IS IT WORTH YOUR TIME AGAIN?
Let me take you back to the fall of 2023. It was Family Weekend at my sister’s university, and my parents and I drove up to go see her. As part of the family weekend festivities, Colin Jost, a cast member and writer for Saturday Night Live (SNL), was headlining a stand-up comedy show. Now, at this point, I’d never actually really watched SNL; I mean, I’d seen clips and little bits and pieces when my parents were watching, but that was pretty much it. Still, I was excited to see Colin Jost live, along with two other SNL cast members, Marcello Hernandez and Molly Kearney.
The show was absolutely electric, especially Marcello’s set. From then on, I started actively watching SNL every weekend. I hopped on that Marcello train before it was running (dare I say I was the conductor…).
Within the past year, SNL has blown up on social media all over again. For perhaps the past decade, I hadn’t heard much about it. But as the show has begun hiring younger comedians with wider appeal to the Generation Z audience, many of my peers have begun tuning in. It used to just be a show I’d see my parents watching half-asleep on Saturday night; now, it is something I look forward to watching every weekend.
One person who I truly believe has changed the course of SNL is Marcello Hernandez. He completely brought a new sense of humor to SNL, a kind of humor that can go viral on social media and draw younger viewers in. Do you remember the Domingo skit? Because I do. In fact, I almost wish I could forget it at this point, with how viral it went and how many renditions of the skit there are now. He’s a young adult, he can play so many different characters, and frankly, he’s just a cutie. What more can we ask for?
New additions of Kam Patterson and Jeremy Culhane to SNL this season have excited so many fans and brought it new, younger viewers. Jeremy has long been requested by younger fans to join the cast, and now more people are taking notice. Kam is super funny and new on the scene, and is appealing to Gen Z viewers in ways I haven’t even seen before.
Surprisingly, SNL has encouraged me to keep up with current events more. I’ll see a stupid little skit mocking something that happened in the news and immediately go and look it up. The sheer ridiculousness of SNL has encouraged me, and I’m sure many others, actually, to make an effort to understand it. It’s strange to say, but my love for SNL has inclined me to be more aware of what is going on in the world and our country today.
So, if you have any spare time, I’d strongly encourage you to try out an episode of SNL. It used to be unfunny, yes. However, we’ve moved past the stereotypical humor that people associate with SNL. A new era is here, and it is just so much fun. There are so many funny people that you might not expect to see on the show that are sure to catch your eye. Increasingly, too, higher-profile celebrities are hosting and performing on the show. If SNL is cool enough for your favorite celebrity, I think you would certainly enjoy it too.