He was okay in that regard. Show me an Update host outside of Chevy Chase who didn't laugh at their own jokes when they bombed or need a little help?
He did better than most of his competitors http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/189393-Late_Night_Ratings_Jimmy_Fallon_Premieres_Strong.php
Well, in that respect, Fallon wasn't nearly as insufferable as Norm MacDonald. However, Fallon can't hold a candle next to Kevin Nealon, Colin Quinn, or Seth Meyers. So far, I find Fallon's style very nervous & distracting. He's only slightly better than Carson Daily (who just needs to be flat out cancelled and re-replaced with old SCTV reruns or something). What's worse is that Fallon seems to know that he's terrible. It's not like Conan O'Brien or Craig Ferguson, who just needed to wait until the audience grew accustomed to their own style of humor. I'm not even sure Fallon is actually funny.
^Well, in that case, I was talking more about his ability to tell the joke with a straight face. But then, Nealon will always have a certain place in my heart because, to me, he was the original host of Weekend Update (in that he was the incumbent host when I first started watching SNL). But in terms of raw talent, no one beats Colin Quinn or Seth Meyers. I still miss Quinn's grim, deadpan assessment of the human condition on a weekly basis. And I've fallen in love with Meyers simply because the show as a whole has gotten so much better ever since he took over as head writer.
Ugh Colin Quinn. Who read the news Like he was reading from the teleprompter. It was a very halting way of speaking.
SNL has gotten better? Aside from the opening political sketch and the news and the digital short, is anything funny anymore? I always find the regular sketches to be on the whole lameduck. Oh, how I long for the days of Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Tracy Morgan, etc, etc... What's the popular recurring sketch these days? Target Lady?
I think I'm the only person who has never liked Weekend Update. I find it boring and usually change the channel during that part. When you can watch shows like Daily Show and Colbert, the "funny" Weekend Update rendition of the news just doesn't cut it. I don't think the rest of the show has been much better for a while though. But Weekend Update has always been my least favorite part.
I wish. She was one of the few things I found funny before they caught a full case of Sambergitis. It's just not funny anymore.
Yeah. Colin Quinn may be one of the least funny people alive. The phone book is funnier than fucking Colin Quinn. Ditto for Andy Samberg. I'll give him credit for "Dick in a Box" but other than that he's a funny black hole.
I'd argue Samberg was funnier when he didn't act like he knew he was. Most comedians do better when they are self-deprecating, but does the opposite. Similar could be said of Fallon.
Frankly, what I think is saving the show right now is that, other than a few recurring Kristin Wiig characters (Target lady, that woman who is always trying to top everyone else), the show is mercifully absent of recurring characters that long outlast their welcome. IMO, it was repetitive sketches such as the Spartan cheerleaders, Mango, Mr. Peepers, Mary Catherine Gallagher, & the Night at the Roxbury guys that made the show so insufferable for so many years. Ferrell can stick with his crappy movies. Kattan & Shannon can rot in hell for all I care.
Friday's episode was okay Jarod Miller was annoying "HEY LISTEN TO THIS! c'mooooonnn you're not looking!"
Hmm, like what, exactly? Oh, right. I love love love how every generation loves their own version of SNL above all others. Hey, I'm with you, this is when I started watching too. Tim Meadows is still my favorite. As such, I keenly remember hearing all about how lame these people were. How Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley were so much better. How stupid and repetitive the cheerleaders were. How no one liked Magno or Mary Katherine Gallagher. How everyone missed Wayne's World. And so on and so forth. The only constant about SNL is that everyone starts watching when they're 12 or 13, loves it for 5 years, hates the next 5 years, and then starts watching again and admits that "it's gotten better than the last few years, but still not as good as when I was in high school." Is there an American alive that can't be described in that way?
Thing is, I didn't watch the show live, I watched it on Comedy Central reruns. So first I saw the Myers/Carvey/Sandler years, didn't find them terribly funny, then it moved onto the Ferrell years which I just found much better on the whole. I don't think I started watching it live until '99 or so.
I get your point but it's not that simple...that doesn't describe me, for example. I started watching during the Jon Lovitz, Phil Harman era early when Mike Myers was new and I really liked it. Then, as Farley and Sandler got bigger I liked that too. Finally, I remember the new cast with Will Ferrel doing the "get off the shed" sketch in the first episode and being blown away and thinking finally that this era with them became the best. It went downhill when Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon doing that boston thing was apparently the best thing they had. Then it got really bad, to the point where the only funny thing was Tina on the news. Finally, now, it's unwatchable. Samberg is insufferable, the target lady makes no sense (and not in a good way) and when you are watching a group of people who grew out of an era where Fallon is the Ferrel or Sandler of the group - then you are watching utter shite.
While I still think Target Lady is okay (mostly because of the absurd way it's done rather than the content), I agree with your points, Chess Piece Face.