Saturday Night Live: What Happened to this Once-Funny Show?

Saturday Night Live is an iconic sketch comedy show that has been a staple of late-night tv for more than 40 years now.  The ratings are better than they've been in years and it continues to rack up critical praise and awards (mostly for its most well-known cast member Kate McKinnon), but the quality of the show has suffered greatly over the past couple of years.  Currently I'd go so far to say that the show (most weeks) is terrible and completely unwatchable.

The biggest reason for the popular revival of the show is Alec Baldwin's portrayal of President Donald Trump.  His impression is spot-on and hilarious, however Baldwin is not a regular cast member.  During the run up to the election Baldwin appeared on the show as Trump almost every week, but lately he appears once every few weeks at most.  The show had the same problem with Melissa McCarthy and her wildly popular appearances as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.  Spicer is no longer a part of the Trump administration, so it wouldn't make sense for McCarthy to keep making appearances.  SNL has tried to compensate for the absence of these stars with other political sketches, but lately these skits have become more and more tired and repetitive.  A recent episode featured host Jessica Chastain railing against Trump during a fake game show sketch, but the bit was completely devoid of humor and quickly turned way too serious for a comedy show.  The show no longer tries to hide its left-leaning stance, and this has become a big problem.  It's fine for a comedic show to make fun of those in power, but its not okay for it to profess only one political viewpoint.

Another huge problem with the show is the terrible writing.  The cold open and the first sketch or two of the show are generally pretty funny, but afterwards the skits tend to quickly bottom out.  On last night's Will Ferrell-hosted episode, an entire way-too-long sketch was built around one awful joke (a fighter pilot referring to himself as "Clown Penis").  Groan.  The current cast is to blame as well.  Most of the women on the show have the chops to handle anything that's written for them (the always-funny McKinnon, versatile Cecily Strong, underrated Aidy Bryant, and new featured cast member Heidi Gardner).  However, Melissa Villasenor is worthless; why did they hire her back for a 2nd season exactly?  Leslie Jones is terrific in her Weekend Update appearances as herself, but she has a complete inability to remember her lines in written sketches.  However, the show continues to feature her heavily because she's a fan favorite.  Most of the men on the show are completely unmemorable.  There are countless interchangeable white guys that do nothing to stand out (Alex Moffat, Luke Null, Mikey Day, Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, Pete Davidson).  Bennett can occasionally be funny, and Mooney sometimes shines in weird out-there sketches, but otherwise they are all pretty terrible.  Kenan Thompson has been on the show for a record-breaking 15 seasons (!), but this is mostly due to a mix of the show needing a regular African-American cast member and his inability to move on from the show.  There's also new African-American featured cast member Chris Redd.  The show may be looking to Redd as an eventual replacement for Thompson, but so far he's done absolutely nothing to stand out.

Finally, Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che are the worst duo to anchor the desk in years.  Jost can sometimes be funny but mostly comes off as conceited and jerky, while Che looks completely uninterested in what he's doing.  The show's recent decision to promote Jost and Che to co-head writers is head-scratching to say the least.  I would recommend reinstating the funny Cecily Strong to the Weekend Update desk.  The show previously removed her from this role after one season, citing the fact that she's better in sketches, but why can't she do both?

The popular McKinnon is probably looking to leave the show in the near future to launch a full-fledged movie career (most likely after the current season), so the show really needs to beef up its cast fast, or I imagine that its popularity will soon drop off sharply.  And I will stop watching it completely.