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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack and tonight is the season finale of Saturday Night Live’s fiftieth season. As I’ve talked about on the podcast before, I think if you’re gonna get out, this is the time to get out. I think season fifty one, well, it’ll clearly lack the buzz and I think it’s gonna be a rebuilding year, so it could be time to get out. Deadline took a list at who is rumored to perhaps, possibly maybe be leaving.
They started with Michael Chay, who every year says he’s leaving, but in February, while performing at the University of Rochester, Chase said, this is my last season. I’m not coming back. Don’t or I’m done. It’s over for me. It’s been so much fun.
It’s a little emotional. It’s bittersweet, cause, like I said, he says that every year, but this year there were rumors that Colin Jost is going to leave. Tonight’s guest host is Scarlett Johansson, married to Colin Jost but also starring in an upcoming Jurassic movie, so it’s not absurd that she’s hosting. But some are taking Scarlett’s participation tonight as a clue. Jose and Chay are currently fourth and fifth most tenured on SNL, behind Seth Meyers three, Darryl Hammond two, and Keenan Thompson.
Deadline points out if the news desk is thinking of leaving now, is a pretty good time before the country starts talking about the twenty twenty six midterms or the twenty eight presidential election. It was also a little rumor a couple weeks back that Colin’s doing such a good host as pop Culture Jeopardy that they’re considering him for regular Jeopardy, which is a great gig if you can get it, and at Colin’s age, you could do it for thirty years. Look at Drew Carrey, who’s already been hosting Prices Right for I think it’s like fifteen years already. By the way, sidebar I want to get my oil change. Jiffy leeu B always has Game Show Network on, and they were showing a Bob Barker era Price is Right, and Bob Barker still had the dark hair.
Price Is Right is a lot harder when you go back in time and you’re like, you have to figure out first of all, what year is this?
And then when they ask you how much things cost a new car, I don’t know.
Eighty three hundred dollars. Sure. Mikey Day was asked by Deadline if he would return and said, who knows what the future will bring. Or Heidi Gardner, who’s been on the show for eight seasons. Gardner has admitted in some interviews that things have gotten a little tough trying to come up with sketches.
She told Craig Ferguson, I will say the only thing that I’ve started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue or idea fatigue. At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like I’ve written a lot of sketches. Ego Nuotam is wrapping up her seventh season on the show. She told Deadline, We’d like to keep things mysterious around here. That’s part of the allure of SNL.
We don’t know what’s going to happen week to week, let alone in the fall, so who knows. Chloe Fineman finishing up her sixth season, and then Bow and Yang, who he gave an interview recently and said he wasn’t leaving, but everything about his behavior suggests that he’s leaving. He had told people, especially after the fiftieth, them seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people in the matter how long they were at the show or just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.
And then with SNL, new people come in, you have to sort of make way for them …
That inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point, but I don’t know what the vision is yet. He then backpedaled on that a couple of weeks later and was like, Nope, I’m not leaving. If Josetin Chay Doot leave, if a speculation is Michael Longfellow will replace them as one of the anchors, I could also see Sarah Sherman at the desk, and we’re going to talk about that in a second. My guess mass exodus, Joe Chay, Bowen Yang and the other people I mentioned, I think they’re all gone, and Season fifty one is going to be a rebuild built around Sarah Sherman. And Marcelo Hernandez, who people seem to like, and I think he does one thing really well and has done it in five different characters that are all the same thing to me.
But we’ll see. Sarah Sherman had that big profile and Vanity Fair earlier in the week. I had shared it in the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News podcast group. Sarah talked about the schedule writing night. It was Tuesday night, so I stayed up until six am writing yesterday was table read.
Then you get to work at one pm, and then you get home at eleven or so and by the end of the season, my body shuts down. It’s like yelp. I’m used to it for being in stand up. I’m a nighttime person. I feel like every season has gotten more and more busy.
Last season, I was being used as a straight man a lot, which has increased more this season, which is really fun because you feel like the writers trust you to deliver a joke concept. Even though the wilder character slots take enormous swings and there’s a lot of crazy stuff that happens, there’s something so fun about a straight man because sometimes the crazy stuff doesn’t work unless there is someone immediately grounding it. Another interesting mark I’ve had over the season is I’ve done a bunch of updates that have come about last minute, where they’ve been written off writing schedule or thrown into writing characters that weren’t my own original idea. So I’ve been flexing a lot of writing muscles too, which is new for me. They were like, can you play the squirrel?
And I’m like, all right, I have to play a squirrel. Can I write this in a way that’s fun for me that’s also still the squirrel. I came into the show as if everyone’s like, she’s crazy, and I did this crazy stuff. Crazy doesn’t go that long of a way. The show’s an hour and a half.
It can’t be crazy the whole time. So the show has supported me to move to places that make me understand comedy better. Even in my own stand up. My show’s an hour and a half. It’s playing with texture and pacing and bigness and smallness, and this show’s taught me just how it works.
It can’t be screaming the whole time, which is something I wouldn’t have learned from the show. On to weekend update, the recurring bit where she roast Colin Josts. She says, if I didn’t find fun, I wouldn’t keep doing it. I bet we’ll get one tonight. At first, it started out as just me, and then we kept it fresh by evolving and having it to be different characters.
That’s how I was able to train myself to play characters too, because sketch comedy was so new to me. How did this start? It was all Colin’s fault. When I first joined the show, I’d written a bunch of things down for table read. He told me you should come on weekend updates yourself, and I was like, oh, that’s so presumptuous.
