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Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
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Jack_Burton
09/12/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
I don't think I saw Wilson get any decent writing. I think she has potential, but with so little material to form an opinion, from this side of the screen, it's tough to tell.
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vulcanized
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
In my mind, I fired Casey Wilson because of Bride Wars.
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Fizzy77
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
Michaela Watkins was on it for HALF a season. and she was hysterical. This was a bad call. Kristen Wiig wasn't "kristen wiig!" within the first year either.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
09/11/09

@Fizzy77: Yeah, she was totally outshone by the rest of the cast her first year, especially the women. i think they're desperate for another Tina or Amy (or Kristen), so they're just going to keep hiring new female cast members until someone sticks. Which is pretty damned hard in half a season.
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aprilmayhem
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
How about the fact that these girls just weren't that funny? They in no way compared to Kristen Wig, who was fairly new, or Amy Pohler, which are the caliber of performers I think we should expect from such a classic show.
But then again, how long has Kel from Keenan and Kel been on that show without talk of being fired and with only one mediocre Bill Cosby impression to his credit?? Seriously, somebody needs to reevaluate that dude's contract!
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suck_it_monkeys
09/11/09

@aprilmayhem: "How about the fact that these girls just weren't that funny?"

I thought that was the main point of this post? It's even in the title.
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worrywort
09/11/09

@aprilmayhem:

Kel Mitchell hasn't appeared in a single episode of Saturday Night Live, which may account for the lack of discussion regarding his contract.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
09/11/09

@aprilmayhem: I must admit, I love his French stand-up act. But in most of the scenes he's in he gets one line as a grumpy observer. It's like he *knows* if he weren't black he'd be booted out so fast, and he's both angry and overjoyed about it. Same thing if they only had a single, so-so woman.
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sanibelly
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
Does this mean Abby Elliott was NOT fired?

That is BULLSHIT. Michaela Watkins was ten times funnier than her twelve-year-old ass.
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
09/11/09

@sanibelly: Both were featured so little I never knew if it was one of them or the other in a brown wig.
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Lady Skittlehattington
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
My thinking is that no one should be let go from SNL until after two years and only if it is conclusively proven that the person is not as funny as expected.

How long did Lorne keep David Spade around before he came up with the Hollywood Minute? And Tim Meadows? It was the long-running joke before The Ladies Man that he didn't actually have any recurring characters. I just think this whole thing is a bit weird.

And maybe Lorne could look into some better hosts? Megan Fox? WTF?
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theKP
09/11/09

@Lady Skittlehattington: Seriously, I can't figure out why the show brings back skits that clearly don't work. I love Tracy Morgan on 30 Rock, but he should never, ever be allowed to do Brian Fellows again. Surely they could have found a better excuse to bring live animals on set. I'm sympathetic to the need to touch llamas and goats, but find some other way to justify renting the petting zoo!
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Lady Skittlehattington
09/13/09

@theKP: Oh, I love Brian Fellows. I didn't think it was funny at first, but it grew on me.

I have a HUGE issue with when they have someone genuinely funny and don't utilize that person's natural talents. Like when they had Hugh Laurie last year. WTF? A lamp sketch?
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ArtfulSlinger
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
Casey Wilson was also a supporting player. Many comedians do that for a year, to test the waters, to see how they gel and some stay, but most are replaced.

I don't believe Casey was fired for her weight or the fact she isn't funny, I just dont think her humor or talent gelled with what happens on SNL. THere are tons of funny people who just dont work out in this situation. And Watkins has always reminded me of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who also got the boot and look at her now.
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CashMoneyHoney
09/11/09

@ArtfulSlinger: This is funny since she was JLD's show The New Adventures of Old Christine as her younger brother's girlfriend.
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Shelwood
09/11/09

@CashMoneyHoney: His girlfriend that he eventually realized was a carbon copy of JLD's character. They played up the similar look, making it very funny, since Hamish and Julia have that running vague-incest joke for their characters.
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Raanne
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
Most people I know thought that Michaela Watkins was one of the funnier people on the show. I think that is one of the surprises... I know my husband would go around saying the "biiiissshhh pleeeaaase" for about a week after he saw one of those skits. There are unfunny people on SNL right now - but she wasn't one of them.
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o-line
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
I think it's difficult for females to by funny on SNL because in its modern era they rely on females for celebrity impressions rather than characters. Impressions grow tiresome and get forced into bad sketches. Many female SNL cast members get stuck in the background or play the straight man.

