Saturday Night Takes an L: Can ‘Saturday Night Live’ Still Be Funny?

The cast of “Saturday Night Live” opened its 48th season by taking on a new target: themselves. The first cold open of the latest season featured the host Miles Teller and cast member Andrew Dismukes playing Peyton and Eli Manning in their NFL segment “Best of Monday Night Football.” Instead of football, the brothers critique SNL itself — a move very characteristic of a pre-Zuckerberg definition of “meta” — and it’s uncomfortable, but that’s the goal. Cast members deliver intentionally clunky and painfully pandering lines while the Mannings attack the sketch’s “humiliating attempts at relevance.” It’s refreshing to see the show recognize how repetitive its format can get. It’s even funny when the purposely disjointed cold open falls apart in ways that are only slightly more exaggerated than past sketches. For a show that satirizes others, it’s nice to see that they can make fun of themselves, too. But is this self-awareness enough to redeem recent sketches where discomfort wasn’t part of the joke, or is self-deprecation a sign that “Saturday Night Live” is dead?

SNL has outlived the days when monolithic entertainment was still possible — when most television viewers would tune in to the same popular programming. Now, the comedy landscape is more niche than ever. Sitcoms with live audiences and tight shooting schedules have been replaced by television series, which are polished enough to rival movie productions. However, that’s acting under the assumption that people are even watching television. Many young people are pivoting away from TV altogether in favor of social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

TikTok humor works in the same way SNL does: It captures instances that are either so shocking or so serendipitous that they could only be of the moment. The thing with TikTok, though, is that this impromptu appearance is most often a fake out: TikTok videos simulate the appearance of live moments, but in reality, these videos were likely shot multiple times and edited in order for the beats to line up perfectly. When a TikTok is funny, the guise of reality is almost imperceptible. TikTok humor succeeds when it hides its seams.

SNL is the opposite. It’s a high-effort production — and it doesn’t try to hide this fact either. SNL writers create sketches based on events that often occurred days before, the small cast must perform roles they might not always fit, they have one chance to execute their concept, and must fill 90 minutes even if the show is tanking. While this may seem like a list of all the reasons that SNL is bad — after all it means that jokes won’t land, performers will mess up their lines, and prosthetic horns fall off — but this is also the reason why SNL can still be exciting. As a uniquely scrappy, accident-prone production, SNL is the last of its kind in a world where low-stakes, highly polished comedy prevails. Where else can we watch Kim Kardashian’s eyes follow her ex-husband Kanye West leaving the audience mid-monologue or hear Elon Musk’s awful Italian accent while he tries to play Wario?

Being the last of its kind is not reason enough for SNL to keep running, but it’s a good reason for the show to continue trying. And, in the past few seasons, SNL has been trying, adding cast members that break up the old boys club that has defined the show, and it has found some success. Newer cast members have chipped away at the show’s stodgy format ever so slightly, and it has been the highlight of the past few seasons. Bowen Yang’s nonhuman characters like the iceberg that sank the Titanic or the lanternfly have brought an absurdity that the show didn’t entertain in the past. Sarah Sherman’s body horror with her prosthetic eyes and roller coaster accident victim characters bring a visual creativity that SNL historically lacked. When Michael Che sabotages Colin Jost by writing him cancel-worthy lines, it’s equally funny and satisfying to see Jost squirm. Even for those that have traded TVs for smaller screens, the SZA-assisted song “Big Boys” became a hit on TikTok.

The newer, more diverse cast gives SNL hope, but the show will need to keep breaking its canned format if it wants to remain relevant. Time will tell if the show is on its deathbed or simply having a midlife crisis, but if SNL wants to see its 50s, it’s going to have to be less risk-averse. By opening its 48th season with football, SNL showed that it’s still trying to appeal to a mass audience that may have already abandoned them. If SNL stops aiming for mass appeal and leans into the wackiness, technical foibles, and ambitious but niche and clumsy humor that has spotted it with charm for the past 48 seasons, it will show that live comedy is still exciting. SNL can still be funny, but first, they have to be in on the joke.