This Party's Just Another Haunted House
Regrettably I have some things to say about SNL 50
I came home drunk Friday night1 and I had forgotten that it was also the evening of a big SNL 50 event - not The Big SNL 50 Event, that came on Sunday - but a prelude to that, a concert that was meant to honor the music and musical guests of SNL (which Sunday did, too, however, one evening was not enough).
My feed was wall-to-wall clips of whatever it was that was going on. It was hard for my brain to make sense of; Cher singing “If I Could Turn Back Time,” Lady Gaga and Andy Samberg duetting on Lonely Island songs, Robyn and David Byrne together singing “Dancing on My Own” and as I later learned, “This Must Be the Place,” for some reason. The duo we’ve all been demanding: Robyn and David Byrne. Reaction shots were doled out unsparingly, which just added to the surreal haze of it all. It began to feel like the point of it wasn’t the performances themselves but to enjoy celebrities enjoying it. They’re just like us!!
I made a drunken note in my phone (I made a lot of drunken notes in my phone, if I’m being honest) that said “Drunk watching clips hunger games to appease a weird Canadian dictator who can’t expel but can make it so you don’t lunch in this town ever again, as if eating a power lunch at Balthazar still existed.”2
All I could think of was this one line from The First Wives Club3, when the women are at their breaking point, and Brenda says to Elise, “And once upon a time you *were* a terrific actress! You've even got an Oscar to prove it!”
Once upon a time, SNL was a great, countercultural, boundary-pushing show. It even has all those Emmys and celebrities and spinoff movies to prove it.
Listen, I came of age caring about SNL, too. I saw Superstar in theaters for my birthday. I still remember the thrill I felt watching “Lazy Sunday” for the very first time. Tina Fey taught me it was ok to have brown hair and wear glasses.4
By the time I was in college, 30 Rock and Parks and Rec were on the air, beloved in their own right and also essentially functioned as homing beacons back to SNL; they were showcases for important SNL alumni and 30 Rock was *about* SNL, another opportunity to add hagiography to our already most-hagriographed cultural artifact of all time. I read and re-read the books: Live From New York and Live From New York: Even Longer This Time (it is not called that but it should be), the (very sad) one about Chris Farley, We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy (not exclusively about SNL but has long chapters dedicated to it). And when I got to UCB, it basically felt like there was a two-way door between the theater and the show. I saw current and former cast members and current and former writers perform on a regular basis, and UCB performers who I felt like I knew got hired to write on the show. Some people I actually knew did, too.
It also that meant with increasing frequency I heard the horrible stories about working there. Yeah, I know we all know this now in 2025. This was when the commonly accepted and practiced idea that SNL was tough but the strong and exceptional could cut it. And if you couldn’t, that was a personal failing. Having your name associated with SNL was (and mostly still is) considered a once-in-a-lifetime consolation prize, worth sparing your mental and physical health. Trump hadn’t hosted yet. I don’t think we even knew who Elon was.5
SNL still had its saving graces. There was that one season where Sarah Schneider and Chris Kelly were co-head writers and it was the funniest the show had been in years - but it’s SNL, so they put a quick end to that. But at the time, there were multiple great sketch shows on the air - Key and Peele, Kroll Show, Inside Amy Schumer6, a show The Lonely Island executive produced that Nicole Byer was on and I can’t remember the name and refuse to look it up. SNL was far from the only game in town and we had no reason to believe it wouldn’t stay that way. I will be completely transparent here and say that by the time I submitted a packet to SNL, I was more excited about the fact that I had come far enough in my comedy career and met enough people than I earnestly wanted (or thought even a little bit I could get) a job.
I was having a conversation with a friend a few years ago who said - in the tone that this was an extremely hot take - that they don’t really see SNL as a destination, so much as a launching pad. Well, duh. That’s always been the point of the show; that’s why there’s a Night at the Roxbury movie. It’s also why Lorne Michaels gets to handpick our late night hosts and why Broadway Video exists.
But is the juice worth the squeeze? I guess that’s a question I can’t answer, nor will I ever be in the position where I have to.
I didn’t watch the SNL 50 This One Is The Real Special We Promise beyond clips that came across my feed. What I did see of it, though, felt like a mishmash that continued in the vein of what we saw on Friday. Pairings of people and artists that felt so random and contrived and meant only to force your brain’s pleasure centers to light up based on recognition alone. (This is far from unique to SNL and David Ehrlich does a very good job elaborating on it in his review of Wicked.)
Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon? If the question of why can’t be answered, then I guess the question has to be why not? (I’ll tell you why not, as someone who is fans of them both, they sounded terrible together! And so did Robyn and David Byrne! Singing is not as simple as getting two people with two very different voices to say words at the same time!) Every time I watched a clip, another celebrity was shoehorned in there to say one word or another, and SNL took the opportunity to jab at e-bikes when we may be on the precipice of the governor **removing** the mayor for the first time in history!! Come on!
I can’t deny that the show produced touching moments that deserved the reaction they garnished - Adam Sandler and Jane Curtin and Larraine Newman memorializing their friends - but I don’t think this feeling of empathy towards their grief is a success of the show. It’s a product of a human moment, something that SNL fails to provide because it’s not interested in that. At least not anymore.
Maybe you could call me a hater, I guess, and say I was jealous I wasn’t there. Yeah, I would love to see Paul McCartney perform, and yeah, I’d like to be rich, too. Then you remember this is a work event. You have to be nice to and share a room and even pose with people who have probably been really fucking rude to you or who don’t share your worldview at best or are actual sexual harassers at worst. Arcade Fire was there! As if there is a world where Arcade Fire wasn’t there and the question everyone would ask after is Where was Arcade Fire??
SNL is an institution you might say. It’s more like a haunted house at this point. To consult one of my more cogent notes from Friday night: I think the building should be preserved but something really bad happened there and no one should repeat those mistakes. When someone says “SNL isn’t good anymore” or has very real and valid criticisms of who the show props up and how, this doesn’t negate the hard work or talent of those caught up in the show’s machinery, or its ability to produce something interesting from time to time. A really cool adult can still emerge from a cursed orphanage, that doesn’t mean I want to hang out there.
Some other things going on, with me personally or generally I guess:
I’m hosting another Letters & Sodas on February 26 at Greats of Craft in Long Island City - this one with Upasna Barath, Blythe Roberson, Maeve Dunigan, Talib Babb, Gastor Almonte, and Anna Roisman. I love doing this show and I think this will be another good one.
You’ve probably heard me say it before and I’m going to say it a million more times (sorry) - my book Set Piece is out May 6 (!!) and you can learn more/preorder here.
I am still working on migrating to another place for this but hopefully will have this figured out by next month!!
Sue me
The amount of power Lorne Michaels wields over the entertainment industry feels greater or equal to the amount of power we historically would instill in an elected official. I guess in the government, too, any rich person now can have it
I promise I have seen other movies
I am being facetious here, but there was really something at the time that shifted in that it became hot to be smart
Take me back
I will credit Christine Nangle for this