The only truly memorable non-impression characters from the past 15 years (that I can remember) are Mary Catherine Gallagher and Debbie Downer. Admittedly, the Fey/Poehler Weekend Update combo was high profile and awesome.
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mipsy6
09/11/09

@o-line: I think most of the players on SNL write their own material (partnered with the writing staff), so it's possible the women themselves may be partly to blame for not bringing out memorable characters. (This might support the "not funny enough" argument.) There are of course people at the top deciding what sketches make the show, but if people end up mostly in support or impression roles on SNL, it may be because they're not writing funny, original characters.
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ImDatNinja (loves her Red Sox)
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
Hello, Hoda Hoda you Ho, was my favorite catchphrase all summer. I know Wigg said it but without Hoda it means nothing.
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LvV
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
I do believe that SNL has diversity problems in casting. But these two women (Casey in particular; Michaela's Hoda Kotb was pretty great) weren't very funny. Of course, there are unfunny men on the show who probably deserve to be fired as well, and that is a problem, but I believe SNL when it says Wilson was not fired because of her weight (or unwillingness to lose any).

The idea that pretty women can't be funny is almost too stupid to address. I'd name a bunch but what's the point? We can all name a bunch. If Tom Shales can't find "model pretty" women funny that's his damn problem; enough of the rest of the world can laugh at the super-pretty women who are also hilarious.
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magnets
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
I know what you mean, but I am pretty sure that Casey Wilson as comedy void is a very popular theory as to the reasons for her firing.
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Edited by magnets at 09/11/09 4:45 PM magnets was starred magnets was unstarred

magnets
09/11/09

@magnets: Of course Shales' ~ponderings~ are nonsense, though.

But I do think this post is based on false premises and that most of the whisperings re appearance/age as reasons for contract termination here are aimed more towards suspicion of ol' boys club discriminatory practices and not at knocking these ladies down.
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TheUptightMidwesterner
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
For Chrissake- if Tom Shales would read his own damn book about SNL, he would remember that Candice Bergen was one of their fave guest hosts in the 70's and she was totally funny and ravishing.
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rodmanstreet
09/11/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner: But why does she have to be funny and ravishing? Why can't she just be funny?
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PrettyB is like Whoa
09/11/09

@rodmanstreet: because TheUptightMidwesterner is trying to point out the absurdity of Tom Shales arguing a woman can't be pretty and funny at the same time? She's not arguing you have to be both, but that pretty ladies can be funny too.
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rodmanstreet
09/11/09

@PrettyB is like Whoa: Yes, but what I mean is why does the lady's looks always have to be part of the discussion?
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TheUptightMidwesterner promoted this comment rodmanstreet was starred rodmanstreet was unstarred

TheUptightMidwesterner
09/11/09

@rodmanstreet: I agree- write to Tom Shales and ask him.
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andBegorrah
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
"Indecorous" is indeed a word, you ass. See? I'm unattractive AND humorless. Bam!
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linnyt is a walking cliché
09/11/09

In reply to Maybe They Just Weren't Funny Enough?
i admittedly didn't watch SNL a lot last year but I don't really remember anything with Michaela Watkins in it. I do remember Casey Wilson though. She was more memorable. I know I was glad to see her on the screen rather than Kristen Wigg again.
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Edited by linnyt is a walking cliché at 09/11/09 4:29 PM

katie.scarlett.o'hara
09/11/09

@linnyt is a walking cliché: I think she played Arriana Huffington in one skit? But that's about all I can remember her doing.
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