Special Guest Rant/Rant Request 2-
On the new cast of Saturday Night Live: "every week someone breaks and the audience laughs and...applauds them? For what? For the good effort? Where's the professionalism and the writing chops to be able to get laughs because something is funny and not because someone broke character. So F-U Horatio Sanz, who along with Jimmy Fallon, broke during Weekend Update." -MJB
I think that our special guest is right, kiddies. I have to admit that I laugh when these "professionals" break character... and I do it because I know that I would break character too. I feel a connection because they're doing what I would do if I was in their position... BUT that is why I'm here in the comedy improv capital of the world taking classes. I'm here to learn how NOT to break character when I'm on stage doing funny things (or trying to do funny things). So, yes, the point is not to applaud people who are doing their job poorly... only applaud people who do their job well. Don't applaud bouncers, for instance, as they do not properly bounce people.
Well... the request was to compair the "new" SNL cast with the "old" cast... either the Carvey, Farley, Myers, Sandler, Spade SNL or the Akroyd, Martin, Chase SNL. Ok... it's pretty obvious that the new cast is not the best. Can you name three or four cast-created characters that are actually good? No... you can't. This cast doesn't seem to do the whole "make new fun characters" thing... this cast is much more into "impressions." So we can pretty much discount this cast in the conversation of who is best.
Now... comparing original cast with cast from my childhood goes as follows: Original cast had no money at all... it was all up to them to figure out how to do things cheaply. The casts after them have had tons more money comparitively speaking. So huge points to the original cast!
Also, the original cast was doing new things. Everything they were doing, they were having to invent and create... new ways of doing things... hell, they created a whole new genre. More big points to them!
But, since they were so good... every cast since has had to hear "the original guys were better" and "it was funnier before", so mad props to the late 80s/early 90s casts for reinventing the show and doing new things. Does that, alone, make them better than the previous casts? It's certainly a good argument... but you have to give the original casts major points for all they had to do that had never been done before. Therefore, in my opinion, the original crew was the best (and not just most of them started where I'm starting... but I AM that biased).

"How was that a rant?" you ask. "Good Lord! Quit ridding me! It's my damn blog... get outta here!" I respond. It really wasn't a rant... I guess. The request was to rant on the current state of the show and whether it's "funnier" than previous casts... and it's so obviously not "funnier" that I don't even feel it deserves discussion. HOWEVER (God I'm a philosopher), it is important to recognize that this current cast is what we've got, and they have to deal with constantly hearing discussions about whether or not they're as good as previous casts. No... they're not better... but they're not bad, either. Darrell Hammond is probably the best impressionist I've ever seen... his impressions are dead-on... voice inflection, accent, even many facial expressions. Weekend Update is better with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon than it was during the Norm MacDonald, Colin Quinn era... and is as funny or even funnier than Kevin Nealon's Update... points there. And the show has such a big budget now, that they can do pretty much anything and they try lots of different things... they just haven't hit on things as big as previous casts.
In short, are the current cast the best? No... they are not. But does that mean that they're bad? No... I don't feel they're bad either. They're currently better than I am... and until that changes, I'm not going to pass judgement (God... that's never stopped me before... I'm such a bastard).
There... there's another Rant Request. If you've got one for me... let me know. I'll talk about pretty much anything... I AM a philosopher... we're experts at everything!