I yearn for the days SNL and comedians were not political hacks in disguise.

[*Nately120*]

(03-26-2024, 01:18 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: You're again making the thread's premise for it.

I'm not even arguing the premise, I'm saying that conservatives should blame capitalism and/or their own viewing habits for late night shows being liberally slanted. And most of this thread is about people who admit they haven't watched SNL in decades complaining that SNL doesn't give them what they want.

When I think of SNL I think of Tim Meadows pretending to be OJ Simpson.  I don't have a clue what they do on SNL now.  Only via my morbid fascination with politics do I know that Jim Carey did Biden and Alec Baldwin did Trump and the fact that Alec Baldwin did Trump is why a lot of right wingers are happy he could go to jail for manslaughter.  So there is another knock against people being able to handle criticism of their political idols.

[GMDino]

"SNL and late night shows don't make fun of Biden enough!"


(shows they make fun of him all the time)

"It's not about partisan politics!"

If you don't think they're funny...don't watch.  But don't complain about their political jokes and then say its not about politics.  

[StoneTheCrow]

(03-26-2024, 01:26 AM)Nately120 Wrote: I'm not even arguing the premise, I'm saying that conservatives should blame capitalism and/or their own viewing habits for late night shows being liberally slanted. And most of this thread is about people who admit they haven't watched SNL in decades complaining that SNL doesn't give them what they want.

When I think of SNL I think of Tim Meadows pretending to be OJ Simpson.  I don't have a clue what they do on SNL now.  Only via my morbid fascination with politics do I know that Jim Carey did Biden and Alec Baldwin did Trump and the fact that Alec Baldwin did Trump is why a lot of right wingers are happy he could go to jail for manslaughter.  So there is another knock against people being able to handle criticism of their political idols.

Not sure if you’re referring to me specifically here but I still watch SNL, it has not been decades though and I certainly don’t tune in every week like I used to. Those bits must’ve missed me. FWIW, I think Baldwin did a pretty funny and very over the top Trump. Nobody can touch Shane Gillis on that front though.

[hollodero]

(03-25-2024, 06:38 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: If you actually watched any of the shows instead of edited clips, you realize that they poke fun of Biden all of the time. Seth Meyers makes fun of Biden on almost every episode . . . But does Biden publicly blurt out every thought that's in his head like Trump? Nope. Not as much material to work with. it's hilarious that those on the right complain about hearing Trump jokes from comedians that they don't watch and want to know "Where are the Biden jokes?" . . . everyone is getting used to being spoon fed.

"I only know what I see or what I am guided to . . . I can't find shit on my own. And since I'm too lazy to look, I'll just assume that I'm right . . .  There . . . now I'm comfortable".

Oh you can make fun of Biden a little, sure. But it's just mostly harmless things that usually make him have some lovable quirks, like quoting him saying "Mularkey" or "I'm not kidding around here", or claim that he personally witnessed the civil war, all quality jokes... but you can not possibly go further or else you get lambasted, like Stewart got. That's the new expectation, that they do not really go after the powerful, only after the powerful on the Trump side of things. Eg. you only have to say the amount of dollars Trump has to pay in whatever lawsuit and people just cheer endlessly. That is not even comedy any more, and it's cowardly.

Admittedly, some are worse then others. But the bold, inconvenient political comedy seems gone aside from Stewart and maybe Maher, the rest is pretty much MSNBC'd. Which might be a result of a deeply polarized society, but it's sad nonetheless. OP, imho, has a point.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-26-2024, 08:57 AM)GMDino Wrote: "SNL and late night shows don't make fun of Biden enough!"


(shows they make fun of him all the time)

Except they absolutely don't.

