Monday, February 3, 2014

COMEDY IS SUCH A CLEAR THING—PEOPLE EITHER LAUGH OR THEY DON'T LAUGH:  Lorne Michaels talks to Vulture about all the plates he's spinning, his schedule, the late night scene (and whether there will be one in thirty years), when someone should leave SNL, and much more.

It's a worthy read in many respects, but at one point he notes:
I don’t think there are that many people who think that their time here wasn’t one of the best periods of their life. It’s hard, and it’s competitive, but, as Dana Carvey says, “Show me one person who was funnier after SNL.”
Here's three: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman. Robert Downey Jr?

5 comments:

  1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus?

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  2. Adam C.1:41 PM

    Beyond those already mentioned, there are a bunch of SNL short-timers who defy the Michaels/Carvey hypothesis. Damon Wayans. Bob Smigel. Chevy Chase. Jenny Slate. Dave Koechner. Rob Riggle. From what lots of you say about Happy Endings, probably Casey Wilson. You could make out a pretty convincing case that Chris Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean,and Chris Elliott were funnier before AND after their SNL stints.

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  3. Duvall6:07 PM

    Tina Fey, Phil Hartman, Amy Poehler.

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  4. Joseph Finn8:32 PM

    Badly used. It just wasn't her scene and now she's free to be as funny as she is. Which is considerably funny.

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  5. Noreaster10:43 AM

    Ensemble players are funnier on SNL. Performance artists (Stiller, Silverman, etc) are useless on SNL and geniuses on their own.

    There's a third category that can be great at both (Ferrell, Sandler, Murphy). But I'd argue that even though they were hilarious on SNL, they stepped it up 10 notches in their movie careers.

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