Miley Cyrus Hosting SNL? And Worst SNL Hosts

On Saturday, March 5, 2011, I am going to do something I have never done before. I am going to purposely miss an episode of Saturday Night Live. Why you ask. Because after a strong season, Lorne Michaels has decided to appeal to a younger crowd, many of which SNL is past their bedtime. Yes, Miley Cyrus is hosting Saturday Night Live. As I was watching the most recent episode, hosted beautifully by Russell Brand, Don Pardo announced that Miley Cyrus would be hosting on March 5. I then dramatically held my arms out and asked “WHY?” Yes, I’m biased, I don’t like most of the stars Disney has crapped out in the past ten years, but, as a guilty pleasure, I enjoy watching it. However, I extremely doubt Miley Cyrus has the chops to host SNL, and she will likely bring it down from its strong season.

If you don’t know who Miley Cyrus is, she is the meal ticket—I mean daughter of one-hit wonder Billy Ray Cyrus. Miley is infamous for starring in Disney’s messed up version of the 1980s animated series Jem, Hannah Montana. Miley is responsible for ushering in Disney’s non-progressive, purity, subliminally conservative and Christian values, and wearing a bad wig. She is also infamous for her off set controversy including dating a 25 year old man while she was still underage, being photographed naked by decorated and talented photographer Annie Leibovitz amidst controversy, and then shifting the blame to Ann herself, reported diva behavior, an infamous racist photograph, performing on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards, and most recently, smoking salvia and immediately experiencing a placebo effect in which she started talking like a gerbil. Most recently, her father has regretted his decision of allowing Miley to go Hollywood, and regrets his permissive parenting style, claiming the whole Hannah Montana experience ruined his family.

Miley’s tenure at Disney is officially over. This means she is trying to be a grown-up and shed her Disney image. While this has worked beautifully for Shia LeBeouf, Hillary Duff, and most recently Zack Efron (who beautifully hosted SNL in 2009). However, Cyrus is choosing the blatantly easier route, attempting to act like a grown-up, and trying to get parts that, no offence, are a little bit out of her league.

Miley’s performance on Hannah Montana as a fictionalized version of herself is average, with some attempts to be funny. Some working, others not. But can she do this live, after a grueling work and rehearsal week, in a performance lasting an hour and a half?

Her appearance is not without controversy, and this will lead probably to a tension-filled and awkward night. As well, this will coincide with increasingly strong performance of new featured performer Vanessa Bayer, who is becoming known for her spot-on impersonation of Cyrus. This appearance is too soon, and it is usually better for it to go on for another season before Cyrus’s appearance.

The performance will likely go either one of these ways.

1. Miley is surprisingly good.

2. Miley is reported acting like a diva behind the scenes (a la Lindsay Lohan)

3. Miley attempts to preach to the audience about her own beliefs, causing an extremely wholesome show.

4. The show will rely on the talents of the castmembers, instead of Miley.

5. There will be a large number of musical sketches in which Miley will sing.

6. Miley will ruin SNL’s momentum.

Now, I might be surprised, but I am not taking any chances. SNL is a big kids’ show, not for the Disney crowd. I can’t watch an attempt at trying to appeal for a younger audience, and as well a performance for a star famous for being on a second-rated kids’ show, and who is poorly attempting to shed her Disney image.

I started watching SNL in 2003, and in the spirit of bracing myself for Cyrus’s hosting SNL, I am reminded of the other horrible hosts I have endured. Who knows? Miley may surprise me—but I’m not taking any chances.

Worst snl hosts from 2003 onwards.

2003 was when I started watching SNL.

Donald Trump-okay, we get it, the apprentice is popular, but you have no stage presence and play yourself in almost every sketch. SNL was riding on Apprentice fever. As well, Trump mainly played himself, which is usually a sign of a less than versatile host.

Paris Hilton-Her appearance in the 2003 season was great. She appeared in the Al Sharpton episode during Update, after the sex tape scandal when Jimmy Fallon asked her if he could get into the “Paris Hilton”. That was funny, but hosting a whole show, for someone who has had little stage experience, nor talent, that’s a pretty hard task. Some have pulled it off, but Paris hasn’t. The sketches were mainly derived off of Paris’s looks and status, and Hilton’s wooden performance didn’t help those weak sketches at all.

