SNL at the Top of It's Game

Saturday Night Live has now been on the air 37 years. As we watch the show from week to week one of the most frustrating facts that we realize is that this show can in one week can go from funny and relevant to having an episode that is terrible. Sometimes the skits that do not work make you think to yourself who, in their right mind, thought this would be funny.

With that being true there is another truth however and that is that SNL has a place in our popular culture that no other show has. While the late night comics consistently pick on our politicians and the news as part of their monologues and Jon Stewart has turned political spear-throwing into an art form no show is more relevant than SNL in demonstrating the humor of current events.

Saturday night's show was not perfect. One wonders why we continue to see Kenan Thompson's French singer on Weekend Update for example, but to counter that the Arianna Huffington skit was topical, funny and biting. One wonders if Democratic candidates could speak on women's issues in as strong and sharp a way as the Huffington character in this skit does if they would be further down the path to victory.

The most predictable skit in the show this week was the opening sequence which covered the debate between the Vice Presidential candidates. Certainly both of the candidates gave much material to be parodied. The skit was very well done, both sides were picked apart, notably the easy parody of Biden's physical gesturing and interruption tactics came early, but the skit did not stop there. It was not just the easy targets but more nuance was also apparent. A wonderful skit.

Still outside the political the most talked about skit, the skit that perhaps was more scathing, more bite the hand that feeds you, than anything we have seen in years was the Tech Talk skit. With Christina Applegate playing the host of a show in which folks complained about their new Apple phones the bite was when she, as host, introduced three peasant workers from China who make the phones. The contrast between the two groups forces shame on the Americans complaining and is a great critique of the American consumer.

At it's best SNL still skewers the culture better than any other entity.