Is SNL Even Funny? 

cmon drew, we all know you, being former SNL writer John Mulaney, are biased

The best era of Drew Gooden was the 80's. He started becoming way more political after he was born.

SNL used to be funny back in the 1800’s.

The elon episode also really highlighted how much of a difference the host makes too. An uncharismatic host really drags down the whole show

Finding out Drew is a football boy has to be the biggest plot twist to my own brain

So basically what you’re saying is we need more Bill Hader

Pete Davidson is hilarious but his roles on SNL are usually awkward and unfunny. It is mainly because instead of making a sketch just for him to show of his comedic talent, they put him in a lot of sketches with unimportant roles just to attract younger audience.

Bill Haders’ Stephon character was the funniest thing ever lol His crush on Seth Myers was hilarious and the way they said goodbye to the character when Bill Hader left was great :)

Ah, the non-American experience: knowing nothing about SNL but still watching the entire video.

john mulaney's back has got to hurt after every time he hosts

As a 20-year-old, I just recently started watching SNL, because I used to think it was all dumb. Now I realized you have to carefully choose which sketches you watch (depending on actors, sketch title, and video thumbnail lol). And having no nostalgic attachment to any era, I agree with Drew that the late 90s to around 2011 was the funniest era.

Keenan’s living his best life. His dream was to be on Snl and he got there. Props to him

Why is this 13 year old John Mulaney yelling at me about the Boss Baby??

"Comedy with an agenda is not comedy because its not meant to make people laugh, it's meant to make people agree; and I just wanna laugh." -Drew Gooden That is the quote of the century

To me, Bill Hader defined that era - such a raw talent with such a broad array of skills. He could bring even the dullest of sketches to life.

Ego Nwodim is one of those people that they just figured out how to write for. While this may not be the best season, I feel like she is finally starting to shine.

That was the most respectful critique in history.

"im probably in love with every single woman on that show" DIDN'T YOU JUST GET MARRIED TO DANNY

I feel like every new snl writer and cast member should be required to watch this video before they can write a single sketch; that's how on point it is.

i love how drew is not just a commentary & reactions channel but also a review channel . it makes the vid seem more professional and like smart whilst also being chill and funny . love it

Sometimes I forget just how smart and well spoken drew gooden is

Drew: I love sports. Also Drew: I made Excel sheets for fun and don't get to use it as much as I'd like.

Bowen Yang literally showed up and saved SNL. Ever since his, “My name is Amber, as in the alert....” I’ve been hooked.

Lol randomly thought of this video after the Elon monstrosity

Drew Gooden hasn’t been funny since newlywed Danny Gooden left in 2001

Gotta admit your football analogy for explaining why snl isn’t always the best every single year was actually super genius and well explained

“I mean, Colin’s alright, but he’s not that funny.” Me, a Colin: 😔

commenting from December 2023. I've been subscribed to you for a very long time, and I remember watching this video the day you released it, living in an Airbnb in the state hundreds of miles away from everyone i knew, because I followed someone I was in love with (shocker , they were awful) going back and watching this video now like four or five years later, I have my own apartment now and I'm thriving and I'm making money, and I just feel so awesome to watch something when I saw it on release and I was doing so much worse than I am now. just super cool, thanks for listening to my TED talk

Drew is just a lowercase John Mulaney

No one: Drew gooden: Let me show you this spreadsheet I made for fun

Beck, Cecily and Kate are my favourites. I appreciate that snl has embraced female comedians instead of making them side characters in the sketch.

I think recently, my least favorite sketches are the ones where they try to appeal to gen z. They keep on thinking that they can just use memes and attract our attention, rather than trying to figure out why we think those memes are funny. Sometimes it even feels like stolen jokes rather than an adaptation of a meme. They keep having Kyle playing gen z characters like baby yoda (not to mention the racist undertones to that). Kyle was great in “killed the bit” because he finally got to play a weird hippie.

drew: **gets married** also drew: “you know what, i think im in love with every woman on the show”

“Is SNL funny?” I don’t know Drew, maybe you should make an Excel Spreadsheet on it...

who's here after gen z hospital

Honestly, the reason I like to watch SNL is precisely to see, taking into account all the limitations (time, etc.), what they're gonna do each week. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not, but to me the appeal is the "trying" that's interesting in itself.

Is SNL even funny? Yeah, I sure hope it does.

