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"content": "\u003cp>In the pandemic era, the Emmy Awards are not the first major event that can’t be a traditional shindig, but they’re perhaps the most high-profile awards show so far to attempt quite this kind of socially distanced, mask-wearing, virtual ceremony. Host Jimmy Kimmel and everyone producing the broadcast had a pretty tough hill to climb in making it watchable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And surprisingly enough, it was. It wasn’t just watchable; it was … pretty good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening bit featured Kimmel apparently doing a typical Emmy monologue, but of course it was just a monologue that they mixed with old audience footage. While it probably went on too long (what doesn’t?), it was a pretty effective way of easing people into this strange format, like going into a cold pool a few inches at a time. I wouldn’t have come up with it as an idea, and it didn’t seem like an especially \u003cem>good \u003c/em>idea as it became clear what they were doing. But it looked better by the time they’d taken it through to Kimmel saying that, of course, they were \u003cem>not \u003c/em>all together, there was \u003cem>not \u003c/em>an audience, and they’d be mostly showing people in remote locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They did have a sort of skeleton crew on hand with Kimmel, with a few presenters there in person with him, including Jennifer Aniston, Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross. The nominees in each major category were read, and then the nominees would be shown on camera at home, waiting to hear the results. The winners got to make speeches on video, just like the presentations you get to make at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was something kind of … sweet about it. In some cases, with shows that had many nominations, casts and crews had gathered together, [mostly] wearing masks and in some cases (\u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>was one) making sure you knew they’d been tested. The result, while it wasn’t normal (what is?), achieved an intimacy and a genuinely unpredictable quality that is \u003cem>exactly \u003c/em>what’s missing in nearly every awards show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes awards shows so bad, so long, such a \u003cem>drag \u003c/em>so much of the time, is that they’re supposed to be celebratory, but they usually carry a weird sense of obligation. They’re often a fairly bloodless march through the categories, interrupted only by people pretending to laugh at bad banter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a number of years now, they’ve been clustering awards in each genre (comedy, drama, etc.) together, but they’ve held out the top prizes for the very end of the show. This year, they just gave everything out at once. That emphasized the sweep of the televised awards in comedy that went to \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>, a show that never won a single Emmy award before this year, but this year took the comedy awards for lead actor (Eugene Levy), lead actress (Catherine O’Hara), supporting actor (Dan Levy), supporting actress (Annie Murphy), writing, directing and comedy series. For a show that was on for six seasons, seven Emmy awards is not a lot! One award in each of those categories is not a lot. It’s just that they came all at once, and all in a row, and there’s no way for that not to be boring, particularly if you don’t adore \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>(which, full disclosure, I do).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth noting that there were other awards that went to comedies that weren’t part of this broadcast—\u003cem>Insecure \u003c/em>won one for editing, \u003cem>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel \u003c/em>won one for music supervision, and Eddie Murphy and Maya Rudolph both won for guest appearances on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>. But on the main broadcast, it was all \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>, which did make for an awkward beginning. It didn’t help that it came at the expense of a couple of very beloved shows, including \u003cem>Insecure \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>, both of which have also been nominated and not won in previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things picked up a little as they moved on, although it was still a night with some pretty dominant properties. \u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>won big with the top prize for outstanding limited series, plus well-earned awards for actress Regina King, supporting actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and writing by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson. Other winners in limited series were Uzo Aduba for her great work as Shirley Chisholm in \u003cem>Mrs. America\u003c/em> and Mark Ruffalo for HBO’s \u003cem>I Know This Much Is True\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the drama field, \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>was the big winner. It also managed to avoid the danger of splitting votes between Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox, and Strong emerged the winner. \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>also won for writing and directing. It did not, however, go on a tear of the kind that \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>did. Zendaya won for her very well-regarded turn in HBO’s \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em>, a welcome win for a younger actor who took the opportunity in her acceptance to acknowledge activism among her peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vote-splitting may have led to the three \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>actors in the supporting actor category losing out. But winner Billy Crudup did have something working for him: He was the one consistently terrific thing about the high-profile but creatively shaky Apple offering \u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>. In the supporting actress category, Julia Garner won for \u003cem>Ozark\u003c/em>, a show that’s been a consistent awards performer for Netflix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some other winners: \u003cem>Saturday Night Live \u003c/em>for sketch series, \u003cem>Last Week Tonight \u003c/em>for talk series and \u003cem>RuPaul’s Drag Race \u003c/em>for reality competition series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunday night wasn’t necessarily an argument that every awards show should be made with all the winners at home. But it was certainly an argument that not every awards show has to look like the dry, fake-laughter-filled productions we get in every other year. One day, the crowds will return. But perhaps some of these innovations would be worth keeping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Emmys+Pull+Off+A+Good+Show+As+%27Schitt%27s+Creek%27+And+%27Watchmen%27+Shine&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the pandemic era, the Emmy Awards are not