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SNL: The Current Cast Discussion

nymusix

By nymusix
in Saturday Night Live

formerlyfreedom
Message added by formerlyfreedom

Discussion in this topic is for current cast members. Thank you!

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Cornhusker12
Cornhusker12

Here's something that seems like it's being lost in this discussion throughout the internet I think: There isn't just "safe PC comedy" and "edgy non-PC comedy." There is a giant spectrum which include

vb68
vb68

I could tell that's the way it was going, and I have to say I'm pretty relieved. It was going to cast a pall over the whole season.  I appreciate the apology from Lorne and the acknowledgement that th

BoogieBurns
BoogieBurns

We only need Alec to play Trump until November guys! That's when we all wake up from this 19 month nightmare.

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Phishbulb

Phishbulb

Not sure how big a deal the Critic's Choice Awards are, but Kate McKinnon was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy for her role in "Ghostbusters". Interestingly, these awards will take place Sunday, December 11th, which is the same weekend they're doing a show.

Generally they try not to schedule SNL episodes the same weekend as awards shows; wonder if she's just not going to attend. Doubt Lorne would let her out of doing a show that week. Coincidentally the awards are being hosted by her "Office Christmas Party" co-star T.J. Miller.

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vb68

vb68

(edited)

I was just thinking in the John Cena episode thread that none of the newbies have clocked any appearances on Update yet. That's typically how a newbie can get some quality air-time and notice; think both Pete and Leslie.  I thinking particularly about Melissa, who apparently was hired for her impressions, such as J Lo and Owen Wilson.

Maybe it doesn't mean anything. Mikey is doing great and fits in like a glove, filling in a lot of Taran's gaps. Alex seems to be a really good utility guy.  Melissa is definitely there in small parts, too.  Just wondering when they give her a spotlight.   I know she had that bad press over some tweets right after she was hired (like Rudnitsky last year). It's easy to be cynical and say that had an effect.  It has crossed my mind.  I'm not sure.  

Edited by vb68
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Phishbulb

Phishbulb

(edited)

I too am wondering why they're not letting Melissa do more of her impressions. She actually does an impression of Kristen Wiig which they didn't let her do when Wiig hosted. Owen Wilson has a movie coming out in January called "Bastards" so I wonder if we will see her do her Owen Wilson impression, which is quite funny. Some of them I can see being kind of problematic- like she does Wanda Sykes really well, but it'd be kind of hard to do that visually without it being offensive. But at this point in the season I feel like we'd even seen Noel Wells do more impressions on the show than Melissa has (the two that she has done, Sarah Silverman and Winona Ryder from "Stranger Things", were both very good). 

Edited by Phishbulb
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Dev F

Dev F

(edited)
3 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

But at this point in the season I feel like we'd even seen Noel Wells do more impressions on the show than Melissa has (the two that she has done, Sarah Silverman and Winona Ryder from "Stranger Things", were both very good). 

It's interesting that you mention this, because it reminds me that Noel Wells did indeed come out of the gate very strong with impressions like Hannah Horvath in the Tina Fey Girls parody, but then over the course of her premiere season she faded into the background and was quickly jettisoned from the cast.

I wonder if SNL has trouble finding a reliable place for female impressionists -- or impressionists in general, really. For every one like Darrell Hammond who hits it big, you have a lot more who end up only puttering along despite their impressive ability (Jay Pharoah), or who only break through in a non-improv capacity (Jimmy Fallon). Even though the show relies so heavily on celebrity impressions, it ends up being a much better showcase for people who depend more on comedic acting chops than straight-up mimicry (Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon), or the rare utility player who can do it all (Bill Hader).

Edited by Dev F
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Princess Sparkle

Princess Sparkle

It's going to sound meaner than I intend it, but Melissa really needs to work on her enunciation, to the point where it makes me wonder if that's why she's not getting very many spots yet. It might be fine in her impressions, but in all the sketches she's been in so far, I feel like she's got a set of marbles in her mouth. 

Its something that can be fixed if she works on it - just listen to how Max Greenfield talked in the first season of Veronica Mars to now - but I do wonder if it's hindering her at the moment.  

