‘SNL UK’ Feels Like a Return to the New York Comedy Staple. Can the Flagship Show Take Notes?
Saturday Night Live is a comedy staple with many comedians longing to be on the sketch comedy show. It has, however, had many changes throughout the years. And the new spin-off, Saturday Night Live UK, has ushered in a return to form. Maybe the flagship series should take notes.
For over 50 years, SNL has made us laugh with live sketches each week. But there are eras of the show that stand out above others. Many millennials found their humor in the casts of the 90s and early 00s. It is why so many of us still know the entire Lonely Island discography. But the show itself has struggled in recent years to find a tone that fit.
With recurring characters happening multiple times a year, ruining the bit of them, to sketches that really just don’t work, the series has hit a lull. There is really no reason why we’ve had 3 Domingo sketches all on top of each other. SNL UK, however, brought a fresh kind of style to the format of the series that reminded me of seasons past. And that’s a good thing.
More often than not, shows like SNL find their footing and stick with it. The key to the success of Saturday Night Live is the show’s ability to evolve with each new cast. Right now though, they’ve been stuck in the same kind of jokes and style for the last few years. SNL UK shows that you can still manage to make sketches work in the modern comedy landscape.
A reminder of what SNL can do
Not everyone is going to vibe with what SNL UK is doing and that’s okay. But watching it as a lifelong fan of the original series, I couldn’t help but be proud of the work they were doing. It felt both like it was honoring what came before it while making it their own show. Which is great and what every cast of Saturday Night Live should be doing.
I don’t hate what the flagship is doing. It works. I often laugh but there are not that many sketches that I want to rewatch time and time again. The last live sketch that felt that way to me was Ego Nwodim’s Lisa from Temecula with host Pedro Pascal. That was in 2023, three years ago. Since, the sketches have felt like dust in the wind. There have been a few exceptions but for the most part, there hasn’t been anything that really hits like the show used to. And that’s sad to me.
Watching the UK series, there were multiple sketches I could see as recurring bits. The David Attenborough dinner table? Jugs, the bra saleswoman? All of it I would happily watch again as the show goes on. And I do hope that maybe the flagship series will take note but if they don’t, at least the UK series is showing that you can still have a lot of fun with this style of comedy.
(featured image: Peacock)
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