SNL Got too Introspective & Sentimental In 2001-2002

[TMC]

I was a little hesitant to write something like this out of fear of
not sounding "PC" enough for such a sensitive issue. But something
still seriously needs to be addressed about the relatively falling
quality of the show recently in my opinion at least. Lets be honest,
the fact that what happened on 9/11 roughly two weeks (or 18 days)
before the season premiere in the place were SNL is produced
absolutely hurt the quality of the writing and performances. With
that being said, SNL should always treat itself as an way to strongly
satirize current events.

But because of the terrorist attacks (even though SNL should've
pounded on OBL and spoofed the heavy security at places like airports
and sporting events) still being fresh in the heads of everybody, SNL
seemingly panicked and came in with their practically hands cuffed.
There were a variety of moments from this past season (that doesn't even
have to relate to 9/11) in which everybody acting as if their hearts
weren't in to it while giving a cornball, pseudo uplifting,
mopey-dopey type of vibe. The first place that we can go to are the
monologues. Examples:
*After the teaser/cold opening with the Mayor, FDNY, NYPD, EMTs, and
Paul Simon, Reese Witherspoon comes out and says stuff (leading up to
the horrid polar bear joke) about SNL never really doing a show under
"these circumstances."

*Seann William Scott wears an "America Rules" shirt at the beginning
and end of the show (even though the musical guest were ironically
enough, Canadian punk band Sum 41) w/ the female cast members wearing
red FDNY shirts during the closing credits.

*Drew Barrymore's mercifully brief bit concerning her being afraid to
fly and being afraid of the threat of Anthrax (not the rock band)
being in the building even though the Mayor came on TV tell advise
everybody to "be brave."

*John Goodman getting all touchy-feely while jumping on the bandwagon
of the New York Yankees right off of the heels of their dramatic, come
from behind wins in the World Series against Arizona.

*Aussie Hugh Jackman telling us out in the open that New York is the
greatest city in the world leading up to singing Christmas carols (w/
virtually little unique comedic spin a la Christopher Walken in
previous monologues).

Even stuff that you can say doesn't relate to current, more serious
issues got the threatened to tread into the considerably saccharine
territory (which if anything dulled SNL's needed bite if you ask me)
when Gwyneth Paltrow (w/ musical guest Ryan Adams singing the aptly
titled "New York, New York" complete w/ a video featuring Adams
standing w/ the once standing WTC in the background roughly a week
before 9/11) reminisced w/ old school pal Maya Rudolph.

To be fair, SNL was caught in a serious "lose-lose" situation in which
if they didn't address what happened w/ the WTC for a show that's
produced in New York, then everybody would quickly jump on their case
and accuse them of being very neglectful. But at the same time,
SNL's job is to spoof current events and if they treat a particular
current event in a extremely serious fashion, then they're failing to
do their job to be frank w/ you. Of course, the very next thing that
I guess that I'm supposed to say is that the whole thing that happened
at the start of the season premiere was very "poignant" because that's
what everybody is supposed to say if they don't want to get flamed.

The rather melancholy attitude that SNL carried around for just about
most of the season if not at the very start at least also left its
mark on Weekend Update. Frankly, it was rather hypocritical to see
Jimmy Fallon & Tina Fey try to pull out a patriotic front w/ matching
US flag pins when they're job is to poke fun at world affairs during
the past week. And who can ever forget the way that SNL bungled their
otherwise heavy-handed attempts at paying tribute to past SNL guest
George Harrison!? Or Fey practically fawning (like every view can
very closely relate to the current situation in New York city Tina)
massively over out-going Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who got spoofed here &
there by Darrell Hammond on WU, during the last show of 2001 w/ Ellen
Degeneres & No Doubt!?
Besides that, SNL seemed to want to give us the impression that it was
the 25th anniversary celebration all over again in the middle of WU. It was extremely depressing to see Chevy Chase revive the Land Shark
or Dan "The Myopian" Aykroyd continue to taint the memory of the Blues
Brothers bit (other examples of how stale the writing as become).
Anybody w/ the right state of mind should tell you that the Blues
Brothers as an effective idea clearly "jumped the shark" the exact
moment that John Beliushi overdosed over 20 years ago. SNL even went
as far as reworking past characters w/ a brand new name and actor in
the role. Take for instance Jeff Richards' Drunk Girl which really
feels like a rehash of Chris Farley's Gap Girl character and/or Molly
Shannon's take on Courtney Love.

Finally, lets go to the season finale in which SNL wanted to bump of
over the head in reminder that this was going to be Will Farrell's
last show at any chance that they could get. First it was on the
Celebrity Jeopardy skit which led us to a rather wasted cameo by the
"real" Alex Trebeck. This ultimately led up to the revealing
testimonials from the rest of the cast towards the very end of the
show which carried a fairly straight face (w/ the exception of I
suppose Tracy Morgan) and a gentle soundtrack.

