Here's you, here's Matt.
There's you, there--
This is Saturday Night Live, and it
has a reputation for being hit and miss.
When SNL misses, it isn't always because the cast is just
having an off night.
The writing process of Saturday Night Live
is largely centered around whomever is hosting.
They work alongside the writers to deliver content that
is reflective of who they are.
This is great when someone like John Mulaney
or a comedic minded actor like Tom Hanks host the show,
but when a host is selected that doesn't really
have comedic chops, things get a little weird.
This is exactly what happened in 1991 when
Steven Seagal hosted the show.
I hope you'll forgive me for being a little bit serious,
but it's important to me to let you
know there's a lot more to Steven
Seagal than the martial arts.
Before we get started, don't forget
to like and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
if you haven't done so already.
Saturday Night Live is America's longest running sketch comedy
series.
It began production in 1975 and has
been a proving ground for some of the funniest people
in the world.
Legendary names like Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey,
Kristen Wiig, and Will Ferrell, among a laundry list of others,
all got their start screaming--
Live from New York!
It's Saturday night!
In 1991, Saturday Night Live was at the top of its game.
The cast was filled with not only talent but outright comedy
legends.
Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman
rounded out the performing cast while the writers room was
filled with names like Conan O'Brien, Bob
Odenkirk, and Robert Smigel.
It was truly a Renaissance era for the show,
and audiences were tuning in en masses
to watch the hilarious antics and colorful characters created
by the ensemble.
Making copies.
The McStingster.
Sting-a-tola.
Sting.
Also reaching the top of his game was rising action star
Steven Seagal, who was currently on track
to rival Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone
at the box office with hits like Marked for Death and Out
for Justice.
Saturday Night Live is constantly
on the lookout for rising stars to host their shows.
It's what drives the ratings.
They look for notable people of fame
from almost every realm imaginable.
This is all part of what piques the audience's interest
and generates ratings for the show.
Political candidates like Al Gore and John McCain,
sports stars like Charles Barkley and Lance Armstrong,
even public figures like Howard Cosell and Steve Forbes
have all hosted the show to varying degrees of success.
In 1991, Steven Seagal was rapidly gaining a reputation
for being a box office draw, so of course it
made sense for Saturday Night Live to invite him to host.
This turned out to be a colossal mistake.
Man, your daughter sure does take her time.
What?
Does that bother you?
No.
On Saturday Night Live, the host is
completely enmeshed with the creative process every step
of the way.
Writers work tirelessly to pitch their sketches and ideas
in hopes of getting them onto the show.
It's an incredibly competitive process as some of the writers
are trying to become performers themselves, or at
the very least, advance their careers as comedy writers.
The quota varies, but basically, each writer
is required to pitch dozens of ideas to the host and cast.
The host then decides which sketches are best suited
for them, and those are the sketches
that end up on the show.
From that point on, the host works with the writers
and cast leading up to the dress rehearsals
and inevitable airing of the show.
Sometimes this creative process works incredibly well.
Sometimes great SNL hosts can even
feel like they're part of the ensemble.
Steve Martin has been invited back to host so many times,
most people have no idea that he was never even a cast member.
We are two wild and crazy guys!
Many celebrities have had such a positive experience working
on SNL that they have created reoccurring characters
for themselves and have even received
best of DVD compilations.
However, when a host shows up that doesn't understand comedy,
the show can feel a little too flat.
Or when they have a young host with a carefully manicured
career trajectory, the show ends up playing things
a little too safe.
The end result is that these episodes
can feel boring and lackluster in comparison to others.
The Steven Seagal episode was a disaster
for the entire Saturday Night Live creative process.
From start to finish, Steven Seagal
was a hindrance to pretty much everyone
he came into contact with.
One of the main reasons for this is that Steven Seagal had never
even seen an episode of SNL before arriving
to host the show.
During the writing process, he would
pitch extremely problematic and insane ideas.
David Spade recounted in an interview
that this was actually the first time in his career
that SNL thought about replacing the host in favor
of just doing an all cast show.
