I haven't watched Saturday Night Live in a while. Like most fans of the long-running show, I've caught the "Digital Shorts" on YouTube, but mostly given up on the show, which seemed to be downwardly spiralling, never to be seen again. However, I did read about Lorne Michaels' attempt to bring the show back, by downsizing the cast (i.e. getting rid of Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz) and generating buzz with lots of young newcomers. Honestly, this didn't seem like the smartest idea at the time, but now, it seems to be working. Because last night's episode (Rainn Wilson and The Arcade Fire) was honestly good. Surprisingly good. The choice of guests is a sign that SNL's audience is changing. Rather than focusing on the biggest possible stars, they chose buzzed-about current hipster icons, who would get teens talking on the Internet. Plus, Rainn Wilson is funny and talented, unlike when they get an athlete or politican to host and every skit basically bombs. Notice how the only mentions SNL has gotten in the last year have been about "Lazy Sunday" and "Dick in a Box," both starring Andy Samberg (aka "The New Jimmy Fallon" and another notch on Kirsten Dunst's bedpost). Last night, it was Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis who really shone. Their Jim and Pam impersonations were SPOT ON, as was pretty much everything else they did. 
The other big difference about last night's show was the type of humor. They're going for random nowadays. They understand that teens want fast-paced ADD humor like Family Guy or any YouTube clip. No clip went on for forever. No clip had a stupid theme song at the beginning telling us exactly what to expect for the next 2.5 minutes. They used the cold-open and Weekend Update to do pop culture references and spoof current events, but the rest was pure sketch comedy. So yeh... whether they can keep this up is questionable. It seems like they're going on a hiatus, as are most good shows after February Sweeps. But I'm interested to see if they can keep up the good work.
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