Natalie Monzon ‘24 Social Media Manager
Saturday Night Live (SNL), has aired a comedy sketch show, for nearly 40 years. SNL features a fluctuating cast and celebrity guest stars to create comedy sketches, skits, music performances, and digital shorts live every Saturday. It has been a celebrated staple in American culture, but in recent years, ratings have gone downhill—and for a valid reason.
SNL’s formatting can be very inauthentic. Its comedy sketches are performed live, so there is much room for error. Usually, a cast member gets caught up in the moment of the skit and will break character. It is hard to fully comprehend a scene when the cast is hysterically laughing the whole time. You want to be able to hear the sketch they planned and laugh with them, not at them. They also read off a live teleprompter. When the cast members or celebrities are so caught up in trying to read the screen, it takes away from the scene itself and can be very distracting. Sophomore Ella Glowacki said, “It usually is a hard watch for me.” SNL skits are usually an awkward setting where the cast is not even making eye contact with the viewers or the live audience, and not even trying to get into the character. Cast members should at least learn their lines before jumping into the scene completely clueless.
With SNL’s free-range setup, there is room for celebrity guests to truly speak their minds. Guests of SNL create their own monologue at the beginning of the show. This can lead to controversial or nonsensical rants that are presented to a live audience and on live national television. A memorable mention is when Kanye West went on a rant during his monologue preaching racist ideologies. West did not rehearse his monologue that way, but when the cameras went live, he jumped at the opportunity to preach harmful narratives. SNL should be prepared for these things to happen and find ways to prevent actors from going rogue and sharing misinformation. SNL needs to work on not inviting controversial guests on their show because there is no guarantee on what they might spew.
SNL is not always sensitive in the jokes they make. Recently, actor Timothée Chalamet went on SNL and made a joke about the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine. The skit was about a guy with a struggling music career. There was no problem with the skit until Chalamet said his band’s name: “Oh, it’s Hamas.” The other guys in the skit obviously reacted and pointed out why it was a bad name. Many were extremely offended by this joke and thought it was tone-deaf. Senior Maddie Epler said, “I think it was completely insensitive and shouldn’t be taken lightly.” To joke about something so horrific—especially considering these horrific crimes are still affecting humans each day—is not acceptable. It seems SNL has changed throughout the years, but not in a positive way. It used to be light-hearted and a good option to turn to when in need of a good laugh. They rarely had ill intentions with skits and influenced America’s comedy culture. Now the tone has shifted into low-effort and insensitive material. The show recently has been doing whatever it can to get more clicks, stay on trend, maintain shock value, and completely shift what it used to be about, making people laugh and escape their real world. There is a line between true comedy and insensitivity regarding real-life issues, and SNL far too often crosses that line.
Lyon Life 