Has "Saturday night live" Finally becoming Saturday Night Dead?

When I was younger I used to watch “Saturday Night Live” faithfully because it always seemed to have enough “thanks” to keep me positive and laugh. The list of comedians who have passed through it on their way to fame and fortune reads like a list of who’s who in comedy and is too long to repeat here. A much shorter list would be who has never been a cast member or guest on Saturday Night Live.

I don’t think it’s much of a revelation to say that Saturday Night Live has lost some of its “fun” as well as a lot of viewership. People just talk less about it on Monday mornings. All of this came to mind when I watched Peyton Manning at her guest-hosting debut on Saturday night.

Manning, the Super Bowl MVP for the world champion Indianapolis Colts, has a reputation for being very intense, demanding and tense to the point of constipation when it comes to game preparation and execution. It makes sense for him to be just as intense on Saturday Night Live. Certainly Peyton Manning saw the show as an opportunity to give viewers an impression of the “other side” of him. He can afford media consultants to suggest how he might freshen up his image.

That’s why I was unsettled when, in a skit, he was knocking kids down by throwing soccer balls at them and then berating them for being stupid and incompetent. After seeing this attempt at humor, I thought the National Football League and its partner United Way would fall apart. I was dead wrong. I heard very little about Manning’s skits. I doubt Manning was awake nights before he appeared dreaming of the skits he did. The soccer part with the kids didn’t impress me at all, and I wasn’t amused in the least.

When you stop by to watch minor league baseball games these days, there’s always one or two coaches yelling, cussing, and berating kids because they struck out or threw the ball to the wrong base. Parents who are losers become coaches who are legion of “beating up” kids.

Successful athletes do not do this under any circumstances. They understand how difficult it is to become good and how by making mistakes you learn to correct them. Successful athletes are positive and encouraging almost without exception. I don’t agree with this particular skit because kids these days have too many heroes who aren’t worthy of admiration or emulation. Some heroes these days have a rap sheet longer than their list of worthy credits.

Media pundits may insist that the show is for “urban young adults” or some special population category, and that kids shouldn’t even be watching comedy at that hour. The experts say that is why what I have to say is moot. I say nonsense, these routines are funny because they strike a chord with the vast majority of viewers or not, regardless of age or the time of transmission of the program.

Being young, sophisticated, and from New York doesn’t mean you recognize and appreciate comedy any more than a 62-year-old grandfather from Lacey, Washington like me. The current state of Saturday Night Live probably has more to do with a lack of originality than a lack of presentation. If you went to any downtown metropolitan area looking for a hooker, the pimp would tell you “pimping ain’t easy,” and the same goes for writing comedy with a deadline.

We’ve probably all had a comedic moment in our lives, but how many of us come up with a comedy routine on cue? That’s why we watch comedy instead of trying to create comedy. God bless Seth Myers, the new head writer for Saturday Night. He clearly understands that what is not alive is dead. With that being said, Seth Meyers needs help. Tina Fey, the head writer who preceded Meyers, also needs help. Even Loren Michaels should be under the microscope; he provides the leadership and hires the talent or no talent, as the case may be.

Saturday Night Live isn’t as fun as it used to be. Everything is tired. I think it’s not so much the cast as the cast just needs better material. If there is something that disgusts me more than comedy that is not funny, it is politicians who have nothing better to do than occupy spaces and open their mouths without providing solutions.

So if I’m complaining here, let me offer Loren Michaels a modest proposition: publicly ask viewers to submit comedy skit ideas and dialogue. Give viewers the opportunity to email suggestions without compensation.

This is an inexpensive idea and who knows, maybe some new ideas will pop up and if someone clearly keeps contributing new ideas that work then maybe you should join the program for the opportunity and compensation. Think about it, Lorraine. Recognize this fact: it doesn’t take a lot of talent to come up with toilet humor, but does toilet humor really work that well? I do not think so.

The best humor is when we make fun of ourselves instead of others. Everyone can relate to that kind of humor without taking sides. Comedy is not about divide and conquer, comedy is about making everyone laugh. And, as Readers Digest says, laughter is the best medicine.

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