SNL50: The Anniversary Special

It is Saturday Night Live at 50. The names don't get much bigger and that's just the audience. This opens with Sabrina Carpenter joining Paul Simon as he reprises his first performance. Paul isn't doing so well. Sabrina's age joke hits hard. Steve Martin's opening monologue also hits when he says that people can be dead by natural causes now. Eddie Murphy playing Tracy Morgan is probably the best. He actually got the others to break. Tom Hanks comes in and brings that skit to a halt. In a way, that is the quintessential SNL experience. Some of it is genius and the next is comedy death. This is better than most episodes by its sheer comedy power.

Found huge enjoyment... in the 40th Anniversary Special. With the Saturday Night film last year and all the specials running lately, I can't help remembering a show that used to push boundaries. A show willing to be controversial and bizarre. Not always hilarious, but a showcase of comedians being honest and creative.

This "special" felt contrived and safe and not particularly funny. The standouts were Martin's monologue, Sandler's song, Garret Morris introducing a classic Belishi clip, and the scared straight skit.

Everything else was run of the mill, been there done that, tame (ie lame) bits with a few mediocre music performances and lot of celebrities angling for screen time.

How can I be the first human to say something about the 50year anniversary episode of SNL. I'm honored! The cast (and audience) for this is incredible. This is the funnest thing I've seen on TV all year, and don't we all need it! But I'm not gonna get all Debbie Downer now because everyone here is clearly having the time of their lives. Seeing all the familiar faces makes anyone watching feel like they are a part of the family. There's a real feeling of intimacy here, I can only imagine no-one wanted to go home at the end. If there is a place in heaven SNL lovers go to, this is what it looks like! Thanks for 50 years everyone. Keep making America fun, we love you.

They brought an impressive array of celebrities and past cast members for this much anticipated special. Wondering who might pop up next did hold your attention. The novelty of seeing past and current cast members and the odd celebrity thrown together in skits was entertaining to some degree. There were also skits that mixed characters from different seasons, or were modern versions of old skits - all adding a novelty to the show.

BUT BUT BUT!! But novelty is not enough for a comedy show. Strip away the novelty and the skits simply weren't funny or clever or well fleshed out. The only skit that struck as funny at all was the UFO sketch with Kate McKinnon, Meryl Streep, Jon Hamm, Woody Harrelson, Pedro Pascal, and Aidy Bryant. The humor was mostly due to Kate's dialogue and delivery (and Harrelson and Pascal trying not to crack). Overall there's disappointingly little that sticks out at memorable, which is sad for a 50th anniversary show crammed with celebrities.

Great show, so many awesome celebrities. It was a walk down memory lane. Really liked it, some of my favorite people on the planet. I have been watching for the whole fifty years. The commercials were brutal! I would have given it a ten out of ten but the commercials were really bad. They are torture. I don't know who picked the SNL graveyard skit but that was in poor taste. I am not sure if having eight two year old performers is a good idea, it was a little sad. After a couple of hours of the same commercials I started to hate them and blame companies for having awful commercials. Thanks for not trying peacock.