the first major event that can’t be a traditional shindig, but they’re perhaps the most high-profile awards show so far to attempt quite this kind of socially distanced, mask-wearing, virtual ceremony. Host Jimmy Kimmel and everyone producing the broadcast had a pretty tough hill to climb in making it watchable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And surprisingly enough, it was. It wasn’t just watchable; it was … pretty good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening bit featured Kimmel apparently doing a typical Emmy monologue, but of course it was just a monologue that they mixed with old audience footage. While it probably went on too long (what doesn’t?), it was a pretty effective way of easing people into this strange format, like going into a cold pool a few inches at a time. I wouldn’t have come up with it as an idea, and it didn’t seem like an especially \u003cem>good \u003c/em>idea as it became clear what they were doing. But it looked better by the time they’d taken it through to Kimmel saying that, of course, they were \u003cem>not \u003c/em>all together, there was \u003cem>not \u003c/em>an audience, and they’d be mostly showing people in remote locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They did have a sort of skeleton crew on hand with Kimmel, with a few presenters there in person with him, including Jennifer Aniston, Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross. The nominees in each major category were read, and then the nominees would be shown on camera at home, waiting to hear the results. The winners got to make speeches on video, just like the presentations you get to make at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was something kind of … sweet about it. In some cases, with shows that had many nominations, casts and crews had gathered together, [mostly] wearing masks and in some cases (\u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>was one) making sure you knew they’d been tested. The result, while it wasn’t normal (what is?), achieved an intimacy and a genuinely unpredictable quality that is \u003cem>exactly \u003c/em>what’s missing in nearly every awards show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes awards shows so bad, so long, such a \u003cem>drag \u003c/em>so much of the time, is that they’re supposed to be celebratory, but they usually carry a weird sense of obligation. They’re often a fairly bloodless march through the categories, interrupted only by people pretending to laugh at bad banter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a number of years now, they’ve been clustering awards in each genre (comedy, drama, etc.) together, but they’ve held out the top prizes for the very end of the show. This year, they just gave everything out at once. That emphasized the sweep of the televised awards in comedy that went to \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>, a show that never won a single Emmy award before this year, but this year took the comedy awards for lead actor (Eugene Levy), lead actress (Catherine O’Hara), supporting actor (Dan Levy), supporting actress (Annie Murphy), writing, directing and comedy series. For a show that was on for six seasons, seven Emmy awards is not a lot! One award in each of those categories is not a lot. It’s just that they came all at once, and all in a row, and there’s no way for that not to be boring, particularly if you don’t adore \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>(which, full disclosure, I do).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth noting that there were other awards that went to comedies that weren’t part of this broadcast—\u003cem>Insecure \u003c/em>won one for editing, \u003cem>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel \u003c/em>won one for music supervision, and Eddie Murphy and Maya Rudolph both won for guest appearances on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>. But on the main broadcast, it was all \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>, which did make for an awkward beginning. It didn’t help that it came at the expense of a couple of very beloved shows, including \u003cem>Insecure \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>, both of which have also been nominated and not won in previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things picked up a little as they moved on, although it was still a night with some pretty dominant properties. \u003cem>Watchmen \u003c/em>won big with the top prize for outstanding limited series, plus well-earned awards for actress Regina King, supporting actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and writing by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson. Other winners in limited series were Uzo Aduba for her great work as Shirley Chisholm in \u003cem>Mrs. America\u003c/em> and Mark Ruffalo for HBO’s \u003cem>I Know This Much Is True\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the drama field, \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>was the big winner. It also managed to avoid the danger of splitting votes between Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox, and Strong emerged the winner. \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>also won for writing and directing. It did not, however, go on a tear of the kind that \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>did. Zendaya won for her very well-regarded turn in HBO’s \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em>, a welcome win for a younger actor who took the opportunity in her acceptance to acknowledge activism among her peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vote-splitting may have led to the three \u003cem>Succession \u003c/em>actors in the supporting actor category losing out. But winner Billy Crudup did have something working for him: He was the one consistently terrific thing about the high-profile but creatively shaky Apple offering \u003cem>The Morning Show\u003c/em>. In the supporting actress category, Julia Garner won for \u003cem>Ozark\u003c/em>, a show that’s been a consistent awards performer for Netflix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some other winners: \u003cem>Saturday Night Live \u003c/em>for sketch series, \u003cem>Last Week Tonight \u003c/em>for talk series and \u003cem>RuPaul’s Drag Race \u003c/em>for reality competition series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunday night wasn’t necessarily an argument that every awards show should be made with all the winners at home. But it was certainly an argument that not every awards show has to look like the dry, fake-laughter-filled productions we get in every other year. One day, the crowds will return. But perhaps some of these innovations would be worth keeping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Emmys+Pull+Off+A+Good+Show+As+%27Schitt%27s+Creek%27+And+%27Watchmen%27+Shine&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The first trailer for \u003cem>Woke\u003c/em>, based on the life and art of cartoonist Keith Knight, has arrived. Knight, who was a longtime resident of San Francisco, wrote the script for the eight-episode comedy series with Marshall