Julia Sweeney said that one of Seagal's ideas
involved a sexual assault survivor getting sexually
assaulted by their therapist.
Tim Meadows described the creative process
of working with Seagal quite concisely
when he said you can't explain something to someone in German
if they don't speak German.
When the person you are writing material for cannot comprehend
what you're going for, you have to boil things down until you
come up with something that they can actually follow.
In the case of Steven Seagal, the only thing he understood
was his pseudo tough guy persona.
I know what you're thinking.
Mine's bigger than yours, right?
It's not fair.
Throw it away.
And a smattering of abrupt violence, and this episode
is a direct reflection of that.
The cold open features Hans and Franz,
played by Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon respectively.
The sketch seems like it would be
a home run with the involvement of Steven Seagal playing
against their obsession with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
However, unlike many successful performers,
Seagal just refused to poke fun at himself.
Bob Odenkirk recently recounted in an interview
with Howard Stern that he demanded
to beat up Hans and Franz if the sketch was going to air.
He goes if I do it, I have to beat them up.
Dana Carvey said that they actually
had to stop rehearsal for the sketch
because Steven Seagal was upset that he couldn't beat up Arnold
Schwarzenegger in real life.
His opening monologue wasn't even a monologue.
He just sort of talk sings his way
through Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" with Chris Rock
and Tim Meadows singing backup for him.
From that point on, every sketch involves
Steven Seagal taking himself way too seriously, and almost all
of them involve violence.
Throughout the entire process, Steven Seagal
would complain about jokes that didn't make sense to him
and refused to take part in anything that came remotely
close to satirizing who he was.
Many of the cast members said that Seagal just
didn't want to be there.
Even beloved characters like the Richmeister
wasn't safe from Steven Seagal's assault on the comedic arts.
Instead of playing along with the actual premise
of the sketch, Seagal just abruptly begins
beating up Rob Schneider and hanging him out of the window
for seemingly no reason whatsoever.
The final sketch of this infamous episode
of Saturday Night Live isn't even really a sketch.
It's just Steven Seagal fighting ExxonMobil executives,
the majority of whom weren't even played by cast members.
SNL the hired stuntman for Seagal
to fight for almost seven minutes before screaming--
This is what happens when you pollute the planet.
There isn't even a premise to the sketch.
It's just a weird lesson about environmentalism
told through insanity and hip tossing people through tables.
A good SNL host will have, at the very least,
some degree of self-awareness and be
able to roll with the playful punches
that Saturday Night Live dishes out.
Plenty of hosts have prodded themselves during the opening
monologue, and even more have created farcical sketches
about their own existence.
When SNL runs into hosts like these,
the content reflects the host's willingness
to play with the cast, and the episodes can be pretty funny.
Some of the funniest SNL sketches
have come from having hosts like Peyton Manning or Wayne Gretzky
on the show, and those are two names
that are about as far removed from comedy as you can get.
When Saturday Night Live is firing on all cylinders,
it is a force to be reckoned with.
When the hosts, writers, and performers are all
working in harmony to deliver the best possible product,
there aren't many sketch comedy shows that can contend.
But when Saturday Night Live fails,
it very rarely falls squarely on the shoulders
of the performers and writers.
More often than not, it's due to the person who those people are
writing and performing with being either
unable to grasp the material or being unwilling to play along.
So what's up next for the Dice Man?
You got a movie coming out this summer?
No.
Comedy is fun to produce.
There's actually a saying in sketch comedy and improv
that goes something to the effect of,
if you aren't having fun, then you're an [BLEEP]..
Sure, comedy is grueling work that
requires laser focus, sleepless nights, and a ton of effort.
But at the end of the day, it's very fun to execute.
But when you have someone that isn't willing to play along,
it doesn't feel like fun anymore.
It feels like the comedy itself is sort of Marked for Death
before the show even airs.
I don't want you to talk about anything to me anymore.
I don't want you to say my name anymore.
You hear me?
Everything's upside down.
And hey, that's it for today's episode.
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