SNL 40

Before I get into it, here is Kyle Mooney's unaired sketch from the SNL 40 celebration, it is weird, awkward, and I'm so sad it didn't make it to air.

I was so, SO excited for the celebration of 40 years of Saturday Night Live. Obviously, I'm a huge fan, but this was going to be a family reunion for most of the important people in comedy for the last half-century.

My fear was that it may be taken too seriously, or devolve into a 4-hour comedic masturbation session. It did neither!

Every moment of this special was steeped—STEEPED—in the long history of the show's comedic voice. The so-so opening with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake (saved by Dratch's perfect Debbie Downer and Steve Martin's impeccable timing) into a live performance from Sir Paul McCartney and Paul Simon as if to say, "That's right New York City, we're OPENING with a m*********ing Beatles song!"

Dan Aykroyd peddling the Bass-O-Matic 2150; Will Ferrell anchoring a belligerent Sean Connery, vapid Tony Bennett, and decidedly Norm Macdonald-y Burt Reynolds; Bradley Cooper trying his best to break the Polygrip holding Betty White's dentures in her mouth; Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Jane "you ignorant slut" Curtin hosting a Weekend Update featuring the shark at the door; it was picture perfect.

And then it got better.

Giving Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, and a few others their due was a great touch without derailing the whole show, but what really brought it home for me was the audition tapes.

Everyone who tries out for the show has to audition live on the stage of Studio 8H, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in front of Lorne Michaels, the head writer and some producers. These are recorded for posterity and occasionally have been released for individuals or leaked, but they've remained largely guarded.

Seth Meyers revealed on his talk show that no one knew they were going to run the auditions package, so it was a blindside to everyone.

Seeing Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Dan Aykroyd, Amy Poehler, Jason Sudeikis, Dana Carvey, Tracy Morgan and all of the others in young faces and strange clothes talking nervously to a camera. None of them had any idea what was in front of them, what their next phone call from Lorne would mean for their lives. Next to the "in memoriam" reel, it was the most emotional moment of the evening for me.

I hope SNL doesn't go anywhere soon, but if it does, my ~TOTALLY LEGALLY~ download of SNL 40 will keep me warm at night.


P.S.

All the credit in the world to Mike and Dana for giving a shoutout to the crew of SNL. Norm Macdonald commented that the immediate standing ovation was not prompted at all, and was something he had never seen before in that theatre.

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Scrubs: A Show From 13 Years Ago You Should Watch

Scrubs is an NBC comedy-drama that aired from 2001 to 2010, and if you've never seen it before I need to tell you to get it going in your Netflix queue.


I had never seen an episode until earlier this month-

You have every right to look at me like that

But I had heard good things and decided to jump into it. Here's the synopsis of Season 1:

        John Dorian (J.D.)                            and                                 Chris Turk (Turk)

are medical interns at Sacred Heart Teaching Hospital. They navigate love, life, and listeriosis as young 20-somethings out of med school entering the realities of life and death. Quite possibly the best bromance on TV, these two set the bar high for laughs per minute and are a pair of friends who are so clearly more than actors pretending to like each other.

They are joined by a cast of well-written, varied characters including:

Doctor Cox, the hardworking, smack-talking 'Obi-Wan' to J.D.'s 'Skywalker'

Carla Espinosa, the experienced, friendly nurse and 'Leia' to Turk's 'Luke'

Elliot Reid, a fellow intern and the, uh... 'C3P0' to J.D.'s 'R2D2' (complete with sexual tension)



Chief of Medicine Bob Kelso; stuck somewhere between 'Jar Jar Binks' and 'Darth Vader'

Star Wars analogies aside, Scrubs is a fantastic example of how comedy can be used to amplify drama. 

There are many episodes that use a whimsical A-plot only to sidewind you with a "harsh reality" B-plot. 

Having these characters grounded in their talent as doctors and surgeons allows them to explore an absurd angle on some really heavy issues. Much like current TV hits "The Mindy Project" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", having characters who are professionals and not Al Bundy archetypes means when they screw up, we really feel it.

Death is a recurring theme in Scrubs and it's dealt with matter-of-factly. Doctors deal with it every day, and if they stop to mourn, they'll miss saving someone else. 

That being said, Scrubs is a comedy first, and it is through such a command of the "it comes from a real place" style of comedy that the ups and downs really feel up and down.



I'm a lover of dark comedy, and this is what I would call a comedy with dark edges. It lacks the melodrama of Grey's Anatomy and the situational tropes of the Big Bang Theory, finding a niche of relatable humour with a stripe of reality in the creamy centre.

Watch it and laugh.

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