"Comedy with an agenda is not comedy... Because it's not meant to make people laugh - it's meant to make people agree." Drew, funny man, I couldn't agree more. *WAIT*

Mooney’s dorky sense of humor is amazing. Also SNL in the early 80s was famously terrible and Eddy Murphy had a ton of weight on his shoulders to not make it a dumpster fire.

SNL really pulled it back together with 2000s Mario jokes

This point is super relevant right now. In the Trump-Biden debate sketch, the audience cheered more than they laughed. That’s literally not comedy.

It kind of feels like the question “is SNL funny” is kind of like “are sports good” the question is almost too broad

4:44 "unless you're keenan thompson bcs he'll be on the show forever" IM DYING HAHA

They’ve always been political. It’s part of their function. But these last few years, the problem isn’t politics, but an extremely unfunny approach to it. I think a lot of this stems from casting Alec Baldwin as Trump. Not only is Baldwin just not funny without a really solid, well doctored script, he doesn’t do a good Trump impression. It takes more than a wig and squinting your eyes. He didn’t have his cadence down, or many of what most would consider his most comical mannerisms. It just wasn’t a good impression. Not to mention, the fact that many of the jokes were very unoriginal. When 2020 rolled around, and they could finally start taking a swing at debates again, things improved drastically. But by that point we’d already had 4 whole years of the same “orange man bad” joke over and over and over and over again. Which is baffling because Trump was a horrible president. He should have been the easiest person on Earth for SNL to tear to absolute shreds. Yet they didn’t. I think a lot of this particular issue stems from the overwhelmingly liberal ethos behind SNL. Now when I say liberal, I don’t mean it in the “anything left of Mussolini” way most people in this country mean. I mean *liberals.* Liberals, by definition, are opposed to taking a hard stance on much of anything that really matters. They wouldn’t take a hard swing at Trump’s absurd, heinous, inhumane policies, because ultimately that wasn’t their problem with him. They could only make bad, shallow jokes like “haha he has a bad tan” because that’s as far as their spineless ideology will allow them to go. This applies to almost every figure that’s featured on the show during their mid-to-late 2010s run. They don’t mock bad policy, they attack personal traits. It’s the precise opposite of everything good political comedy should be. Also, the cast kinda sucks. Especially Peter what’s his face. They treat that guy like their crown jewel, and he’s really, really unfunny. Like, spectacularly unfunny. He’s the worst part of every sketch he’s in.

Me, a dutch girl, watching this not even knowing wtf SNL is: Hmm.. yes. I totally agree.

I’ve been watching Drew for nearly a year now and I know he’s the “road work ahead” guy, but by God I must be an idiot bc I just realized why he has the sign in the background, I thought it was just aesthetic but its a road work ahead sign

Honestly Pete Davidson and John Mulaney are the only people on SNL that I watch

Pete Davidson is a really great player but they just give him all the wrong roles. These last few weeks, though, they've been giving him actual characters to play and skits that aren't just him basically playing a characiture of himself (druggie kid, rebellious kid or whatever). He's amazing on Weekend Update because it plays to his strengths.

You talk about John Mulaney as if you and him are different people.

SNL hasn't been good since Drew Gooden left. That Danny Gonzalez replacement actor just doesn't fit.

"mean spirited." That is the perfect way to put it, in my opinion.

I feel like one of the only actual great actors on SNL at this moment is Kenan Thompson. I watched skits that he was in as a promo for his new show and I loved them. At first I just walked into my dad's room and saw it playing and I was like "are these just the funniest snl sketches compilation" and he said it was a promo compilation. I think that since he's had so much experience for 18 years then also being on All That( Which is a show a old show on Nickelodeon which had sketches). There are also amazing actors like Kate Mckinnon, Beck Bennet, Alex Moffat, and a few more that are good but Kenan Thompson is the best actor on SNL.

Drew mentioned Mulaney, and didn’t acknowledge how they are basically the same

snl was funniest in the 4th millennium BCE, during the era of ancient mesopotamia wym

honestly, i feel like everyone's fav snl era is always the ones that occur when you're in your late teens/early 20s. i personally love the current (2015- now ish) snl, I think the cast is phenomenal.

I genuinely think last season into this season is the turning point we’ve been waiting for. 2nd half of last season (NOT including the Elon episode) was very underrated imo. For example last season’s episodes hosted by Timothee Chalamet, Rege-Jean Page, Carey Mulligan (good ep overall but Bowen as the iceberg from Titanic made it amazing), Keegan-Michael Key, and Anya Taylor-Joy were all great episodes. This season is even better and the new cast members (Aristotle, Sarah Sherman, JAJ and Please Don’t Destroy) have all been fantastic so far. I might be wrong but I think we’re looking at a new great era of snl

Honestly the quality of SNL skits _completely_ depend on the actors. It could be *horrible scripting* and a hilarious actor could make it great.

