It's Okay to Laugh: SNL's Big 40th Anniversary Bash

Michael Auslin

Like a good chunk of American adults, I watched the whole “Saturday Night Live 40” special on Sunday night. Since I haven’t seen a show since sometime in the mid-1990s, and only very occasional clips since then, much of the retrospective went over my head. There was enough of the old stuff, however, to trigger a bunch of thoughts. Yes, it’s largely liberal, lefty humor, but it’s an indelible part of American culture, and a lot of it makes me laugh, especially the non-political sketches.

For a show considered at the cutting edge of entertainment, it’s hard to remember how primitive it, and our media world, was. When it debuted, on October 11, 1975 as “NBC’s Saturday Night,” there were no VCRs, tablets, YouTube, iPhones, personal computers, everything we use to share media today. There was just the show, on at 10:30 Central Time, and if you missed it, that was it, except for reruns in later years. Last night, I live tweeted throughout the show, like thousands of others, and many more used other social media I have no idea about, the evolution a lot of which has been driven by aims no more lofty than to share clips from shows like SNL.

When Don Pardo mangled the premiere of the (in his words) “Not For Ready Prime Time Players,” it was just 18 years since the great Sid Caesar had hung up his spurs on the classic Caesar’s Hour. In the interregnum, there was Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and The Carol Burnett Show, along with the occasional skits on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. But Lorne Michaels broke open the paradigm with guest hosts, singer-only numbers (as opposed to big dance pieces), and the fake commercials.

Last night was like every SNL I remember, a mixed bag. No need for Miley Cyrus or Kanye West, even Paul McCartney was unnecessary. But Paul Simon closing the show with “Still Crazy After All These Years,” was simply perfect.

Why didn’t they have the surviving original cast gather on stage, along with Albert Brooks? There have been many great talents over four decades, but Aykroyd, Chase, Curtin, Morris, and Newman were pioneers, and they should have been recognized.

Speaking of which, was I the only one thrilled to see Dan Aykroyd and Larraine Newman recreate the “Bass-o-matic” sketch? It was that type of gentle, yet spot-on satire (remember “Bag O’Glass” on “Consumer Probe”?) that made SNL the real successor to Caesar’s Your Show of Shows.

Why wasn’t there an homage to the great fake commercials (except “Colon Blow”?), like the classic “Royal Deluxe II,” with a ride smooth enough to perform a circumcision.

The hates and spites among the show’s cast members were legendary, but it would have been timeless to see Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd reunite with Jane Curtin to re-anchor “Weekend Update,” instead of having the mediocre impersonation of past characters. But that was almost made up for by Bill Murray’s rendition of the love song from Jaws, as lounge lizard Nick Ocean, and the brief re-emergence of King Tut.

Kudos to SNL for having Garrett Morris once again portray the shouting headmaster of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing, during Chase’s brief appearance. Ditto for the clip of “Point-Counterpoint,” with Aykroyd’s classic, “Jane, you ignorant slut” line. It was nice to be reminded when we could have satire without protests.

My gripes were probably like everyone else’s: why nothing more from Chevy Chase, Candace Bergen, or Christopher Walken? Why no Dennis Miller or Albert Brooks? Trying to get everyone on stage for at least 5 seconds may have been the logical move, but it made for a disappointing mess of a show.

I didn’t expect to get so nostalgic. The beautiful photomontage set to music showed the cast in their prime, especially the first cast sitting in Central Park before becoming famous. That was particularly poignant, full of such hope and in retrospect, such achievement ahead. But seeing how poorly Chevy Chase and Paul Simon have aged, Steve Martin with granddad spectacles as King Tut, even a middle-aged Adam Sandler and David Spade, was another undeniable reminder of time’s march. Maybe because I see them forever young on the videos, I expect them to have remained that way.

Someone tweeted, after the Bass-O-Matic sketch, when did Dan Aykroyd become so unfunny? He hasn’t, he’s just the same. It’s we who’ve changed, however, become coarser and more cynical. And the irony is, it’s due in no small part to the success of Saturday Night Live. The law of unintended consequences. It could make for a good sketch next week.

UPDATE: Recently posted on National Review.