Live from New York, it’s…meh. There was once a time where “Saturday Night Live” did not just reflect pop culture, but was pop culture. From New York’s hottest club to the creation of the term “Debbie Downer,” SNL launched comedy careers and turned late-night TV into a cultural town square. But somewhere in between banking on nostalgia, endless celebrity cameos to make laughs, and overexcessively integrating Gen-Z lingo to desperately latch on to an audience, SNL stopped leading the conversation and started chasing it.
Now in its 51st season, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” faces a cultural crisis. The long-running sketch show used to shape American humor, and now it, at best, becomes background noise or a Facebook clip someone’s mom reposts. Sure, it is still reliable for a few short lived viral clips on TikTok like the “Domingo: Bridesmaids Speech” skit with Ariana Grande and Marcello Hernandez, but they fade quickly and fail to produce the cultural moments that SNL once defined.
The internet has changed everything. Comedy now spreads at a faster rate than it takes to write a cold open. TikTok and Instagram Reels creators can recreate an entire cultural phenomena not only produced at a quicker speed, but can reach audiences faster than the SNL writers can meet on Mondays. As a result, SNL jokes just reflect the memes we’ve already seen online. It feels like the backwash of comedy. This shift is not entirely the show’s fault, it is virtually impossible to keep up with online humor and trends that constantly cycle.
The internet is complex, and humor can be reached in different crevices online. Someone could be interested in manosphere parody content, and someone else is laughing at Gen Alpha brain rot, leaving no singular comedic voice for SNL to capture. Nothing in comedy dominates the conversation anymore. Still, there is a noticeable lack of effort and innovation on SNL’s part in that it refuses to adapt to the digital age.
Younger audiences consume comedy much differently. Growing up on the internet, humor is absurd, nuanced and sometimes intentionally low budget. The charm of internet comedy is that it’s aware of its chaos and spontaneity. SNL, on the other hand, is glossy, prepared and predictable. Cold open, monologue, sketches, ‘Weekend Update,” and musical guest. SNL has followed this formula since 1975 and what used to be reliable is now routine and possibly outdated. When the cast tries to emulate influencers or aspects of internet culture, it comes across as inauthentic. It shows the lack of digital and youth voices in the writer’s room that understands what younger audiences actually find humorous. It feels like watching your parents trying to understand what a meme is.
SNL has notably always been political. The difference is SNL used to be bold about it. Tina Fey’s depiction of Sarah Palin basically influenced an entire election cycle, and Phil Hartman as President Clinton harassing McDonald’s customers slyly predicted the Monica Lewinsky scandal. SNL used to be reliable for its hilariously accurate and radical depictions of politicians, but recent sketches often play it safe. In today’s polarized climate, fear runs through the veins of media outlets and comedy figures. Satire risks instant backlash and blacklisting, and SNL seems afraid to offend. As a result, the depictions of politics and politicians from SNL feel manufactured, cautious and recycled. Instead of being bold, SNL hones in on familiar faces like Alec Baldwin playing Trump. This brings the issue that maybe the downfall of SNL is not comedic fatigue, but creative fear.
SNL is not all that bad and has brilliant performers. Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman are the two in particular that carry the show with their original voices and absurd humor that reflect the bones of internet culture. But their best work and potential is buried between safe celebrity cameos and recycled content from older sketches. It feels as if the show does not trust their own cast to carry the show anymore.
This notion only deepens insecurity, as more key cast members like Ego Nwodim exits mark a big loss for the show. As one of the few Black female comedians, she brought life to sketches that felt like they were on their last legs. Heidi Gardner and Michael Longfellow’s departure was also a massive blow to the ensemble’s chemistry. Even “Please Don’t Destroy,” whom I considered to be the CPR that SNL needed to revive their comedy status, has stopped producing regular skits for SNL. This has left fans wondering if “Please Don’t Destroy” was too good for SNL’s aging format. Between the imbalance of creative potential, network conservatism and the departure of key figures in the cast, SNL seems to be trapped in their rerun era. The cast is undoubtedly talented and has room for potential to make SNL what it used to be– funny. But, SNLs nostalgic and rigid structure and fear to evolve is what is holding it back.
Despite this slump, SNL is still important. It is one of the few network televisions that has lasted this long, giving live sketches to millions. It is still a holy ground for comedians, a showcase of musical artists and a time capsule of American humor in any given decade. The cultural longevity of SNL deserves massive recognition. Even in its decline, SNL still holds prestige and reflects the constant struggle of American media:the relationship between art and relevance.
If the show wants to reclaim its title as the pulse for American entertainment and humor, it needs to stop chasing the concept of virality in the digital age and start creating it instead. SNL could hire digital natives who know what really goes down on the internet and how to translate it into sketch comedy. Even embracing the absurdity of comedians like Sherman and Yang instead of trying to become topical, will loosen the structure of SNL to adapt to how comedy works now. They need to trust their cast to define the show’s voice instead of relying on Hollywood guest stars or former SNL cast members, assuming they carry the same weight they once did.
The flop era of “Saturday Night Live” is just a symptom of cultural and social exhaustion. The show’s decline in relevance reflects a wider stance in American media. Everything feels over-analyzed, over-referenced yet too behind to be entertainment anymore. SNL sketches echo the noise of a culture that no longer pauses long enough to laugh together. SNL feels trapped in its own nostalgia, but it still has time to improve. As the next generation of comedians emerge online, SNL can learn to not imitate it, but to evolve and get ahead.
