May 19, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
nobody is talking about I LUV U Phillip Morris, but that was kind of a balls out role for Carrey …. the directors of ILYPM have a new film comedy coming out in the summer toplining Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling
I missed most of that sketch, but he was hysterical as the impressionist turned phony medium (Alan Thicke!), and in several other bits, too.
Question I need to ask myself: why do I still waste time watching SNL? Hasn’t been funny or relevant in years.
Question I need to ask myself, has there ever been a thread about SNL without some Gen X or Boomer guy talking about how it hasn’t been good since the glory days? They’re certainly in a writing slump, but the show is good when the host is good, just like it’s been for 40 years.
This sketch just proves how much this film has entered the general consciousness, kind of like the just okay Planview coffee shop sketch back in Spring ’08 (featuring one of Hader’s all-time best impressions and some of Armisen’s worst work ever.)
Yeah the show definitely has peaks and valleys. It does get better on Election years. Like 04, 08.
But The Daily Show has FAR exceeded it in jokes and relevant/topical humor.
Disco: go back to the two best SNL eras–the first four seasons and the Hartman/Hooks/Carvey/Lovitz/Miller years–watch any of the sketches and ask yourself, would they do this sketch today? Would “Citizen Kane II” or “The Sinatra Group” or “The Scotch Boutique” even make it to tech rehearsal? Of course not. They’re pandering to the same moronic-teenage-boy constituency that most movies do, and it’s now nothing more than an endless string of penis and ass jokes, aka lazy writing. The occasional bright spot (e.g., Fey as Palin) simply doesn’t cut it anymore.
SNL is like one long crappy viral video with a laugh track – yes, they clearly use a laugh track now. But Hader is great.
SNL is the kind of show DVR was invented for. We watch every week on Sunday night, and we only watch the sketches that work within the first minute or so. Sometimes we get through pretty fast (I think the De Niro show was about 20 min), but there’s usually at least one keeper in the bunch. Last night, we fast-forwarded maybe two sketches (the only perfect show since we got a DVR in early 2007 was the 2009 Dwayne Johnson episode). Last night was a pretty strong show, and that Amusement Park Robots bit after Weekend Update was downright brilliant. SNL gets tired here and there, but the cast is talented (Bill Hader can stand alongside any ‘classic’ cast member) and when the host is game and the writers step off the beaten path a bit (the alien sports anchor, the ‘What’s My Name’ game show, Rosario Dawson’s elementary-school Spanish police procedural), the show is every bit worth watching.
Scott: Now if only my cable system’s DVR allowed fast-forwarding for VOD shows. I’m not a religious SNL viewer by any means, but sometimes I’ll check VOD for one I missed and have to suffer through all the bad stuff to get to the good. Once, I accidentally clicked it back to the beginning and had to rewatch an endless, rather lame opening bit. I also suffered through the entirety of the De Niro episode for this reason.
By the way, we need a new BYOB up in here.
I dunno about video on demand, I just record the show when it airs and then watch it Sunday night.
“Cheeseburger, Pepsi” wasn’t funny. “Jane, You Ignorant Slut” wasn’t funny. Landshark wasn’t funny. Gilda Radner wasn’t funny. Just please — all of you old people: PLEASE, I beg you…watch the original SNL again. It just wan’t funny. Yes, I know it brings back memories. That’s fine. But please don’t tell me the jokes were good and that you laughed your asses off. Impossible. Please stop forcing Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd down my throat. They weren’t funny. Sometimes they were OK, mostly they weren’t. Sandler/Spade/Hartman/Myers/Rock…they were far funnier…and I have no vested interest. They were simply better. Will Ferrell was funnier. Kristin Wiig is funnier. But enough already with screaming at me that Garrett Morris and Father Guido Sarducci are funny. Please give the “they don’t make’em like that anymore” speech a rest.
hey jason: funny is in the eye of the beholder. “They weren’t funny”. maybe not to you, but thankfully you are not the universal arbiter in charge of deciding what is funny and what isn’t. (if i feel blue, sometimes i put on ‘fletch’, have a good giggle and grey skies turn to blue. you don’t think chevy was funny back in the day, fine, but i beg to differ)
Will Ferrel funnier than Bill Murray? Sure. Sure.
Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Chris Farley, David Spade, Adam Sandler, Kevin Nealon, Norm MacDonald, Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Jay Mohr, Darrell Hammond, Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, etc., etc. have all been funny, and also had to wallow through their share of bad sketches.
I agree it’s tiring for the olds guys to lament the Good Ol’ Days of SNL (I was a teen in the Carvey/Hartman/Hooks days and they were hilarious) but whenever SNL gets too lame they inject new blood. Hader’s been great, and I’m really liking Jay Pharaoh.
Notice NO ONE fondly remembers the Anthony Michael Hall / Joan Cusack / Robert Downey Jr. year.
But this is a Jim Carrey thread. He was great on In Living Color.
I loved the original cast and thought it reached a comedic peak with Guest, Crystal, and Short.
Yeah, I need those Billy Crystal, Chris Guest, and Martin Short episodes on DVD. Seriously, the mid-80s were tremendous for SNL. One would say, it was… MARVELOUS!
So I guess we old fucks should stop whining about the glory days of DUCK SOUP and HIS GIRL FRIDAY and SOME LIKE IT HOT and THE PRODUCERS because we can’t appreciate the sheer artistry of Sandler, Rogen, Galafianakis and those geniuses who do all the “_____ MOVIE” parodies.
Yeah, I have all of the first five seasons of SNL on DVD, and all of that stuff is still funny. It’s still funny like SCTV is still funny, Kids in the Hall is still funny, and Monty Python is still funny.
SNL has been hit and miss from day one. It’s sort of built into the format. But to dismiss the older stuff out of hand is no less ridiculous than giving it all pass due to nostalgia. We all know humor is subjective, so it’s hard to take seriously anyone who ever uses the phrase “_____ is simply not funny.”
I think all 36(!) seasons of SNL are now on Netflix Instant Watch, by the way.
Oh, believe me, SNL laid plenty of eggs back in the “good old days.” But at least they were trying to do smart comedy and gave their audiences credit for understanding what they were doing. The current show offers up digital shorts like “Andy Pops Into Frame” or “Andy Punches People,” where the supremely annoying Samberg does exactly that and no more, and sketches built around irritating characters and/or one gag that gets beaten to death over and over again when it wasn’t funny the first time around (“MacGruber” being an outstanding example). I remember one show hosted by Cameron Diaz that had four–count ’em, four–sketches that were parodies of MTV shows. A lot of fast-forwarding on that one.
The one that gets me is What’s Up With That, which features famous guest stars doing next to nothing while Kenan Thompson and his back up singers and dancers ring variations on the theme song. I realize that’s the joke, but it’s just endless, and doesn’t vary much from one episode to the next.
Samberg is fine when he sticks to musical shorts, IMO.
“What’s Up With That?” is just the latest in a long string of SNL sketches based on the same gag: the talk show host who never lets his guests speak. Sometimes it’s funny (“The Barry Gibb Talk Show,” the various “McLaughlin Group” spoofs), but in this case it isn’t.
The Crystal/Short/Guest/Belushi/Louis-Dreyfus/Shearer/Gross/Stevenson/Kroeger/Hall year… it was only one… is treated as a black sheep because it wasn’t produced by Lorne Michaels.
I worked there that year. I was a child.
So did Larry David, who couldn’t get a sketch on air. Also Carol Leifer. Marc Shaiman too, who had stuff on air every week. And the great Hal Wilner, who is still there.
Even did a Siskel & Ebert episode based around the film shorts… which is where I worked.
So very long ago…
I miss the hell out of Phil Hartman.
And “Cheesborger, Pepsi” is hysterical if you have ever been to the Billy Goat… right, Dave?