Thursday, January 04, 2007
Saturday Night Dead
A recent article from the L. A. Times went into great detail about how comedy writers are complaining about the new Aaron Sorkin weekly series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It seems that several of the writers -- most of whom have written at some time for "Saturday Night Live," the show "Studio 60" is supposed to parallel -- hate the show because, in their view, the sketches portrayed on the program aren't funny.
There is some truth to that, but it completely misses the point. "Studio 60" isn't about the sketches; it is about the behind-the-scenes interaction between writers, directors, producers, etc. It isn't a comedy show about a comedy show; it is a dramatic show about a comedy show, with some comedy sprinkled in.
OK, so it isn't "The West Wing," or even "Sports Night," but it is still a solid Sorkin effort. It has its moments.
The real irony, though, is that the comedy writers are saying the sketches on the program aren't as funny as the ones on "SNL." Hello? The sketches on "SNL" haven't been funny for at least the past two decades, or whenever its target audience sank from the original semi-intelligent adult level to the pre-pubescent range.
The writers interviewed for the Times piece presumably are too young and, since they apparently wrote for "SNL" in its more dismal decades, too comedy-dead to recognize just how
authentic the "Studio 60" sketches are (although they are actually sharper than the current "SNL" ones). Apparently, the people doing the new show remember -- or looked into the archives -- when "SNL" was truly funny, back in the Belushi-Ackyroyd-Radner-Murray years, and compared them with the dreck of the more recent incarnations, the Farley-Sandler-Ferrell years.
Maybe "Studio 60" is simply reflecting, accurately, that sketch comedy of the "SNL" variety is no long the sharpest, most cutting-edge comedy out there these days. They have long been surpassed by TV fare like "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "The Dave Chappelle Show," and even "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour" (I know Larry the Cable Guy is a public embarrassment, but he's still funnier than anyone on "SNL" or "Studio 60") and by the live standup comics, from Lewis Black to Sarah Silverman.
So, to the "comedy writers" interviewed for that article, we can only say, "Get over yourselves. The stuff you wrote wasn't funny, either, and you need to look elsewhere for the necessary clues to what real comedy is. You may want to drag out some old Lenny Bruce and George Carlin records, too."
There is some truth to that, but it completely misses the point. "Studio 60" isn't about the sketches; it is about the behind-the-scenes interaction between writers, directors, producers, etc. It isn't a comedy show about a comedy show; it is a dramatic show about a comedy show, with some comedy sprinkled in.
OK, so it isn't "The West Wing," or even "Sports Night," but it is still a solid Sorkin effort. It has its moments.
The real irony, though, is that the comedy writers are saying the sketches on the program aren't as funny as the ones on "SNL." Hello? The sketches on "SNL" haven't been funny for at least the past two decades, or whenever its target audience sank from the original semi-intelligent adult level to the pre-pubescent range.
The writers interviewed for the Times piece presumably are too young and, since they apparently wrote for "SNL" in its more dismal decades, too comedy-dead to recognize just how
authentic the "Studio 60" sketches are (although they are actually sharper than the current "SNL" ones). Apparently, the people doing the new show remember -- or looked into the archives -- when "SNL" was truly funny, back in the Belushi-Ackyroyd-Radner-Murray years, and compared them with the dreck of the more recent incarnations, the Farley-Sandler-Ferrell years.
Maybe "Studio 60" is simply reflecting, accurately, that sketch comedy of the "SNL" variety is no long the sharpest, most cutting-edge comedy out there these days. They have long been surpassed by TV fare like "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," "The Dave Chappelle Show," and even "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour" (I know Larry the Cable Guy is a public embarrassment, but he's still funnier than anyone on "SNL" or "Studio 60") and by the live standup comics, from Lewis Black to Sarah Silverman.
So, to the "comedy writers" interviewed for that article, we can only say, "Get over yourselves. The stuff you wrote wasn't funny, either, and you need to look elsewhere for the necessary clues to what real comedy is. You may want to drag out some old Lenny Bruce and George Carlin records, too."
Comments:
<< Home
Professor, you are right on target about both the point of 'Studio 60' and the quality of what passes for comedy today. It's a generational thing. Decades of dumbed-down television, plus unrestrained commercial venality and a cutpurse educational system, have left much of GenX and GenNext with limited ability for abstract reasoning, reduced appreciation for subtlety and the attention span of a toy poodle. But, thanks to Playstation and Gameboy, they have great reflexes on the clicker. If it ain't bleeding, jiggling or shooting, change the channel.
Brian has hit the cultural nail squarely on the head. If you don't believe him, believe someone who spent twenty years standing in front of classrooms full of the next, not-nearly-the-greatest generation and thought he was looking at an oil painting. A not very good oil painting that wouldn't know something was funny if it walked in on two legs.
Post a Comment
<< Home