It also could be a case where, because the cast has so many talented women right now, she's not giving herself a place to stand out. That tends to happen in the casts where there's close to an even amount of women to men and all the women are good; part of the reason Tina wrote Debbie Downer for Rachel Dratch was because Rachel was having a hard time getting into and standing out in sketches. I have a sneaking suspicion that's Sasheer's problem as well; she doesn't have any sort of recurring character (closest thing was that YouTube girl she did with Kyle), she doesn't really do impressions, and based on her WU desk pieces, I'm not sure she's the strongest writer for herself either.  

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Phishbulb

Phishbulb

Sasheer actually has written (or co-written) some sketches lately where she wasn't the focus, like she was a writer on the "Wiz Live" sketch from last season with Ryan Gosling, and also cowrote the "Stranger Things" sketch this season with a new writer, Kristen Bartlett. That Stranger Things one is kind of noteworthy because she was in no way the focus of that sketch, so she's attempting to write cast pieces for other people, which is nice. I think she was also one of the writers of the "The Cut" sketch with Brie Larson as well. Maybe that's why they retained her and got rid of Jay Pharoah- she appears to have some talent in the writing department even if she's not getting on camera as much as the other female cast members. 

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Bruinsfan

Bruinsfan

(edited)
3 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

Sasheer actually has written (or co-written) some sketches lately where she wasn't the focus, like she was a writer on the "Wiz Live" sketch from last season with Ryan Gosling, and also cowrote the "Stranger Things" sketch this season with a new writer, Kristen Bartlett. That Stranger Things one is kind of noteworthy because she was in no way the focus of that sketch, so she's attempting to write cast pieces for other people, which is nice. I think she was also one of the writers of the "The Cut" sketch with Brie Larson as well. Maybe that's why they retained her and got rid of Jay Pharoah- she appears to have some talent in the writing department even if she's not getting on camera as much as the other female cast members. 

That's three of the better sketches they've done in the past year, so it does seem like her behind-the-scenes contributions could more than make up for any lack of sparkle on camera.

Edited by Bruinsfan
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ebk57

ebk57

3 hours ago, cpcathy said:

Taran Killam has landed on his feet, in....wait for it....Hamilton. He will be playing King George starting in January.

I'm seeing it again in February.  Really looking forward to this!

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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

(edited)
On 9/28/2016 at 8:26 PM, BoogieBurns said:

We only need Alec to play Trump until November guys! That's when we all wake up from this 19 month nightmare.

Yeah, about that.

It sounds like Alec is basically staying in the role because it really, really pisses Trump off.

I'm liking Mikey Day. He's getting pretty decent face time for someone new, but he seems more along the lines of a utility player.

Edited by methodwriter85
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topanga

topanga

(edited)
On 12/13/2016 at 7:51 PM, Princess Sparkle said:

It's going to sound meaner than I intend it, but Melissa really needs to work on her enunciation, to the point where it makes me wonder if that's why she's not getting very many spots yet. It might be fine in her impressions, but in all the sketches she's been in so far, I feel like she's got a set of marbles in her mouth. 

Its something that can be fixed if she works on it - just listen to how Max Greenfield talked in the first season of Veronica Mars to now - but I do wonder if it's hindering her at the moment.  

It also could be a case where, because the cast has so many talented women right now, she's not giving herself a place to stand out. That tends to happen in the casts where there's close to an even amount of women to men and all the women are good; part of the reason Tina wrote Debbie Downer for Rachel Dratch was because Rachel was having a hard time getting into and standing out in sketches. I have a sneaking suspicion that's Sasheer's problem as well; she doesn't have any sort of recurring character (closest thing was that YouTube girl she did with Kyle), she doesn't really do impressions, and based on her WU desk pieces, I'm not sure she's the strongest writer for herself either.  

Yes, articulation definitely can be worked on--"The Tip of the Tongue..." and other diction exercises. 

Thanks for the memory of watching Deputy Leo mumble and having to watch the episode clip multiple times to figure out what the hell he was saying to Veronica. When I listen to him now, Max Greenfield barely sounds like the same person.

