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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Je Suis Charlie And Why Good Satire Is So Hard

Je suis Charlie.

I am Charlie.

The events of the horrific attack in Paris have gone through the 24-hour news cycle enough times that its probably lost a sock. There have been a lot of great discussions about the freedom of speech, and freedom of press as a result. French illustrator Lucille Clerc published my favourite comic in solidarity.

https://twitter.com/LucilleClerc/status/552961721959473152/photo/1

Charlie Hebdo was a magazine that I likely would not have enjoyed. From what I understand, it was akin to a francophone MAD Magazine. But it was satire, and if we decide we want to defend free speech, that means the kind of speech that offends some people.

Being offensive does not make you funny. I can not say this enough. Sadly, like so many of our rights, when we enforce the freedom to speak, some people speak like idiots.

Bad satire – which seems to make up the majority of it these days – has given good, amazing, thought-provoking satire a bad name.

The Onion is the New York Times of satire. Seriously, you know those people who believe fake articles they see on Facebook? They come from The Onion.

Black Guy Asks Nation For Change – Obama's Presidential Campaign

Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell – The Onion's first post–9/11 piece

Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids – Do I have to spell it out?

Good satire, real satire is difficult to do. Stephen Colbert did it for eight years masterfully, and Fox News hasn't realized they've been doing it all along.

Key and Peele are another source of spectacular social commentary today. My generation's Chappelle's Show, these two comedians are masters at poking the tropes and stereotypes of race culture in America. The duo's writing ability is only heightened by their ability to believably inhabit the outrageous characters they create, leading to grounded performances from decidedly ungrounded people.

The Auction Block 

Soul Food

Alien Imposters

But if you really want to find the Abbott and Costello, the Moses and Aaron, the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck of satire, look no further than:

Oh yeah, we're talking about South Park. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have carved out a piece of real estate in which they have an unprecedented amount of creative freedom. 

From the Sexual Harassment Panda to Man-Bear-Pig, Matt and Trey have never found a line they didn't want to cross. And they do so with an insane amount of intellect and intention – these are the same guys who wrote The Book of Mormon, the Broadway play that won 9 Tonys and were nominated for an Oscar (I'll repeat that) an OSCAR for the song "Blame Canada."

Note: I totally understand the style of comedy in South Park is NOT for everyone. But people who dismiss it entirely do not understand the level on which the show operates.

When South Park mercilessly mocked Family Guy for their lazy writing on a special two-parter that showed the people of the US shoving their heads into sand to avoid watching the show, the writers of King of the Hill and The Simpsons sent flowers. 

When, earlier this season, Randy Marsh revealed that he is actually Lorde and he records all his music on the toilet and auto-tunes it, Lorde said she loved the joke.

The list of episodes with original, current references that say what so many comedians fail to is endless, but something interesting happened on episode 200, which aired early in 2015.

– Some back story first, South Park has aired images of Muhammad the prophet in early episodes. During the controversy over a Swedish cartoonist drawing him in 2007, Comedy Central censored any images of Muhammad in South Park's reruns.

Matt and Trey do not like being told what to do, and aired a number of episodes that were not subtle about the danger of censorship.

Back to 200, the plot of the episode is that every single celebrity made fun of in South Park's history decides to file a class-action lawsuit against the town of South Park. Everyone is there, Tom Cruise, Bill Cosby, Hillary Clinton, the whole gang. 

Even Muhammad.

Comedy Central demanded any depiction of Muhammad be censored from the episode and Matt and Trey didn't really have a choice, but they handled it in true South Park fashion. Watch the video below to see what good satire looks like.

THAT is what satire is supposed to do. 

Fun fact for you all, Comedy Central is even censoring the episode on the DVD release, so that episode will never run uncensored again.

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