You could barely hear yourself think with all the crowing.
“Four stars!” raved USA Today. “Fearlessly
funny and introspective!” declared The Miami Herald.
“The potential to be a small screen classic!” screamed
the Chicago Tribune.
Things were going well for Aaron Sorkin. His new show,
NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” was
getting eye-popping reviews. Most importantly, he was now being
counted on to revive NBC’s suddenly flagging fortunes.
Then he did something dumb: He made more episodes.
One month after the premiere of “Studio 60,” critics
are stuffing their mouths with crow. Publications such as the San
Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune, which sang hosannas
over the show, are now publishing articles about how it has failed
to live up to expectations and, more importantly, just what the
show’s problem is.
According to critics, the main issue with “Studio
60″ is that its comedy sketches are not funny. The show,
based on a “Saturday Night Live”-style premise, should
have really funny bits, right? And since the characters think the
comedy they’re writing is so brilliant, we should be bowled
over with laughter. Right?
Well, not exactly.
Sure, the sketches on “Studio 60″ are either
mediocre or fall completely flat. Sketches such as “Science
Schmience” and “Juliette Lewis hosts Meet The
Press” don’t inspire laughter. But this doesn’t
hurt the show in my opinion. If anything, it makes the show’s
satire even more accurate. After all, it is based on
“SNL.”
And uh, guys … have you seen “SNL” lately?
To be fair, I have never heard anyone say anything positive
about a current incarnation of “SNL.” The most common
phrase with respect to “SNL,” it seems, is “Oh
god, it’s SO bad now.” Funny thing is, as soon as a
cast member leaves (i.e. Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows, Will Ferrell,
Tina Fey), people yearn for the “good old days” when
so-and-so was on. So in theory, “SNL” is never as bad
as people claim.
Until now. Witness the season premiere, minus Tina Fey, Chris
Parnell and Horatio Sanz, with Dane Cook hosting and Seth Meyers as
the new Weekend Update co-anchor.
How bad was it? Well, Brian Williams was the funniest person not
named Amy Poehler. Yes, Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News,
in a cameo.
Lowlights included an excruciating opening sketch with President
Bush at a gala for a new state comptroller. The skit involved
Republicans wanting nothing to do with the president and Bush
responding with delusional optimistic statements (“The Saints
are 3-1!”). I wouldn’t qualify comedy as something I
can see for myself on CNN every day.
Worse still was Cook’s opening monologue, where the
hottest comedian in the United States proceeded to embarrass
himself with banal observational humor and his tired schtick of
prancing around and repeating things while raising his voice.
Cook’s big joke? YouTube has lots of videos.
And that’s without mentioning the atrocious skit where
Cook and some other cast member are water-jug delivery men who are
drinking their product and are visited by an angry supervisor. The
climax of the skit comes when they open a closet and empty jugs
fall out … for nearly two minutes. Cook even alludes in the
sketch to how unfunny all of this is and that it’s wasting
time for this very reason.
Are the “Studio 60″ sketches really that bad
compared to this? Sure, “Science Schmience”
could’ve been thought up by anyone with vague knowledge of
the religious right. And “Juliette Lewis hosts Meet The
Press” doesn’t even make sense, as Lewis hasn’t
done anything lately. But is that really worse than
“SNL”’s cracked-out Farrah Fawcett sketch with
Poehler from the season premiere? Farrah hasn’t done anything
recently either, and this would’ve been funny about eight
years ago when Fawcett was all tweaked out on Letterman.
These sketches are no worse than “SNL.” In fact,
they’re about the same level of quality.
And if Sorkin is aiming for a satire of “SNL,” then
he may have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Putting flat sketches and writers with delusions of grandeur
into a comedy show that is supposed to emulate the laugh-free
“SNL”? That, my friends, has the potential to be a
small-screen classic.
Humphrey thinks this is all moot, because “30
Rock” is actually funnier than both of these shows. E-mail
him at mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.