I've got the Saturday Night [Live] first season DVDs from the library, and I'm kind of surprised at what a revelation they are. I never would have expected them to have pushed the meta-comedy so hard from the very beginning -- practically the entire second half of the season features, rather than a straight-up Chevy Chase pratfall, Chase complaining about the pratfall bit. Scenes are broken; the fourth wall is shattered. And the humor is unbelievably efficient -- even if the build-up is extensive, the punchline is never dragged out or harped on.
Chase's Gerald Ford -- recently in a bit of spotlight again following Ford's death -- is also the kind of thing that's totally out of sync with the current show, or with political satire in general today. Instead of some guy in a full costume trying to impersonate George Bush's speech and mannerisms, imagine if what you saw was some guy who looked nothing like George Bush, talked nothing like George Bush and was constantly finding ways to be choking on a pretzel. Over and over, a joke about comedy that builds on itself until its the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Wow. Current SNL writers, please feel free to shove "Deep House Dish" up your asses.
Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra ::: 2007:01:18:00:13
I loved the original SNL. It was irreverent (always), topical (mostly) and funny. It didn’t take itself – or anything else – seriously, but it was serious when it poked fun at things. It was over the top without being preposterous, it was sort of raw in the way home video is and got out of the way of the people doing the work. The writing was good, and the delivery accentuated that. Of course, the performers were not supposed to be the “stars” – that would have been the guest host (Albert Brooks for the first show) and the musical guests.
I miss it. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip could be what this was, except for the part where they take themselves too seriously.
Plumber. Land shark.