying the whole time at someone who is supposedly a racist.

I missed all the sketches, until they are uploaded.

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5 minutes ago, JohnnyRage said:

Monologue better upon second viewing just because I listen to MSSP. It's funny to see him bomb, and know what subtle touches he could have added.

It's also funny to see the progressive female rhythm guitarist not want to give up anything, but fight a smile. And the black bassist up front pretty much dying the whole time at someone who is supposedly a racist.

I missed all the sketches, until they are uploaded.

You sound pretty stupid

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59 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

Gump was the best skit of the night.

Shane was nervous to the point of being visibly rattled in the monologue. Also, I know humor is subjective, but his material wasn't landing at all. 

Yeah, he's just not a good ensemble comedic actor.  No sin in that.  His monologue actually had genuinely good material in it, he was just visibly/audibly nervous.  I don't know if this was some grand scheme by Lorne or what.  But I have been around enough established stand-ups in informal settings, there are people that are just brilliantly funny in their bones.  It was something they always knew but weren't always able to translate it to a straight set.  And there are great 'performer' standup comics who really aren't that funny but just silly storytellers who get some laughs through other means on stage.  

I think of the Menuhin Competition, which is like the Olympics of the Violin (moves around every 4 years to different countries and is like the World Cup of Music).  The judges tell me there are these set pieces that the young people rehearse and perform.  And they usually nail it.  And then they throw out these random pieces to play to see if the musician actually has the music in their bones.  You can recite, or 'recital', your way through music, or comedy, or acting.  But at some point...it's either in your bones or it's not.  Shane is funny in his core, he sees the hilarity in real life, even in sadness.  But it doesn't always land.  His mirror opposite would be like a Dane Cook who is a great showman and performer and tells mundane stories in a really animated and fun way, but he has no funny core.  

It's perhaps for the best that Shane wasn't hired full-time to SNL because he has a hilarious worldview of the shit in his life, but he just doesn't quite nail the showmanship part of it.  No shame in that, he's had a great career and will continue to great things.  

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Well c'mon, Shane is funnier than the Wal-Mart break room.  But it's a valid point overall.  The beauty of Mel Brooks' "The History of the World" was it demonstrated how comedy comes in all shapes and sizes over different eras from the caveman dropping the rock to Hitler on Ice.  The goofy ass Jerry Lewis' film "Funny Bones" speaks to it as well, though I never laughed at his material.  And we're living through another evolution of funny with podcasts, and viral shows, and downloading sets, and more and more comics writing books or articles.  But I like that Lorne has embraced more standup hosts in the last few years.  They don't always work out in sketches, but then-neither do the famous actors he brings on as well.  The paradox is the best comedians are unsure of themselves, hence the material.  And so they don't always translate well to stage or screen.  The funniest person, bar none, I've ever met or hung with is Gary Gulman.  And he's got a decent presence.  But he's just always nervous and paranoid and doesn't work well bouncing jokes off of others-hence he doesn't get to do SNL or even shitty movies.  Shane may end up the same way.  They kinda remind me of one another in that 1:1 or small groups or even standup specials, they nail it.  But another person with another microphone is just something altogether different for them.  

To get the thread back on track---I have it on good authority that Sydney Sweeney and Kacey Musgroves are totally gonna bump stuff.  

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19 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah, he's just not a good ensemble comedic actor.  No sin in that.  His monologue actually had genuinely good material in it, he was just visibly/audibly nervous.  I don't know if this was some grand scheme by Lorne or what.  But I have been around enough established stand-ups in informal settings, there are people that are just brilliantly funny in their bones.  It was something they always knew but weren't always able to translate it to a straight set.  And there are great 'performer' standup comics who really aren't that funny but just silly storytellers who get some laughs through other means on stage.  

