Tag Archives: snl book

12.15.24
by

Stocking Stuffers

Fall semester grades are always due a few days before the holidays.

You know what that means for me in the last weeks of 2024?

Stress eating?

Reading a lot of original screenplays and TV pilots with post-apocalyptic, historical or contemporary end of the world scenarios where occasionally we are left with some small ray of hope at the end.  But only if we choose to look for it.

And who says Gen Z is not paying attention to the world these days?  

Olivia knows

Good. For. Them.  

Gen Z,  I mean.

As for this baby boomer, I had to stop reading at some point for the palette cleanser of Saturday Night Live this weekend with guest host Chris Rock.  Somehow he managed to do socially relevant, edgy and sometimes even dangerous comic commentary about the past, present and future all through his monologue and in each sketch he was in.  

How did he pull it off?

As far as I can tell, it took three things:  

  1. Talent
  2. Smarts
  3. Not giving a f-ck what the powers-that-be think.

Which is more than I can say for the TWO multi-BILLIONAIRE founder/owners of Meta (Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp blah, blah blah…) and Amazon/Blue Origin/The Washington Post blah, blah, blah… 

Like a bad Lex Luthor casting call

But what’s $1 million apiece to the 2025 inaugural party for the  new POTUS/Time 2024 Man Of The Year, that NOT ONE of my smart, talented friends (Note: Which means ALL of them) will be watching in January because we love democracy and  truly don’t give a….

Well, you know.   You really do.  

And so do many, many, MANY more.

What I’ll be doing on Inauguration day

But back to SNL.  Again.

If like me and my friends, and their friends, you too need a palette cleanser – and a Christmas stocking stuffer for the family – try the Chair’s repeat shameless self-promotion. Yes, repeating once again this week instead of writing one more word about politics.

Hello again, gorgeous

Order here either new, on Kindle or….used!

It will take you through 50 years of a lot of funny, smart and sometimes even dangerous social commentary.  And bring you back to many years quite different than 2024.

Some of them were good or great.  And a few of them were….well, none were exactly like this year.

As for the most recent Chris Rock episode there was a brilliant sketch about a car. 

But my fave was the mindless, disgustingly side-splitting (Note: Almost literally) hospital sketch with a great former Not Ready For Time Prime Players cameo.

Because I, like many of the rest of you, are kinda sick these days.

As you’ll see….

#GodBlessAmerica.

09.29.24
by

SNL’s Golden Year

Saturday marked the first episode of SNL’s 50TH anniversary season with guest host Jean Smart, a recent Emmy winner for playing another, albeit fictional, comedy stalwart of 50 years, Hacks stand-up, Debra Vance.

Was the combination fun?  Yes. 

Did it have some rough spots?  A few.  Sure.

Never need to see this monkey again

But were there any real memorable moments?  Of course!

Can you say —

Maya/Kamala???? 

with Andy as Doug??? Yes, please!

Or —

Ms. Smart as: a romance writer reading salacious excerpts from her new math textbook; a too dramatic actress cast prior to Lucille Ball in faux clips from a very different I Love Lucy; a Real Housewife in Santa Fe trading bitchy bon mots in a Mexican restaurant  ….all of which followed her sweet comic opening monologue to the tune of I Happen To Like New York?

But first…

Let’s get a few things straight. 

So to speak.

Go off, Chair.

No, the Chair will not be writing about Saturday Night Live ad infinitum/for the rest of eternity despite the way it’s looked for the last 3 weeks. 

Think of this as the final (Note:  Well, maybe for a while) shameless self-promotion of his just published book, The SNL Companion: An Unofficial Guide to the Seasons, Sketches and Stars of Saturday Night Live.

Click here to purchase! #shamelessbutIdontcare

Yes, it’s available from Amazon in paperback or on Kindle  at a discounted price – and it will make a GREAT holiday gift/stocking stuffer/Halloween favor or Thanksgiving something.

And if you want to get a free preview of what it’s about, here’s a link to a short interview on NPR’s Here and Now segment with my co-author/husband Stephen Tropiano that aired this weekend in honor of the #50.

Yes, they could only have on one of us (Note:  Cause it’s radio?) and I was more than pleased to be Doug Emhoff since, well, I’m the Jewish one and, well, who wouldn’t be?

Ahem.

Worth posting again because it was so good!

In any event, SNL’s return….

It was solid and had a great political opening with some fun guest cameos.  We’ve seen Maya Rudolph’s Kamala but there was something about watching her at the podium center stage.

The swagger. 

The joy.

The hope that she gets to do it a bunch of times for the next FOUR/EIGHT seasons.

The dream team

Not to mention Jim Gaffigan as Coach Walz (Note: Why didn’t I have his name in the pool?), Andy Samberg (Note: He’s Jewish, too) debuting in Studio 8H as Doug; James Austin Johnson returning as an endless loop of Trump; Bowen Yang as a decent but strange choice for Vance; and much-missed Dana Carvey doing a fairly on-target but slightly too beleaguered (Note: Was it the writing or him?) Joe Biden.

Sometimes when there is soooo much real-life political material to choose from it makes the task all that more difficult for SNL.   But as Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost cracked from behind his fake anchor desk when he recalled that more than one person over the last 3-4 months asked him if he regretted not being on the air with all of the political upheaval:

I have a feeling there’s going to be more that happens when we get back.

We are all too familiar with these dumpster fires

The emergence of cable news and faux cable news shows in the 1990s, combined with the power of  incessant and omni-present social media platforms with streams of creativity and craziness, has created a perfect storm of fame for all sorts of characters and borderline sociopathic behavior.

It might not be great for the world but it sure does help provide SNL and shows like it tons of opportunity to land a laugh in the oddest of ways. For example, it’s rare for a Weekend Update segment to in one moment have a set piece where we have commentary from the beleaguered 10-week old world famous baby Chinese hippo Moo Deng (Note: A hilariously costumed Bowen Yang) after just moments before hearing Jost remark that TikTok voters are using AI to translate Hitler speeches into English, whereupon he plays an actual short clip from a real post that shows the real Hitler ranting but has us hearing the actual debate voice of Trump claiming (about Haitians):

They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.

Watch all of Weekend Update here

You may ask: How do I know that was an actual video from TikTok??

And I would answer:  Because I saw it myself on Twitter/X last week.

And of course I’m embarrassed to still be in the cesspool that is Twitter/X.  But please know I have not given Elon any money for my own verified check mark.  Just as I have no plan to buy into Trump crypto. 

Or any crypto.

I mean, why??????

I’m giving my money to whatever this is

But I do look forward to watching John Mulaney, Ariana Grande and Michael Keaton hosting SNL in the coming weeks of 2024. 

For free.

And not cuz I just wrote a book about the show.

Jelly Roll – “Winning Streak (Live on SNL)”