And no criticism to you at all, but I find it interesting that when the SNL cast has an abundance of talented men, we end up with a lot of male-centered sketches. Sure, there are times when a man might get side-lined, but it happens way more often when we get "too many" talented women. 

Edited by topanga
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JZL

JZL

14 hours ago, possibilities said:

I thought she was likable and funny. She's really being wasted in SNL, where she rarely gets much of anything to do.

I think I've read here that she's contributing more via her writing.

Speaking of writing, does anyone know if Vanessa Bayer writes very much?

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Phishbulb

Phishbulb

I know Vanessa co-wrote "Santa Baby", which was one of the better short films last season, and also the bullying one with Ronda Rousey. It seems like a lot of times her best work is in the pre-taped films (like the "Totino's" commercial this season). 

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vb68

vb68

I still wonder what happened with Paul Brittan. He's been gone for five years, too.  That was so odd, and I haven't heard much of anything about him since then.   

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BoogieBurns

BoogieBurns

2 hours ago, vb68 said:

I still wonder what happened with Paul Brittan. He's been gone for five years, too.  That was so odd, and I haven't heard much of anything about him since then.   

I haven't heard anything from him about the show, but he is still best friends with Taran. They have appeared on my favorite podcast a few times and I follow them both on twitter. So he seems fine. But it was weird how he just disappeared.

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Bruinsfan

Bruinsfan

I remember the show where Paul McCartney was the musical guest and they did a bit about him being the other, forgotten Paul on that night's show. Which seems pretty indicative of his full tenure, he just disappeared into the woodwork most of the time.

Right now I think the cast is good across the board except for Pete. This time around when adding a couple more WASP-ish guys they made sure they were (a) easy to distinguish from one another, and (b) actually funny, unlike the otherwise interchangeable horde that Beck came onboard with.

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vb68

vb68

38 minutes ago, Bruinsfan said:

I remember the show where Paul McCartney was the musical guest and they did a bit about him being the other, forgotten Paul on that night's show. Which seems pretty indicative of his full tenure, he just disappeared into the woodwork most of the time.

"Featured player Paul Brittan is in the house!"

But don't forget Lord Wyndemere, who was a pretty awesome character. "I have to have my sweets!"

In a class that included him, Taran, and Jay, who would have thought Vanessa would be the  last one standing? Her seven year contract will be up at the end of the season. It will be interesting to see if she goes or stays.

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Bruinsfan

Bruinsfan

Only the outlasting Taran part surprises me about Vanessa, and really just because he was such a utility player. She hit the spotlight with the Miley Cyrus Show sketches pretty early on, didn't she?

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cpcathy

cpcathy

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 0:33 PM, BoogieBurns said:

I haven't heard anything from him about the show, but he is still best friends with Taran. They have appeared on my favorite podcast a few times and I follow them both on twitter. So he seems fine. But it was weird how he just disappeared.

I thought Taran and Bobby were best friends! GASP!

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lovinbob

lovinbob

(edited)

I adore Bobby. I am happy for him and hope his show is a big hit. He's so talented. 

Can't stand John Larroquette, though, so that's kind of a bummer.

Edited by lovinbob
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cpcathy

cpcathy

I wish Bobby good luck, he's a great actor as well as a comedian, Drunk Uncle was often quite poignant. (even though Bill Hader is the best actor SNL has ever had). He will be missed!

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helenamonster

helenamonster

I'll definitely miss Bobby, he's probably my favorite male cast member currently. But he's been on the show a long time, and I've accepted the revolving door nature of the cast. I'm way more bummed when people I like duck out early or get fired.

They better bring Drunk Uncle back for one last hurrah, though.

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Princess Sparkle

Princess Sparkle

And the sweet goodbye messages for Bobby are already pouring in. He's been one of my favorite cast members for a long time; he's so funny (underratedly so, IMO), but from the sound of his cast mates, he also just seems like a really great guy. I hope he gets a proper send off tomorrow. 

 

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Princess Sparkle

Princess Sparkle

Just saw on Entertainment Weekly that tonight is Vanessa's last show as well.  Hope we see at least another porn stars sketch, and I wonder if we'll now have a few past cast members stopping by tonight with both Bobby and Vanessa leaving. 

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