Lindsay Lohan-This wasn’t her performance during the 2003-2004 season. That was hilarious. This is her burn-out performance during the 2004-2005 season, and the 2005-2006 season. By the last time she hosted, she had a smoker’s voice, and really wasn’t there. What’s funny, is that she didn’t get the irony about her during her last two hosting gigs. During her last hosting gig, there was behind the scenes drama as Lohan was repeatedly late for rehearsals. This evidently rubbed off into the performance of the actual show.

LeBron James-this became a trend in bad season premiere guests. He hosted the 2007 season premire, and his performance was wooden.

Michael Phelps-Bad season premire host, round 2. You should start your season up with a bang, not a host who couldn’t read his lines with emotion. Once again, wooden performance.

The Jonas Brothers-Okay, they weren’t hosting the 2009 Valentine’s day episode with Alec Baldwin, but they were the musical guests. And they took this as a chance to get on their soapbox, and talk about their whole wholesome lifestyle. SNL is a big kids’ show, Jo-Bros, and the only people who are allowed to be preachy are when politicians come on during elections, which is a great PR stunt. Last time I checked, you were a wannabe rock band. Also no one upstages one of SNLs go-to hosts unless you are an extremely successful musician, like Paul McCartney in the early 90s, or a special guest. And if they were going to do a sketch, it would have been better to do it later into the show, as the first post-monologue sketch usually cements the host’s performance for the evening, and introduces them into the sketches.

Megan Fox: One of my friends, who is a huge Megan Fox fan is going to kill me for this. In the 2009 season opener, Megan Fox surprised many, despite her sultry looks and sex appeal, she couldn’t generate any comedic appeal, although most of the sketches she was in capitalized on her sexiness.

January Jones- You’re on an Emmy Award winning TV show, yet your performance reminded me of those speakable items on old macs, where you would type stuff in and it would say it. Once again, the sketches revolved around January’s looks, and really had no substance. But, like Fox, she didn’t truly get in the spirit and satire of those sketches.

The people are mostly on this list for a wooden performance, and relying too much on the cast, and not being in the true SNL spirit.

So brace yourself for a hit or miss episode of SNL this Saturday. Me? Well, it is Unofficial. 

Comedy Genres

The following is a list of modern comedy genres I will be discussing. Yes, even comedy has genres.

Stand-up: Whether it's in a club during amateur night, or on an HBO special, this is one of the most accessible forms of comedy. It consists of one person doing a comedic monologue about various topics. Some have specific specialities, others don't. As well, stand-up is abstract, and any other comedy sub-genre can be applied to it. But there is still the standard traditional stand-up comedy which is the best if you want to get laughs from a crowd.

Examples of Traditional Stand-up Comedy Practitioners:

George Carlin

Jerry Seinfeld

And many more.

Rant: Rants can be put into any stand-up act, and are often disguised as such. Rants are different than stand-up because they are monologue discussing the annoyance or dislike towards a relatable subject, whereas stand-up consists of more than that. Rants can be hard to do. You cannot come off as angry, because it is unsettling, and it will look to the audience like you're some angry, hate-spewing performer. Toss in some jokes, have charisma, and make it relatable, though, and you're golden. Rants can cover anything from politics to everyday subjects.

Behold, the ultimate ranter, Dennis Miller.

Satire: Satire is as old as the Greeks, who would often satirize current events into their comedies, creating smart, political humor--that is until the Spartans took over Athens. Satire has since been recovered and evolved into a more biting, yet entertaining genre of comedy. Satire can be in the form of whole plays and movies, allegories, books, parodies, and sketches. Satire is still a popular modern comedy form, and continues to evolve as new satirical comedians produce their work.

Notable Modern Satirists.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park

An big chunk of SNL

Surrealism and Absurdism: I like to put these both together, because the absurd can often be surreal and the surreal can often be absurd. This genre is an acquired taste, and, now I hate to sound like an elitist, this usually appeals to either intellectuals, non-linear thinkers, and people with open-minds. If a person who doesn't truly "get it" finds it funny, it's usually for a superficial reason. For example, if one watches "The Ministry of Silly Walks Sketch" and doesn't truly understand surrealist comedy, they would laugh because "that man is walking funny." There is not a punch-line, there is no shtick, there is no pattern. It is ambiguous, abstract, but freakin hilarious. It involves normal people or abnormal people in absurd, surreal situations, or a world in which the surrealist twist is the established norm, although since there is no pattern in surrealism, there can be many variations to it. Keep in mind, though, this cannot be confused with OMG RANDOM humor, that people might confuse it with (usually these people are kids, though, but some might have youtube accounts, and upload it, and other kids would find them hilarious and brutally chew out people who don't). Good surrealism has a kernel of truth in it, and is often thickly-veiled satire. One who sees the truth hidden within it truly understands surrealism.