(03-26-2024, 11:23 AM)hollodero Wrote: Oh you can make fun of Biden a little, sure. But it's just mostly harmless things that usually make him have some lovable quirks, like quoting him saying "Mularkey" or "I'm not kidding around here", or claim that he personally witnessed the civil war, all quality jokes... but you can not possibly go further or else you get lambasted, like Stewart got. That's the new expectation, that they do not really go after the powerful, only after the powerful on the Trump side of things. Eg. you only have to say the amount of dollars Trump has to pay in whatever lawsuit and people just cheer endlessly. That is not even comedy any more, and it's cowardly.

Admittedly, some are worse then others. But the bold, inconvenient political comedy seems gone aside from Stewart and maybe Maher, the rest is pretty much MSNBC'd. Which might be a result of a deeply polarized society, but it's sad nonetheless. OP, imho, has a point.

Pretty much this, spot on.  As stated earlier, if Biden was POTUS in the 80's, 90's or 00's he'd get dumped on every single night, as would Harris.  The most interesting part of this is the people in this thread struggling to claim otherwise instead of admitting the obvious.

[GMDino]

(03-26-2024, 11:29 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Except they absolutely don't.



Pretty much this, spot on.  As stated earlier, if Biden was POTUS in the 80's, 90's or 00's he'd get dumped on every single night, as would Harris.  The most interesting part of this is the people in this thread struggling to claim otherwise instead of admitting the obvious.

Enough for who?  Then you say it's not about partisan politics. (That's the part you got off when you quoted me.)

Funny.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-26-2024, 11:43 AM)GMDino Wrote: Enough for who?  Then you say it's not about partisan politics. (That's the part you got off when you quoted me.)

Funny.

Because it is about partisan politics and it's blindingly obvious to anyone who isn't so slavishly devoted to the Dems they can't name a single Dem policy they disagree with.  

[*Nately120*]

Side note, hasn't Trump floated the idea out there that people who make fun of him when he's president should face consequences? I can only assume late night shows in North Korea and Russia aren't making fun of Kim Jong whatever and Putin. Maybe the late night folks are getting their jabs in while they still can. Maybe if Jimmy Kimmel laced into Biden ol Ice Cream Joe would start tossing the idea out there that Jimmy Kimmel should fall out of a window.

[StoneTheCrow]

(03-26-2024, 12:12 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Side note, hasn't Trump floated the idea out there that people who make fun of him when he's president should face consequences? I can only assume late night shows in North Korea and Russia aren't making fun of Kim Jong whatever and Putin. Maybe the late night folks are getting their jabs in while they still can. Maybe if Jimmy Kimmel laced into Biden ol Ice Cream Joe would start tossing the idea out there that Jimmy Kimmel should fall out of a window.

Biden thinks the media is too hard on him. There are stories of him yelling at the tv. And they’re probably the only reason his approval rating is even in the 30’s. You may be right, he’d want Kimmel’s big old square head to roll.

[GMDino]

(03-25-2024, 06:54 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: It's not about comedy with a political leaning in either direction.  The point being made is that the POTUS used to be made fun of, regardless of which party.  Politicians on both side were made fun of.  If Biden was POTUS during the 80's or 90's he'd be decimated on late night TV every single night.  The guy provides endless material and the occasional joke at his expense doesn't disprove the point being made.

(03-26-2024, 11:49 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Because it is about partisan politics and it's blindingly obvious to anyone who isn't so slavishly devoted to the Dems they can't name a single Dem policy they disagree with.  

(03-25-2024, 06:54 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote:  I honestly don't care at all, I stopped watching late night shows entirely after Conan retired.  But to claim it's not horribly slanted now is just asinine.

K

[*Nately120*]

(03-26-2024, 12:22 PM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: Biden thinks the media is too hard on him. There are stories of him yelling at the tv. And they’re probably the only reason his approval rating is even in the 30’s. You may be right, he’d want Kimmel’s big old square head to roll.

He ought go all corn pop on that damn talk box.  Wait, is a talk box a radio?  Ehh, who cares.

[Mike M (the other one)]

(03-26-2024, 12:22 PM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: Biden thinks the media is too hard on him. There are stories of him yelling at the tv. And they’re probably the only reason his approval rating is even in the 30’s. You may be right, he’d want Kimmel’s big old square head to roll.

