I think SNL's cast has only been getting funnier, but what do I know?
Well, Adam, you know what you like, and if SNL makes you laugh, then there's got to be some value in that. To be honest, I only catch an episode every other year or so, so I might not be fairly characterizing the latest Not Ready for Primetime Players fairly. However, I during the most recent one I watched, which was last semester, I noticed that the actors were essentially creating these goofy caricatures of people that they were kind of laughing at themselves--the humor seems to be based on "look what an idiot I am" conceptually. I think that's just not enough: they should take these weird characters and really, really involve them in the circumstances, raise the stakes greatly, make everything extremely important. That would make the difference between the class clown kind of humor they're going for now versus what I think constitutes the essence of skit comedy. For some good examples of this, check out Monty Python, or the old Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies. The characters are as goofy as all get out, but way funnier because they're very close to being real people with real fears and concerns.
Let us not overlook the passing of actor Darren McGavin, who besides his role in "The Natural", was a great reporter, Carl Kolchak, in the 1974-75 series, "The Night Stalker".
Hey, he did a couple of X-Files episodes! Great actor, very focused. It's worth noting that he was actually in a film with Don Knotts, Hot Lead and Cold Feet, a Disney western for children from the mid 70s. It was one of the two Disney westerns Knotts did with Tim Conway, the other being The Shakiest Gun in the West. Drag about his passing.
I just posted about Knotts over at This is not a compliment. Mentioned how I had riffed on him before, and almost said that I think almost any comedic actor would probably have to admit they had too...
glad to see you recognizing!
He really was amazing...
now, how do you feel about the early Bob Hope pictures?
M
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