Notable Surrealists/Absurdists:

Monty Python

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

People who are NOT surrealist and absurdists, and aren't even funny.

Fred. Fred ain't funny.

Alternative Comedy-That person is doing stand-up, but he's not doing it in a conventional way, he's not making observations, there are no punchlines. Welcome to alternative comedy, that arrived in the during the British punk movement, with an anti-establishment attitude. It crossed to America in the 1990s in response to the often non-progressive attitude in many stand-up acts. It's hard to exactly describe it, but the only way I can is to say what it's not. It's not done in a conventional form. There are no punchlines. It's not observational. It's not neutral. It isn't following rules. It isn't just a guy and a microphone. Alternative comedy can also encompass character company. Sometimes, alt-com can uses stuff no usually used in a stand-up act, such as a piano, pictures, drawings, songs, people acting in the background.

The best example of alternative comedy that has made it to the mainstream, but still hasn't sold it's soul are:

Demitri Martin

Zach Galifianakis

The Mighty Boosh

Anti-Comedy: No, it isn't tragedy. This is a relatively new phrase. It's comedy without being presented in comedy--in a way, it's alternative comedy, but it's not referring to itself as comedy. It will confuse the audience, but it doesn't thrive on messing with their heads. Like regular comedy practitioners, they want people to laugh and enjoy themselves, but they want them audience to think as well. The anti-comics usually play it straight, and never break face. On TV-shows that fall into this genre, one might crack a joke, usually a bad one, to which no one would laugh, or there would be a fake or awkward laugh. TV shows that are anti-comedy, might confuse viewers to the point of thinking its an actual documentary, drama, etc, and are victim to low ratings, but the true anti-comedians are able to pull it off, and causing their audience to laugh. Anti-comedy usually requires character comedy to pull it off. I will be exploring anti-comedy a lot as it is my favorite genre.

Andy Kaufman, the founder of anti-comedy--whether he wanted to or not.

Best examples of anti-comedy:

God's Pottery

Look Around You

Even The Office

Welcome!

My name's Marielle, I'm a theatre student, and this a blog for an independent study, in which I'll be exploring comedy. But don't worry, there will still be posts after this semester ends. I will be focusing on modern or new comedy, post 1970. This will also include reviews and recaps of comedy shows and movies, possible interviews, and videos of my own stand-up acts (some funny, some bad) and examples of certain types of genre.

Like I said, this is a professional scholarly project, and my professors and peers will be looking at this blog, so keep your comments clean, no spam, no insults, no ads, no creeps, and no trolls. Also, you might notice I have another blog, feel free to read it, but only if you are interested in Japanese giant robot tv shows (yeah, I'm a nerd). But I'll be mostly focusing on this blog for the time being.

Now, you're probably thinking-- why does some chick who's posted a few stand-up acts on youtube, who is not a famous comedian, and who performs mostly in small, amateur venues, and whose youtube videos, some of which are majorly panned, think she knows a lot about comedy. (Just so you know, I don't videotape all of my stand-up acts, based off of the fear of having a bad audience, and looking awkward on youtube, but I have had some really good acts!)

First off, around the age of five, I fell in love with comedy. At age ten I performed my first "stand-up" act, and by stand-up, I mean telling jokes, and a short comedic play I wrote was chosen by Child's Play Theatre, and is now performed nation-wide in other elementary schools. At the age of thirteen I performed my first real stand-up act in stand-up format. In high school, I did stand-up acts in local venues (mainly coffee shops) as part of a city-wide late night program. As well, I started writing sketches and plays and doing improv, discovering I can do more than stand-up. In college, I finally started performing my non-censored, raw stand-up in my dorm's monthly coffee house, and venturing into other formats of comedy. As well, I have written several plays and a few screenplays, most of them comedies.

Also, I watch any TV show that is funny and watch any movie that is funny, dating all the way back to "Some Like It Hot." As well, I watch last comic standing, mainly focusing on the initial try-outs, so I could see what worked and what not worked. I've seen bad stand-up acts, unfunny shows (Full House, anyone?) and I've been in good stand-up acts, and bad one, so I have a lot of personal experience. So, say what you want, but I know comedy.

Sadly, most books about comedy are how-tos, focusing on basic rules (some of which I follow, others I don't), written by a comedian, focusing on their style, written for kids, really old, or that one written by Aristotle, so I hope this will be a reliable source for people interested in comedy. And this will be enjoyable for you to read as well.