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SNL and the cultural institutions of comedy.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams hosts SNL (22mb) >> To comment and see other videos visit www.idents.tv


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Not surprisingly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip reignited an interest in Saturday Night Live for me. Sure Studio 60 over romanticised the importance of late night comedy, and its place as a cultural institution, but I still wouldn’t change an episode.

Comedy and satire are important (as I went on about here), and although SNL isn’t perfect, its still pretty good. Locally however, while The Chaser may not have the long history that SNL does, it has been having the actual, tangible impact on Australian culture that Studio 60 claimed its show-within-a-show was having.

This week SNL was hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who pokes fun at himself in this ‘digital short’, the second video is from an earlier ‘digital short’ this season where Andy Samberg serenades Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

5 replies on “SNL and the cultural institutions of comedy.”

I love SNL – but my options on watching it are severely limitd – especially since NBC removed all the slips fro YouTube – cos they have set up their own version. SNL has been renewed in the last 2 years by 4 new cast members. THe show is VERY funny now…I wish it was on free-to-air here. It would be very popular, and it demonstrates a side of US humour that we just don’t see here.

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