Fuck Yeah SNL Writers

Celebrating the writers of SNL and their split seconds of airtime Sister sites: Fuck Yeah Character Actors Before The Breakout

[fyeahsnlwriters]

[fyeahsnlwriters]

I've been reviewing old SNL episodes for over five years (off and on), covering the Jean Doumanian and Dick Ebersol years. Currently doing 1983-84.

[bullhader]

Colin Jost on “Weakest Link”, 2002 (x)

[fyeahsnlwriters]

SNL's Weakest Link

[otterologist-blog]

So people have said that this Michael Che thing isn’t a big deal because it’s just one comment and it wasn’t that bad but these are all from his public facebook page so idk I think it’s pretty fucking bad.

[dontaskmen-blog]

Don’t forget Taran Killam defended Che and said he was one of the most sensitive and nice guys he knows.

[mulaners-deactivated20160201]

GUYS. LOOK AT THIS. SPREAD THIS AROUND.

nbcsnl nbcsnl nbcsnl

[deputydeputy-chiefofstaff]

I will no longer be watching nbcsnl while he is a cast member. Or Taran. THIS IS DISGUSTING. 

[fyeahsnlwriters]

I don't know if this is just ill-conceived trolling, but either way, Michael Che seems to have a history of really awful comments.  He's decent on Update (and a relief from Colin Milque-jost), but this doesn't really endear me to him at all.  Not that he's the first SNLer to make misogynistic remarks...

I haven't been thrilled with this season; too much Kenan Thompson and a lot of the long-in-the-tooth writers staying around (looking at you especially, James Anderson).  Jim Carrey's show had some signs of life, but this year's been oddly depressing.

Maybe they need to put the show on hiatus and fire a lot of people if it turns out Carrey's show was an aberration. 

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Less than two weeks to vote for The Worst SNL Sketches Of All Time

Send your votes, kids.

More info here.

[joshpatten]

Hey Josh - I wanted to reach out to you because I know you're super experienced at the UCB and writing professionally. What kinds of things (classes,YouTube vids, etc)could you recommend for someone interested in working at SNL? I've been taking improv classes at UCB, but wanted to know some other things that would help. Any and all answer would be greatly appreciated!

Hi! Thanks for asking. The best advice I can give is to point out that working at SNL is equal parts talent and luck, AND the number of people who work on the show at any given point in time is such a small, small percentage of comedians, actors and writers who would be positively great on the show. What this means is that, from a strictly numbers perspective, setting “working at SNL” is a goal that is a little bit too narrow, more akin to winning the lottery or being cast for a well-financed movie out of nowhere than it is a logical outcome of any comedic career path. 

THAT BEING SAID, goals are great! My goal before I got hired wasn’t to work on this show particularly, but it was to be the best joke writer I could possibly be, and support myself through creative endeavors (be it writing, teaching improv, directing sketch, etc.). It’s useful, for me at least, to see a broad path but take it one step of the time. Partly because it’s a way I can concretely affect change, but mostly because thinking more than two steps ahead of anything fills me with a paralyzing anxiety and a crippling sense of failure. But no matter what your more immediate goals are, any path that begins with working as hard as you fucking can and being as nice and as generous as you fucking can is already headed in the right direction. 

Also, be nice to yourself and don’t get complacent.

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Christine Zander

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Conan O'Brien

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Bob Odenkirk

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Alan Zweibel

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Anne Beatts

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Walter Williams (right, with Buck Henry) as "new castmember Gary Lipton", "Monologue" (1980).

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Mark O'Donnell, a writer for SNL during 1981-82, died Monday at the age of 58.  Among the sketches he contributed to are "42nd Street" (with Bernadette Peters), "The Mild One" (a Nelson Lyon sketch with Bruce Dern), "Executive Stress Test" (another Lyon sketch, with Danny DeVito), "Tales of the Unlikely" (with Bill Murray), "Schleimer & Laub" (with Christine Ebersole) and "Happy's Mayonnaise Palace" (with Eddie Murphy).  

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Tom Davis as male Nazi (with, left to right, Paul Shaffer, Brian Doyle Murray, Sarah Paley, Liz Welch, Franne Lee (hidden), Matt Neuman, Bill Murray)

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Tom Davis (top centre, with Akira Yoshimura, left and Terry Turner, right), "Chia Head", 1990.

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Tom Davis as an audience member, 1992

[fyeahsnlwriters]

Nelson Lyon as Josef Stalin (with Joe Piscopo and Tim Kazurinsky), 1982.