People say Saturday Night Live is so bad right now that they would rather have Margot Kidder perform root canal on them than sit through a full episode. I’ve been watching the show for years, and I can’t remember when it sucked this bad.
Remember when it just sucked?
Not the ‘twist my nuts in a nutcracker’ pain it seems to inflict on viewers now.
The “just sucked” period was in the mid nineties. Sandler and Farley had left, and we were presented with Chris Kattan, Darrell Hammond and Will Ferrell. The show eventually got worse adding Rachel “No, my face always looks like this” Dratch into the mix.
The writing was never was clever as the Belushi – Aykroyd era, but the one guy you could always count on to give it his all was Will Ferrell. No matter how dumb the sketch or how bad the co-stars, Will always seemed to try, and usually succeeded in cracking me up.
Come on, don’t tell me you don’t listen to Don’t Fear the Reaper and pick up on the cowbell now more than ever?
Will eventually realized he could make more money in films and he wouldn’t have to stare at Rachel Dratch’s face, call her his lover and try hard not to throw up in his mouth.
I laughed non stop during Old School, and Anchorman had me cracking up so hard I peed milk out of my nose and I was drinking root beer.
Finally, Will was given great material to work with and delivered a couple of home runs. Will, the SNL television funnyman trying to give it his all in mediocre material was dead; a true comic movie star with no relation to Colin Ferrell was born.
Then came disappointment. Will appeared in back to back garbage. ‘Kicking and Screaming’ and ‘Bewitched.’ Two crappy movies that not even Will could make funny.
I fell asleep during ‘Kicking and Screaming’ and I was so mad after ‘Bewitched’ I fixed Nicole Kidman up with Keith Urban (now who’s laughing Mrs. Cruise?).
Will is great when he’s given a character to inhabit. In ‘Anchorman’ he was Ron Burgundy, a boozing, arrogant womanizer living life in the seventies with a mustache to match.
Adam also made ‘Talladega,’ so I’m hoping he delivers again this time around. It’s like finding your favorite watering hole and going back again and again for that frosty light beer.
When Adam and Will get together they create great characters set in a hilarious environment, this time it’s the world of NASCAR. It also doesn’t hurt that they’ve managed to cast Sacha Baron Cohen AKA Ali G as Will’s nemesis in the racing world.
With so much going for it, I might have to tell the wife we’re going to see ‘Devil Wears Prada’ again to get her to the theater and then walk her into the Talladega screening.
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