A few months ago, I unexpectedly fell into a new pattern. I kept returning to clips from the College Humor YouTube channel. Over and over, I would watch videos where comedians pretend to be Girl Scouts selling cookies in the world of Euphoria, improvise a rap about chapped lips in the style of Eminem, or, in a stroke of genius, have Wayne Brady (!) sing a song about naughty sex. At the same time, I noticed that I hadn’t watched an SNL clip in ages, and I just didn’t care.
Why? The answer is that SNL was never funny moment to moment, even though it definitely has amazing high points. The reason is that SNL is what academic business researchers call a “garbage can organization,” where workers are randomly thrown together and they have to come up with stuff. The way SNL works is that the managers hire brilliant writers, actors, and comedians to fill up 90 minutes each week. They are literally tossed into a writer’s room (the “garbage can”), asked to come up with something, and hope it works.
The problem with garbage can approaches to comedy is that humor is really, really hard. Beginner comedians might struggle to write ten minutes of good jokes. Even top-notch performers need a year or so to really perfect an hour of stand-up comedy. In contrast, the SNL crew is asked to write an hour and a half of new material every single week.
This is why SNL often relies on cliches. For example, they do a lot of political humor. Why? It’s pretty easy to poke fun at politicians. This is why politics often appears in the cold opening and in Weekly Updates. Another cliche is to have a sketch that pokes fun at the host for that week. Even worse, many guest hosts just aren’t comic performers. Satires of other TV shows abound. I know the staff is working their tail off, but it’s conceptually lazy.
The result is that SNL shows are wildly uneven. The material is repetitive and often dull. When I was younger, I would actually watch whole shows, just hoping for those golden five minutes. During individual sketches, I would laugh for a few second and then ask, “When does this end so I can get to the next laugh?” For every brilliant short film, like “Lazy Sunday,” I would need to endure another 55 minutes of material that could’ve been written by a college sketch comedy group.
How is College Humor different? Mainly, it isn’t tied to a forced weekly 90 minute format. The staff isn’t told, “We need a Joe Biden skit this week, make it happen, and don’t forget to include Lizzo.” Instead, they have chosen a few formats, and they work really, really hard on them.
College Humor’s best format is probably the “improv game.” The comedians are asked to play in a game show (“Game Changer”) where a host has prompts and then the comedians riff. The improv game has some nice features. If a joke bombs, it’s over soon. The host also has a buzzer and the host can cut people off when the joke has run its course. There is no need to desperately fill time a la SNL. Also, friendly competitions often bring out the best in performers.
College Humor also has very strong sketch comedy. It probably works well because the staff isn’t forced to just churn out material. Rather, they probably just focus on a handful of good and mercifully short sketch ideas. My favorite is the “defender of the basic,” where a medieval knight defends milk chocolate and pumpkin spice lattes against snobs.
I encourage comedy fans to cut back on SNL and wait for social media algorithms to pick the best parts for you. For in depth viewing, browse the College Humor archives.
Bottom line: College Humor knows that there is no wine till its time.
+++++
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