It felt even funnier after him being so kind, like, hey, I want to give you an opportunity to try being on the show for once. To repay him by making fun of him for living in the Hamptons. I called him a groomer or something. But the only reason it’s fun is because he’s sitting there laughing. All right, the big question, would you ever consider doing update as host?
Of course I would love to hear. Are you kidding me? I’m obsessed with Norm MacDonald? But that’s the thing to think for even one second. I can do what Norm McDonald did.
What am I insane? All right? I had saved this one so that I could pre tape today. My son graduated from college yesterday, so I didn’t want to be recording a podcast at four in the morning. From MSN dot com, The Best Comedians in History, a thirty two page slide show.
Let’s see who they’ve got on the list. Leslie Nielsen, Okay, interesting choice. We all like police Squad, we all like the Naked Gun, we all like airplane. Interesting in stake starts on this list, all right, Leslie Nielsen is, of course, at one of MSN’s best comedians in History, Mort Saul before my time. I don’t have anything to say about Mort.
Definitely a name that I know. Ricky Gervais, obviously The Office is his masterpiece. You know, nice stand up? Sure, okay, Steve Colbert, they write David Letterman’s replacement on The Late Show proved to be as hilarious and intellectual as his legendary predecessor. I’m not feeling it in the pop culture.
I haven’t watched any I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of Late Show with Colbert. I’ve seen clips, but i’ve never sat down to watch an episode to compare him to Letterman. It’s hard for me to accept that, but okay, and we got an ad from Mattress Charlie Chaplin, believe it or not before my time, but sure, who doesn’t know Charlie Chaplin. I won’t push back on that one. Rowan Atkinson, mister Bean.
Interesting choice. Eddie Murphy. They’re mainly focusing on his movie comedies here. He’s got quite the list of movie comedies. As I’ve pointed out, someone my age really likes Eddie Murphy from his time on SNL and Ron Delirious, and as I got older and educated myself more in comedy, I realized that his stand up was a pure cover band version of Richard Pryor.
But Eddie Murphy, sure, I hope. I hope Richard Pryor’s on this list at some point. Another ad Jerry lew Us for his time in Martin Lewis and also his movies. Roberto Gomez Bolognos one of the biggest names on the Mexican comedy scene. I’m not familiar with.
Roberto Roberto Gomes Bologos, better known as Chessperito or Little Shakespeare, was a Mexican actor, comedian, writer, producer, director and author. Hey, I like somebody put some effort into this list. Jerry Seinfeld, they write this is an indisputable choice, obviously the sitcom. You know. I got into Seinfeld when he would appear on Letterman in the eighties.
I’ve been to big time comedy festivals where you’re seeing everybody and seeing Jerry. At a comedy festival, and Jerry is at the top, I won’t argue with you. There now an add for teeth implants, a slide show. I can’t believe this. Peter Sellers.
I’m a fan of Peter Sellers. I like this list. Somebody puts some effort into this list. Any such list, we can nitpick left and right, but you know this is good. Jim Carrey not really my cup of tea, but they’re citing ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, Cable Guy, Lira, Liar Me and Myself, Irene Bruce, Almighty and more are also his work on in Living Color Again, I wouldn’t arm Rescue over this.
Laurel and Hardy before my time. You know, when I was a kid, maybe you’d see them on Channel eleven on the Weekend, but I never really have consumed any Laurel and Hardy. But again, won’t arm wrestle you, Lucille Ball, of course, the Marx Brothers. Same note, a little before my time, Jimmy Carr. If you listen, you know I’m a huge fan of Jimmy Carr.
But okay, another ad, Mario Moreno conting Floss. I am familiar with kantin Floss because there was a theater in my neighborhood growing up that would show his films. I never saw any of them, but I know who he is. The cast of Monty Python. Okay, so we just threw in six guys, all right, sure I love Monty Python.
Ellen Degenerous, Yeah, Ellen Degenerous is on this list best comedians of all time. Okay, another ad. Jimmy fallon This list just got really weird. I’ve spoken about found a few times this week. Immensely talented.
I think he dumbs down his talent to host the Tonight Show and the way they want the Tonight Show hosted. But you know, we haven’t said the word like Carlin yet, or you know a lot of names we haven’t said yet. Jimmy Fallon on the list of the best comedians of all time, The Three Stooges. Sure, Melissa McCarthy. The reason given the actress is a comedy staple, both in TV and on the big screen.
Another ad, Abin Costello, Amy Schumer makes the list. Amy Schumer. We’re going with Amy Schumer, one of the best comedians of all time. Alan Carr, the British comedian, is also one of the biggest in the game. He started as a stand up back, but he also moved on to television.
How long is this list? Another ad Kevin Hart, okay fine, Dave Chappelle, here we go, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, James Cordon, and then the list ended. I don’t know if I can just go to bed with that list. I’m gonna ask CHATCHI to make a list. I have typed in best Comedians of all time Top twenty.
See what the AI says. I like the AI’s list a lot. You’re ready, you’ll know all these names. I want to explain them to you. Prior Carlyn Murphy, Chappelle, Robin Joan, Chris Rock, Lenny Bruce at eight Hicks, Lucy John Clees, Steve Martin, Billy Connolly, Chris Farley, Steinfeld at fifteen, Ck Hebberg, Phyllis Diller, Tina Fey, Amy Schumer.
The AI says this list is by no means definitive, as comedy is subjective. But these names represent some of the greatest ever do it. Each one brought something unique to the table. Well, looks at Betty. Sorry, I’m sorry.
Just watch Live of the Sunset strip where Richard Pryor is telling jokes and doing voices while wearing a red outfit. Just watch that, and then watch Eddie Murphy’s comedy and tell me I’m wrong. All Right, I’m shutting up. See you tomorrow,