Mad TV Appreciation

[BlackLantern]

So minorities aren't as talented or funny as white comedians? Wow, racist harder.

...although what I really find hilarious is your suggestion that an SNL gig has anything to do with talent. As though we're not talking about a show that hired both Jimmy Fallon and Chris Kattan.

My point wasn't that at all....I was poking fun at affirmative action...

 

[Manic]

Chris Rock summed up successful black comedians in one of his stand-up specials. He said that black men have to be twice as good at their jobs as white men, and if he was a funny as David Spade, he'd be poor.


Anyway, I think the reasons Lorne and the rest of SNL's production team don't cast more minority performers are (1) they don't think they need more than 1 or 2 black performers (currently Kenan Thompson) and maybe one or two racially mixed performers (currently Fred Armisen) at any given time, and (2) Lorne's casting decisions have been notoriously terrible for the past decade and a half. I don't think they could find talented minority performers if they tried.

All race aside, up until a few years ago, MADtv was snatching up all of the real talent. Between Aries Spears and Frank Caliendo, MADtv had the better celebrity impersonators. All SNL has had is Darrell Hammond, although he is great at it. MADtv was recruiting Michael MacDonald when SNL was getting Horatio Sanz.

But you know what the really bad thing about SNL is? The shows long-running staples are the primary things holding it back. There's a reason MADtv only did weekly celebrity hosts for a single year. When you need to grab some random "hot" celebrity every week, you run a very VERY large risk of getting someone who isn't that damn funny. All they need is to do is call in an athlete, singer, or irreverent starlet, and suddenly every single sketch that week is being held back by a non-comedian who isn't that funny, can't remember any of their lines, and simply cannot perform live. Not only that, but their need to perform every sketch live (yes, I know it's been their name since season 2) stops them from making sure everything is performed correctly.

They only pre-record one sketch each week (and from what I hear, they do it on Friday night or Saturday morning), although I think pre-recording a large number of well-written backup sketches would be good to throw into episodes that are running a bit short, so we don't end up with the post-Update lag of long-running, unfunny sketches that were written on Friday night after rehearsal.




...and I'm turning this into an SNL thread.

How 'bout that MADtv?

 

[Abaddon]

I thought it was somewhat funny that they had her play these black characters because she was the closest they had to a black woman on the show. Sometimes I had trouble just trying to figure out exactly who she was suppose to be.

Yeah, I understand that it's a comedy show and it's all in fun but it sort of ruins any sense of authenticity to have an actor play both white and black characters, often in the same episode.

 

[Abaddon]

Yeah Mad TV has pretty much always sucked

Blasphemy

The two most recent black guys have already joined Chocolate News on Comedy Central.

I hope someone finds a decent vehicle for Nicole Parker. She's like the only talented person in the cast.

I hope Bobby Lee's career crawls down a hole and dies.

Nicole Parker should find a decent sitcom, but she's not one of the funnier females the show has had. She's competent though.

 

[Manic]

You know what would've been my dream MADtv cast?

Phil Lamarr
Nicole Sullivan
Debra Wilson
Alex Borstein
Will Sasso (so long as he stops doing Kenny Rogers)
Michael Macdonald
Mo Collins
Aries Spears
Frank Caliendo
Stephanie Weir
Pat Kilbane (underrated cast member)
Nicole Parker (let's face it. She did a better Britney Spears than the other Nicole)

It's a little long, but that's me leaving out my "maybes": Jordan Peele, Crista Flanagan, Keegan-Michael Key (who took a while, but grew on me), and Mary Scheer.

 

[Cmill216]

I'd take Keegan over Kilbane.

 

[Abaddon]

You know what would've been my dream MADtv cast?

Phil Lamarr
Nicole Sullivan
Debra Wilson
Alex Borstein
Will Sasso (so long as he stops doing Kenny Rogers)
Michael Macdonald
Mo Collins
Aries Spears
Frank Caliendo
Stephanie Weir
Pat Kilbane (underrated cast member)
Nicole Parker (let's face it. She did a better Britney Spears than the other Nicole)

It's a little long, but that's me leaving out my "maybes": Jordan Peele, Crista Flanagan, Keegan-Michael Key (who took a while, but grew on me), and Mary Scheer.

I'd take Crista and Mary Scheer. Kilbane was good as the Spishak guy, and the coffee-addict was amusing for a time, but other than that he was pretty meh.

Will Sasso's Steven Seagal and Lance Bass were his best.

 

[Havok83]

You know what I hate? Comedy Central seems to ALWAYS play reruns of the recent seasons. Everytime I turn the channel when Madtv is on, they never play the earlier stuff, you know the good material. Shame

You know what would've been my dream MADtv cast?

Phil Lamarr
Nicole Sullivan
Debra Wilson
Alex Borstein
Will Sasso (so long as he stops doing Kenny Rogers)
Michael Macdonald
Mo Collins
Aries Spears
Frank Caliendo
Stephanie Weir
Pat Kilbane (underrated cast member)
Nicole Parker (let's face it. She did a better Britney Spears than the other Nicole)

It's a little long, but that's me leaving out my "maybes": Jordan Peele, Crista Flanagan, Keegan-Michael Key (who took a while, but grew on me), and Mary Scheer.

I would take Caliendo out as I didnt find him that funny and Id throw in Lisa Kushell from the third season

 

[Manic]

I don't remember anything Lisa Kushell did other than a Fiona Apple impression and an out-of-place Disney Princess character (which Nicole Parker does, now).

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I was going to start a thread but I found this one. Recently started rewatching MadTV on HBO Max and I forgot how damn funny this show was back in its glory days.

How Debra Wilson and Aries Spears never got their own shows are beyond me.

 

[Slick]

I used love this as a kid. It’s very underrated. The DMX sketch still makes me laugh.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Mad TV was always pretty damn consistently hilarious! Too bad it came out around the time when SNL was also at its peak

If Mad TV was still around and kept the same writing style & comedy, it would not doubt be better than current SNL