SNL: Is Saturday Night Live new tonight, November 24?
Saturday Night Live is known to celebrate the holidays even if it means working during them as a team. That said, is SNL new tonight days after Thanksgiving?
This season, Saturday Night Live has been very up and down. Most of their stronger comedic actors have seen weak writing, with the hopes of someone familiar with sketch comedy raising the laughter purely with skill. Other times, we’ve seen dramatic actors or those with little sketch comedy experience work with excellent content due to there being such a narrow window for laughter.
I know that one of the least funny things to do is to examine comedy with a clinical eye, but SNL has been so sporadic this season that it kind of begs for it. Two weeks ago we saw first-time host and perhaps first-time comedian Liev Schreiber try his best with some good sketches, but even his interesting sketch concepts fell flat due to his delivery.
On the opposite end of the scale, Steve Carell’s home has been improv and sketch comedy. He got his start with Second City, one of the Saturday Night Live farm systems that Lorne Michaels draws talent from. He was even one half of SNL’s Ambiguously Gay Duo, effectively being a staple of late-’90s, early-2000s risque content for the show. He got nothing to work with, falling flat beyond references to reviving The Office.
Another staple of the show, Alec Baldwin’s impression of Donald Trump, has left a noticeably empty spot for the cold open. It has allowed for a more diverse range of political satire, but more often than not the writers fall back on “Fox News bad, MSNBC less bad.” Despite being some of the most divisive political times, SNL’s cold opens lack bite this year.
Next. 25 best cold opens in SNL history. dark
Thankfully, the writers will have some time off to visit family, reset and come back to the drawing board with fresh new ideas. Saturday Night Live is not new tonight on November 24, as the show returns next Saturday, December 1 with first-time host Claire Foy and copy editor’s nightmare / musical guest Anderson .Paak set to take the stage.