I think of the Menuhin Competition, which is like the Olympics of the Violin (moves around every 4 years to different countries and is like the World Cup of Music).  The judges tell me there are these set pieces that the young people rehearse and perform.  And they usually nail it.  And then they throw out these random pieces to play to see if the musician actually has the music in their bones.  You can recite, or 'recital', your way through music, or comedy, or acting.  But at some point...it's either in your bones or it's not.  Shane is funny in his core, he sees the hilarity in real life, even in sadness.  But it doesn't always land.  His mirror opposite would be like a Dane Cook who is a great showman and performer and tells mundane stories in a really animated and fun way, but he has no funny core.  

It's perhaps for the best that Shane wasn't hired full-time to SNL because he has a hilarious worldview of the shit in his life, but he just doesn't quite nail the showmanship part of it.  No shame in that, he's had a great career and will continue to great things.  

The thing is, Shane has a number of SNL-esque (NSFW) sketches on Youtube that absolutely kill. He definitely has the skillset, even if it didn't land this weekend. 

 

My working theory is that he doesn't fully love being the "Republican" comedian.  He's good at hanging with the bros and shooting the shit, which is why he's developed the Barstool following, but I saw him in Houston a few months ago and he seemed noticeably uneasy by the very vocal right-wing attitude in the room. I thought it could have just been an off night for him, but seeing his reaction to the lukewarm SNL audience has given my theory another data point.

His two specials have been filmed in Austin and (just outside) Washington, DC, if that speaks to what audience demographic he prefers. 

 

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29 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

The thing is, Shane has a number of SNL-esque (NSFW) sketches on Youtube that absolutely kill. He definitely has the skillset, even if it didn't land this weekend. 

 

My working theory is that he doesn't fully love being the "Republican" comedian.  He's good at hanging with the bros and shooting the shit, which is why he's developed the Barstool following, but I saw him in Houston a few months ago and he seemed noticeably uneasy by the very vocal right-wing attitude in the room. I thought it could have just been an off night for him, but seeing his reaction to the lukewarm SNL audience has given my theory another data point.

His two specials have been filmed in Austin and (just outside) Washington, DC, if that speaks to what audience demographic he prefers. 

 

Yeah, I feel like his specials have taken enough shots at that crowd that they'd get the hint, but they only care that he was canceled from SNL due to an old racist tweet, and that basically puts you next to God in that crowd.

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Well titties are great especially when it’s Sydney Sweeney and Kacey Musgraves. The single life seems to suit Kacey. But this episode wasn’t very good. Please Don’t Destroy didn’t even make me chuckle.  The writers seem to have settled in a year long funk. The Tina Fey rescue team can’t get here fast enough. 
 

- A cold open about Biden that featured a 3 second Biden impression.

- Weekend Update was basically 10 minutes of dunking on McConnell’s retirement.

- They keep doing this. Too many sketches about how young and hot the host is and they build every joke around that. Sweeney seems to have a pretty good sense of humor, but they didn’t give her much to work with. 
 

- Airbnb interior decorators was mildly funny because it was so true. 
 

- The slide deck in the monologue was pretty good. 

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1 hour ago, Native Horn said:

Maybe the hottest musical guest/host combo ever.

I actually put some thought into this. I think at one point in the 80s there was a Michelle Pfeiffer/Madonna show. 

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I think you're right.  

It's been a very binary season, most up and down in the last several years.  But I gotta say, Sweeney has more comedic chops than I thought.  Writing wasn't great, but she's way funnier than I thought (I've only see in her White Lotus and the Stones video so admittedly, not a broad baseline).  She's gonna have a helluva good career ahead of her.  

Josh Brolin is gonna be one to watch because he can actually, genuinely act.  Not just a handsome guy who can say lines.  But he doesn't really have any funny bones in his body like his dad does.  But I can see him completely and totally committing himself to the sketches a la an Adam Driver and just going all in.  Looking forward to it.

Also, Sweeney's tits are just ridiculous.

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7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

 

Josh Brolin is gonna be one to watch because he can actually, genuinely act.  Not just a handsome guy who can say lines.  But he doesn't really have any funny bones in his body like his dad does.  But I can see him completely and totally committing himself to the sketches a la an Adam Driver and just going all in.  Looking forward to it.

 

 

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