"The best season of SNL was [insert the year I was 14-years-old here]." -everyone

literally bless your heart for putting ads at the end, u are a champion of the people

I like most of their fake commercials

"Comedy with an agenda isnt trying to make you laugh, it's trying to make you agree, and I just wanna laugh" - Drew Gooden

This is just Drew loving John Mulaney for 16 minutes straight

That was an absolutely stunning excel sheet, all that column formatting and proper sum formulas. Lovely colours, easy to read. 10/10

Please don't destroy is really honing everything in for me with the later seasons

so basically just put bill hader, fred armisen, andy samberg, seth meyers, amy poehler, maya rudolph, john mulaney and tina fey in an episode and it's done

"Comedy with an agenda isnt trying to make you laugh, it's trying to make you agree, and I just wanna laugh" - Drew Gooden 2019 Best quote on comedy since the 70s

Julio torres is, imo, one of the funniest writers who’s been on snl in the past decade. wells for sensitive boys is So Good

The recent Gen Z Hospital sketch was just bad. They brought Elon Musk on the show too and it was fucking terrible and frankly borderline offensive

MS Paint Screensaver was the best era of Drew Gooden.

Whether you think snl is funny or not... we can all agree... Amy Schumer isn’t funny.

number one drew gooden video to fall asleep to

My favorite sketch was the Oscar the Grouch Joker parody trailer

Wow, Drew’s really changed ever since he and Danny got hitched 😕 he was better in the early 14th century

I'm surprised you didn't mention the sketch that John Mulaney was in recently on SNL where he said "little stinker" like 5 times.

drew can you please make more spreadsheets? i'm a spreadsheet person and i enjoy that you are also a spreadsheet person and i think you should make more spreadsheets to share with us spreadsheet people

The way drew makes a video is such an amazing experience. Never seen it before.

"Comedy with an agenda is not comedy, because it's meant to make people agree, not make people laugh" Who knew that the first and only channel on RU-vid would be so profound?

"Comedy with an agenda isn't comedy because it isn't meant to make people laugh, it's meant to make people agree." Preach.

hey it’s john mulaney’s lil brother doing youtube

Why do I keep on finding more old videos from Drew that I haven’t watched yet😂? (Rhetorical question)

Pete Davidson is so heavily misused on SNL. He’s SO funny but SNL either throws him in the background or gives him a role that he can’t show how funny he is

In conclusion: Is SNL Funny? Sometimes.

"Comedy with an agenda is not comedy. Because it's not meant to make people laugh, it's meant to make people agree." This is how I feel about recent work I've seen from Dave Chappelle. It just feels like he's there to talk about whatever political stuff he wants to talk about and use comedy as a shield against critique. "It's just a joke" is the vibe to me.

"No one will ever agree on anything." (gives a nod of agreement)😁

so basically: Bill Hader and John Mulaney carry SNL

John Mulaney is probably one of the funniest people I've ever heard.

Ironic how this got recommended to me

best era of SNL was definitely Elizabethan period. william shakespeare was a great head writer

finally someone sticking up for Kyle. Kyle is a genius and it's a crime how unused he is. I hope he has a good career after SNL

I literally just watch SNL for Colin Jost and Pete Davidson

the math in your videos is my favorite part. it feels extra on the surface but it is so necessary. I love it!

Bill Hader Is the love of my life. Just had to say that

You should do a video essay on everything that's wrong with big bang theory

My daughter talks about you all the time, and I really enjoy the clips she shows me, but you got me to subscribe the second you highlighted the mid to late 2000's as a golden era! I was in high school during the the Phil, Dana, Farley years and quoted them incessantly, but, often, nothing can beat miraculous Keenan, along with Kristen, Bill et al when they're on fire! When my teen was little, she watched with me all the time and ran around the house singing "I got guests, and a show, and I'm ready to gooooooo!" or "What's Up With That?" Thanks Drew!!

You need to do more videos like this. this was better than most big name video essayers

kyle mooney & beck bennett have the potential to become an absolutely iconic duo if the show would just *give them more screen time*

I thought the video was titled “is SNL skinny” and clicked right away

had to come back after the latest video

Let’s be real SNL isn’t nearly as good as the people to come out of it.... Andy Samberg.... JOHN MULANEY?!