SNL's 2001-2002 season was more Like the "Best of 1998-2000." The hosting booking if anything, sets a perfect example how SNL has
been in a way, lacking in the freshness department. Just about about
half the hosts this past season (besides of course Alec Baldwin & John
Goodman hosting for the one billionth time) have previously hosted in
the past three seasons or so:
*Gwyneth Paltrow (last hosted in 1998-1999)
*Drew Barrymore (last hosted in 1998-1999)
*Cameron Diaz (last hosted in 1998-1999)
*The Rock (last hosted in 1999-2000)
*Britney Spears (last hosted in 1999-2000)

This served to be rather uneven considering that SNL also went for the
tried and true "favor of the month" idea (e.g. Reese Witherspoon, Josh
Hartnett, & Kirsten Dunst). This is in spite of the arguement that
they also went for hosts who seem to be well suited in the realm of
comedy (e.g. Jack Black, Ellen Degeneres, & Jon Stewart) instead of
simply a way to quickly boost the ratings (i.e. having Britney host &
be the musical guest in only a short matter of time), and even the
inspired route with normally "serious actor" Ian McKellan & master
thief Winona Ryder.

On somewhat of a side note, SNL seriously needs to reexamine their
ways of booking the musical guests (which also saw rehashes of Eminem,
Macy Gray, No Doubt, who last performed on SNL back in (1996 w/ host
Martin Short even though Gwen Stefani performed w/ Eve a more recently
w/ host Renee Zellweger), and of sorts, Paul Simon) rather than
simply base things around whoever is hot on the radio at the moment
like Pink and Ja Rule for example. Take for instance, two of the
worst musical guest of the season by far in the form of possibly
future "One Hit Wonders" and overall miserable live performers Andrew
WK and Bubba Sparxxx. I would like to figure out what type of stuff
that Lorne Michaels was on when he decided to put these two goons (who
managed to be much funnier than most of the crap that the writers
turned out this past season) on the show!

As for the hectic goings-on w/ the cast, some prime examples include:
*Chris Parnell mysteriously gets fired and then rehired all in a
matter of months.

*Jimmy Fallon, who seriously needs to be taught a valuable lesson
about professionalism whether its actually combing your hair for
Weekend Update or not cracking during skits (i.e. the horrid Luvahs in
the hot-tub skit w/ Drew Barrymore and the leather shop skit w/
Britney Spears) and to a lesser extent, the out-going Will Farrell are
practically pushed to the moon in terms of headlining status.

*Tina Fey, who seriously ought to be removed as the head writer in
response to the stale, lazy, and recycled state of the writing this
past year, and simply be a regular old cast member, gets just about
any chance that she can get to make some utterly self-important,
pointless, and babblingly like rants on Weekend Update.

*The best that Chris Kattan could do is make absolutely sure that is
extremely tiresome, one note, and ingratiatingly overblown characters
(i.e. Mango, Antonio Banderas, Bad Reenactment Man on WU, Gay Hitler,
and Mr. Peepers), definitely doesn't have a pulse anymore.

*SNL scrambles once that suddenly come up w/ the idea of promoting Amy
Poheler when half of the season was already done! I mean if they
really had their act together, this would've happened before the season started.

*Tracy Morgan, who actually can be funny ("Get me a soda...),
is relegated to having to once again portray the excruciatingly
unfunny Brian Fellow and saying "That's hilarious!" for the upteenth time.

*SNL just about gives up making any effort to dance around Ana
Gasteyer's pregnancy (she was just about ready to explode during last
night's episode).

The best monologues are usually when the hosts are allowed to stand
alone without the threat of some utterly contrived entrance from a
cast member while in character (like in the Ian McKellan/Kylie Minogue
episode). If anything, the monologues set a clear and present example
of how lazy and recycled the writing as become. There were a dozen of
blown opportunities to put under consideration as we instead got a
collecting of smug self-promotions as the hosts quickly tried to cover
up by saying something along the lines of "Not that it's a plug!!!"
(i.e. Cameron "The New One" Diaz, The Rock, Hugh Jackman, and Winona
Ryder): These are in my humble opinion, the monologues that deserve
to be at the bottom barrell from this past season:
5. Kirsten Dunst reunites w/ Spider-Man...sort of! The bit was very
predictable (considering that Spider-Man was burning up the box office
at the time) and slowly but surely, became embarrassing cringe worthy
material the moment that "Spidey's" mask came off (that's how bungled
the whole thing was).

4. Will Farrell challenges Cameron Diaz to a "battle of the butts"
which just goes to show you that SNL can't do anything better but rely
on lame-brain sexually related/gross-out humor in this day and age.

3. Reese Witherspoon is relegated to having to tell pointless and
absolutely inane polar bear jokes.

2. Drew Barrymore tells the audience (complete with a gas mask wearing
Tom Green) that she finally decide to fly to New York when she saw the
Mayor tell everybody to "be brave." To be honest with you, I
boycotted (as well as the episode that Green himself hosted the year
before) this episode when it originally aired in response to being
absolutely dumbfounded by Barrymore's various antics w/ Green in the
mist of promoting the horrid Charlie's Angels movie and their
so-called marriage that has since dissolved (thank God). With that
being said, the writers were completely lazy with this brief and very
corny skit rather than following up on the "wedding that wasn't"
during Green's hosting gig.

1. Derek Jeter hits some balls into the audience w/ extremely
disastrous results. The most pathetic thing that one can do is
shamelessly resort to cheap and childish sight gags. It would've been
much wiser if SNL brought up the fact that Jeter & his Yankees
suddenly crumbled under the pressure against the "other team" in the
Game 7 of the World Series.