For those of us who tend to celebrate the arrival of Saturday night with loose pants, a snack, and a worn-in spot on the couch, there's been a steady date available for the past 40 years. He's starting to be a bit paunchy around the edges and sometimes makes questionable fashion choices, but he's always there for us—Saturday Night Live.
The cool argument these days is that the sketch comedy institution has run its course—it can't be counter-culture, youthful, or even relevant in this digital age when a meme or video can make it 'round the world in thirty seconds. But does it need to be? When you're an institution, you can show up and phone in a few efforts. If you do that too often, you'll find yourself a memory, but who among us gives an even, balanced, and perfect effort every week at any of our jobs (both the paid kind and the cleaning spit-up kind)?
I am still tuning in happily for one of the few TV shows that I actually do watch live. For me, it's the promise that somewhere in that hour and a half there might be a laugh. I don't know about you, but I find that the older you get, a really great laugh is harder to find, and all the more treasured when you do find one.
SNL is absolutely wrapped in nostalgia for me; I can measure the stages of my life based on which cast I spent Saturday nights with—late nights babysitting, spending my fifteenth birthday with Wayne and Garth at the movie theatre, a cheerful spot in many a dateless weekend, watching with friends in university and repeating the best bits over and over, falling asleep in the middle after the first baby was born.
Here are my top all-time favourite hosts:
Everyone in the Five Timers Club
I was the very last convert to hop on the JT bandwagon owing to my distaste for boy bands, but he won me over on SNL.
Alec Baldwin
Despite the turmoil of his personal life, the man has both amazing comic timing and is just. So. Damn. Handsome. I would watch him open an envelope.
Emma Stone
She just seems to be having so much fun doing it, which is the right idea for a great host. Sometimes you can sense their discomfort with the whole experience, which isn't fun (or funny) for anyone, but Emma brings it, even when the sketch material is, well, sketchy.
Whenever people remark to me, "SNL wasn't that good this week!" I always think, "But what ninety-minute sketch show did you write, rehearse, produce, and put on this week?" By its very nature and creation, it's going to be uneven, loopy, possibly dangerous (live TV presents the deliciously dangerous possibility of anything happening or going wrong), and sometimes not the best way to spend your time. But the rest of the time, it's a live wire, balancing a wide selection of comedic styles, breeding the next generation of stars, and the joy of watching cast members trying to keep it together when the material gets to them—which some say bothers them the most of all, but to me it's the ultimate test of the material. If they're still laughing, I'm probably laughing too.
What more do you want from a steady date?
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