Nothing like having the SC overturning your attempts to control the media. 

[HarleyDog]

(03-25-2024, 04:41 PM)hollodero Wrote: I mean, imho some like Colbert went a bit extreme with their Trump jokes. Which I gladly largely attribute to Trump being extreme and also perfectly unlikeable, and also that often just citing him verbatim is funny. But it gets too much, dumb and repetitive at times. After the thousandth pee pee joke I had to severely cut down late night for me, on the counts that all the jabs indeed stopped being funny and started to turn into an annoying pandering to the liberal audience. Some worse than others.

I for one can understand the sentiment a bit.

Same reason I have stopped watching late night. It turned from being funny to beating a dead horse. SNL on the other hand, I don't mind watching it as I still chuckle. But OP is right when he says it's not as good as it once was. Johnny Carson was hilarious and so was David Letterman. That was good TV. 

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(03-26-2024, 11:23 AM)hollodero Wrote: Oh you can make fun of Biden a little, sure. But it's just mostly harmless things that usually make him have some lovable quirks, like quoting him saying "Mularkey" or "I'm not kidding around here", or claim that he personally witnessed the civil war, all quality jokes... but you can not possibly go further or else you get lambasted, like Stewart got. That's the new expectation, that they do not really go after the powerful, only after the powerful on the Trump side of things. Eg. you only have to say the amount of dollars Trump has to pay in whatever lawsuit and people just cheer endlessly. That is not even comedy any more, and it's cowardly.

Admittedly, some are worse then others. But the bold, inconvenient political comedy seems gone aside from Stewart and maybe Maher, the rest is pretty much MSNBC'd. Which might be a result of a deeply polarized society, but it's sad nonetheless. OP, imho, has a point.

Yeah, most of the stuff by Meyers is harmless, but he still shows the older falls, slips, problems with stairs when none of the others bring up the past ones. And I think that the OP isn't quite remembering SNL correctly. I have the Peacock app and I went back about a year ago to watch a lot of ''The Not Ready For Prime-Time Players'' and the pacing was very slow and some of the sketches didn't quite live up to when I saw them as a kid, Samurai Night Fever specifically. George Carlin was on many of the early shows and some of his routines weren't comedy routines as much as they were hippy complaints about society and the government. Paul Simon would play songs with some commentary. Dan Akroyd as both Nixon and Carter were regular appearances

Here's a Pre-Trump era article from The Hill in 2015 about their favorite political sketches, with Rudy Giuliani getting in a positive quote.
https://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/232847-40-years-of-snl-political-sketches/

I'm more of the belief that Americans have changed far, far more than SNL has. No one was in their own media bubble back then.

Edited to add - I couldn't find the quote but in one of his post SNL interviews, Phil Hartman said one of the reasons that he left SNL was that it was getting less political and more towards Sandler's childish style of humor

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(03-26-2024, 11:49 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Because it is about partisan politics and it's blindingly obvious to anyone who isn't so slavishly devoted to the Dems they can't name a single Dem policy they disagree with.  

Since you love to repeatedly bring this up, I'll finally give my answer.

As a lifelong Independent, I gave up on policy differences for the most part about 35 years ago. I realized that no matter who I vote for, I'm also voting for things that I'm against. So now that leaves me with character and lately, this is a MAJOR Republican weakness. I have stated before, as long as Trump is your candidate, I am forever against you. And that 'you' that I speak of is the current Republican party.

For the last 35 or so years, I would ask myself this about the candidates.

Would I . . . ?
Want want him/her as a neighbor
Want him to be the coach of a kids team/role model
Want to work for them
Want to hire their company
Trust them with my money
Trust them with other people's money

And also, do they have the ability to make thought out decisions and not act irrationally or on emotion? Nately had a great line about the possibility of senility in each candidate, paraphrasing/butchering here ''I feel that Biden could be talked into doing something sane by his staff and Trump would most likely ignore good advice and listen only to those that feed into his worst impulses.''

