Today is the day to use a decorative twist tie.
Have a good holiday? Good. I did too although it made me contemplate something that has been bothering me lately. Thanks to this article (look for a mention of a fabulous Midwest blog), I think it's a good time to articulate my thoughts.
A 2005 Polemic
Six years ago nerdy female writers like yours truly found a new hero. Her name was Tina Fey and she was named the first female head writer at "Saturday Night Live." It was a good year in general, too, as two of the show's more standout female cast members, Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph, were also added to the roster.
It was a good time for Saturday Night Live. The show made excellent use of the antics of the 2000 Presidential election, and the Weekend Update segment was rejuvenated with Fey and Jimmy Fallon serving as anchors.
Incidentally, Fey was also cute and brunette and bespectacled, a less annoying version of Lisa Loeb, which helped put her on camera, putting a face to the words in the sketches. She was a beacon of hope (especially to those of us from Chicago, thanks to her Second City heritage), showing that funny women can rise to high positions in entertainment and become noteworthy for it.
Fey's notoreity reached a boil last year with the release of the movie she wrote and starred in, "Mean Girls." The subject matter, screenwriter and mammalicious star Lindsay Lohan brought it lots of attention, and Fey brought hope again to smart girls everywhere as she appeared on magazine covers and red carpets.
The next season should have been golden for Fey. She has received critical and popular appeal and was part of an SNL first: two women, Fey and Amy Poehler, hosting "Weekend Update."
However: This season sucks.
I know. They say this every year. Criticizing SNL has about as much freshness as a Fourth of July fireworks safety report. I don't really have any particular scientific evidence to prove that this season sucks more than worst, although my observation is that some of the weakest, most pointless sketches I have ever seen have not only been running frequently, but as the lead sketch of several episodes. For instance, Horatio Sanz was the lead character in two recent heading sketches, one as a giant cockroach that needed to be killed by host Colin Farrell, the other as a rapper who happens to be fat, with Kate Winslet. I am not leaving anything out, plot-wise, about these sketches, by the way.
This is a letdown but seems to be a perennial one. However, as much as we laud Fey for what she has accomplished (and Weekend Update, barring guest spots, is as funny as ever), we must hold her resonsible for the new levels of suckitude that SNL has reached. She might be as funny and as cute as ever when we see her, but somewhere, somehow, she is giving the green light to (and possibly even writing) some of these shitty sketches.
Therefore, I personally am revoking, temporarily I hope, my puppy dog drooling adoration of Fey. She has brought me some good times but now I expect even more of her as a writer and performer and she's performing sub-par (and even though it doesn't make any sense, when something is sub-par, it means 'bad.' I know it should technically be 'over par' but that's not how it is.)
Those of you who admire Fey: if you haven't already, take a good look at the actual sketches that are currently on the show. If you feel as let down as I do (I would usually wait until after the Weekend Update to turn off the show. Now it's after the monologue), write to SNL and tell her that you might have to reserve your brainy girl crush on her until she puts those brains to work and comes up with a better show.Tina, shape up SNL. Quit looking to the tabloids and quit giving
popular but crappy hosts meaningless, dumb sketches. I have noticed that you
guys are making a conscious effort not to let sketches drag on interminably
but it's lost when you're showing sketches that are too long just by being
in existence. You can do better. Until then, I'm sorry; you're just not that
cool and I'm going to have to start sucking up to Samantha
Bee.