Matt Walsh Tries to Laugh at Saturday Night Live! (WARNING： 98% Will Fail)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
161.17947
Summary
Saturday Night Live has not been funny for a long time, and it s time to try and figure out why. This week, Alex and Pete take a look at the most recent season, and see if they can find anything worthy of even a modest chuckle.
Transcript
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There have been more funny moments in, like, death row execution chambers over the last 20 years than in SNL skits.
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For our next edition of Try to Laugh, we are going to try to harpoon the great white whale.
00:00:22.320
We've tried and failed to laugh at jokes told by feminist comedians many times, but this is a little bit different.
00:00:30.520
This time, we're going to try to laugh at Saturday Night Live, the modern, current version of it.
00:00:35.940
What I have to say right now, I'd be a little cringe.
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Now, as you know, SNL has not been funny for about 20 years, and that's probably being generous.
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Samantha Bee has told more funny jokes in the last two decades than SNL has.
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Put it this way, there have been more funny moments in, like, death row execution chambers over the last 20 years than in SNL skits.
00:01:03.520
I have no idea how it manages to stay on the air, except that it comes on at night and everyone's either asleep or drunk when it comes on late on a Saturday night.
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So I think maybe no one's, like, noticed how bad it's gotten.
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It's allowed to just linger on, lifeless, half-dead, dried up, shriveled, confused.
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There's an obvious Joe Biden joke here, but I'm trying to think of another analogy.
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We're going to look at the most recent season, which is now mercifully over,
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and we'll check some of the skits to see if we can find something, anything worthy of even a modest chuckle.
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We'll start with this skit titled, No More Masks.
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It's your boy, Fauci, the patron saint of Purell.
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As you probably heard, we got some very good news this week,
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and I'm not just talking about J-Lo and Ben Affleck.
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The CDC announced that people who are vaccinated no longer need to wear masks, outdoors or indoors.
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Why is she the resident impressionist over at SNL?
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Isn't an impressionist supposed to, you know, be good at impressions?
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That guy legislates from the bench, but he measures from the balls.
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Isn't that what you want out of an impressionist?
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Kate McKinnon is about as witty and funny as, like, your drunk aunt at Thanksgiving.
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We're going to give this a chance, because there should be a lot of potential here to make some funny jokes and have a funny skit.
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A lot of people had questions, such as, what does that mean?
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So, to clear things up, I found a few doctors at the CDC who minored in theater.
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And I asked them to reenact various scenarios in order to demonstrate correct mask behavior.
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And remember, they only had 24 hours to put this little show together.
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So, please welcome the CDC players and their first scene, Man Walks Into a Bar.
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Just pausing to see if I can hear actual crickets.
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This is like the comedic stylings of Kamala Harris.
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This seems like the White House just gave them a PSA to perform as comedy.
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And this is one of the problems for SNL is that comedy should be transgressive and countercultural and, you know, rebellious and kind of and kind of that's what it should be.
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SNL is now a mouthpiece for the elites, for the government.
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If you watched The Undoing, you might have noticed that one of the stars of the show, Nicole Kidman, sang the theme song.
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Inspired by Nicole, stars of your other favorite shows are now singing their theme songs on, now that's what I call theme songs sung by the stars of the show.
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So enjoy this original theme song that was cut from the opening of Queen's Gambit.
00:05:04.440
Girl playing chess, then doing drugs, then playing chess.
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Now when you see people playing chess, you'll know that they're on drugs.
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Hey, if you like Stranger Things, you'll love the new season four opening credits, performed by Sheriff Jim Hopper.
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Welcome to the 80s, I'm about to blow your mind.
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There's something strange in your neighborhood.
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This script was written in 15 minutes before showtime, right?
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A team of writers came up with this and they all said it was good.
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And it made its way through a purposeful process onto the air.
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Did hackers, like, hack into the SNL broadcast and pipe this skit in to embarrass the show?
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I'm just trying to figure it out because this is bad.
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And now, let's meet host, Iceland's number one social media star, Uli!
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Iceland's number one comedy duo is here, Thorbo and Greta!
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Maybe that's the context in which I need to be viewing this particular skit.
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So, it seems that the SNL kind of fluctuates between banal, politically correct tripe, and
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then stuff that's weird, but forgets that weird in and of itself isn't funny.
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You still have to make jokes within the weirdness.
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You could not be aware that we're in gay pride month.
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Because every time you leave your house, you're beat over the head with it by two by fours.
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Here's a chance for some topical and really edgy humor about gay pride.
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Does SNL have the balls, so to speak, to make jokes about gay pride?
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And we will not get my hopes up, but we'll see.
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Now we're out on the floor, but I don't see my crush.
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Okay, so they made the bold choice to be not funny once again.
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By the way, I hope all the people in that sketch are actually gay.
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Otherwise, this would be appropriation, which is very offensive.
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I'm guessing they're probably safe as far as that goes.
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Out of all the funny and controversial things they could have done with a gay pride skit,
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I'm not even sure what the joke is supposed to be.
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It seems with every sketch, they kind of studiously examine all the potential places to take it.
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And then they choose the least funny one every time.
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They succeed in being mostly inoffensive, but they fail at being a comedy show.
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The good news, though, is that you can put it on while you fall asleep.
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And you don't have to worry about being kept awake by your own laughter.
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And that, my friends, is looking on the bright side.