And as far as pointing out a policy, I don't like whatever made it easier on small crime about 8 years ago and made shoplifting a profession. I was threatened to be fired because I followed a shoplifter out of the store that I worked at, just to take a close up picture of his license plate. I didn't confront them or try to take the merchandise back and was pulled into the security office and told not to follow them outside again. 20 years in the company and I lasted one more month before moving on.

[*Nately120*]

(03-26-2024, 02:49 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Same reason I have stopped watching late night. It turned from being funny to beating a dead horse. SNL on the other hand, I don't mind watching it as I still chuckle. But OP is right when he says it's not as good as it once was. Johnny Carson was hilarious and so was David Letterman. That was good TV. 

In all fairness times change.  Johnny Carson retired from the late show in 1992, so us talking about Carson's era now is like someone in 1992 talking about how TV was in the 1930s to 1960 or so.  We are old and, as Hall & Oates said a whopping 40 years ago, out of touch.

[Stewy]

(03-26-2024, 02:49 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Johnny Carson was hilarious and so was David Letterman. That was good TV.   DAGNABIT!!!!!

Exclamation added me.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-26-2024, 04:15 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Since you love to repeatedly bring this up, I'll finally give my answer.

As a lifelong Independent, I gave up on policy differences for the most part about 35 years ago. I realized that no matter who I vote for, I'm also voting for things that I'm against. So now that leaves me with character and lately, this is a MAJOR Republican weakness. I have stated before, as long as Trump is your candidate, I am forever against you. And that 'you' that I speak of is the current Republican party.

For the last 35 or so years, I would ask myself this about the candidates.

Would I . . . ?
Want want him/her as a neighbor
Want him to be the coach of a kids team/role model
Want to work for them
Want to hire their company
Trust them with my money
Trust them with other people's money

And also, do they have the ability to make thought out decisions and not act irrationally or on emotion? Nately had a great line about the possibility of senility in each candidate, paraphrasing/butchering here ''I feel that Biden could be talked into doing something sane by his staff and Trump would most likely ignore good advice and listen only to those that feed into his worst impulses.''

And as far as pointing out a policy, I don't like whatever made it easier on small crime about 8 years ago and made shoplifting a profession. I was threatened to be fired because I followed a shoplifter out of the store that I worked at, just to take a close up picture of his license plate. I didn't confront them or try to take the merchandise back and was pulled into the security office and told not to follow them outside again. 20 years in the company and I lasted one more month before moving on.

I actually wasn't speaking to you, but thank you for the answer.  I can also understand your position.  Yet some here can't seem to find a Dem policy they disagree with.  It strikes me as extremely strange to be in total lockstep with every position of any political party

[Belsnickel]

(03-26-2024, 05:48 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I actually wasn't speaking to you, but thank you for the answer.  I can also understand your position.  Yet some here can't seem to find a Dem policy they disagree with.  It strikes me as extremely strange to be in total lockstep with every position of any political party

To be quite honest, most people have no idea what the actual political positions are of the parties. I mean, one party lacks an actual platform and the other has a wide spectrum of members. Political parties in this country only exist to provide a structure for elections and members are not beholden to any sort of party positions. The majority of voters only have ad hoc policy positions and are not ideological other than the superficial things we see with the most ardent followers.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(03-26-2024, 07:13 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: To be quite honest, most people have no idea what the actual political positions are of the parties. I mean, one party lacks an actual platform and the other has a wide spectrum of members. Political parties in this country only exist to provide a structure for elections and members are not beholden to any sort of party positions. The majority of voters only have ad hoc policy positions and are not ideological other than the superficial things we see with the most ardent followers.

Democrats had better do as much as they can if and when they defeat Trump, because once he's out of the picture, many never Trumpers that held their nose when they voted Democrat will be gone from their ranks. It's not a good sign when the other party is temporarily losing members to your side and you can barely beat them.