Todd, best known for his work on 2002’s \u003cem>Barbershop\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Woke\u003c/em> stars Lamorne Morris (who played Winston on \u003cem>New Girl\u003c/em>) as Keef Knight, a cartoonist who has a social and political awakening just as he’s on the verge of achieving mainstream success. As Keef struggles to adapt to seeing the world through new eyes, cartoons invade his everyday reality. [aside postid='pop_111678']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Woke\u003c/em> is inspired in part by Knight’s long-running cartoon strip \u003cem>The K Chronicles\u003c/em>, which ran in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> for five years. The strip won multiple awards for its insightful takes on politics, race and family, including the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best Syndicated Comic Strip in 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Woke\u003c/em> is set in San Francisco, despite being filmed on location in Vancouver. Other notable cast members include \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> alum Sasheer Zamata and Blake Anderson from \u003cem>Workaholics\u003c/em>. All eight episodes will hit Hulu on Sept. 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeV8GCRs__E\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Woke\u003c/em> is inspired in part by Knight’s long-running cartoon strip \u003cem>The K Chronicles\u003c/em>, which ran in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> for five years. The strip won multiple awards for its insightful takes on politics, race and family, including the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best Syndicated Comic Strip in 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Woke\u003c/em> is set in San Francisco, despite being filmed on location in Vancouver. Other notable cast members include \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> alum Sasheer Zamata and Blake Anderson from \u003cem>Workaholics\u003c/em>. All eight episodes will hit Hulu on Sept. 9.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/WeV8GCRs__E'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/WeV8GCRs__E'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How Hollywood Works From Home: Stay Tuned as TV Shows Get Creative",
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"content": "\u003cp>During the pandemic lockdown, what’s left of Hollywood production has gone virtual. Late-night TV hosts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/15753/get-to-know-your-new-daily-show-host-south-african-comedian-trevor-noah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trevor Noah, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/11/02/500303201/late-show-host-stephen-colbert-says-hes-finally-found-his-post-report-voice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Colbert \u003c/a>and the Jimmys—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/10/12/557331357/jimmy-fallon-on-the-school-of-snl-and-his-tendency-to-smile-too-much\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fallon \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/01/783722818/jimmy-kimmel-writes-a-picture-book-says-kids-are-always-ready-to-laugh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kimmel\u003c/a>—record monologues \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/831174892/late-night-hosts-are-also-working-from-home-with-varying-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from their homes.\u003c/a> \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>, which had its finale over the weekend, had its cast mates and guest stars tape themselves, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848506248/from-parks-and-recreation-a-brief-but-delightful-return-to-pawnee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">special reunion episode\u003c/a> of \u003cem>Parks and Recreation\u003c/em> that aired recently was also written, shot, directed and edited remotely. Showrunner Mike Schur says he and the director, script supervisor and editors worked from their homes, watching on Zoom as the actors did their own camerawork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYth4JZP3s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t actually fully know what anything looked like until we got the footage back. It was always a little bit of a surprise,” Schur says. “There were things that were recorded at the wrong frame rate, the little lights that were attached to the mini-rigs that we sent out kept malfunctioning in the middle of takes. It was a struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Schur says the episode worked as a one-off since the series always had a “let’s put on a show” sensibility. But Schur, who created \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/105436/what-the-good-place-has-taught-us-about-philosophy-and-life-so-far\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/103753/saving-brooklyn-nine-nine-was-business-but-the-love-of-it-is-real\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brooklyn Nine-Nine\u003c/a> \u003c/em>and the upcoming series \u003cem>Rutherford Falls\u003c/em>, says the do-it-yourself method isn’t a long-term solution because making a comedy is a team sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t be everyone in his or her own house acting as his or her own hair, makeup, DP [director of photography], rigger, gaffer, grip,” Schur says. “It was really fun to do, but it’s not a blueprint for anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Casting director Jennifer Euston can no longer safely audition actors in person at her small New York City office. And she can’t scout for talent at the theater, like she did for\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/6932/5-reasons-to-start-watching-orange-is-the-new-black-right-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Orange is the New Black. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>But she’s got a plan for casting the upcoming Netflix series \u003cem>Social Distance\u003c/em>, a scripted show set during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to hire actors that are quarantining together as families, as husband and wife, as brother and sister, any combination of people—and it’s not just straight couples,” she says, adding that her goal is to add as much diversity to the show as possible. Not just racial and ethnic diversity, but “all shapes, and sizes, and faces, and looks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>One Day at a Time\u003c/em> executive producer \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/29/737328745/after-new-season-pick-up-one-day-at-a-time-showrunner-looks-ahead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gloria Calderon Kellett \u003c/a>found an alternative to taping her show on a crowded set in front of a live audience. After her rebooted sitcom had to shut down midseason, she had an idea: “My husband’s a cartoonist, so animation is around me all the time. And I just thought maybe we can animate this particular episode.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kellett says the storyline of this particular episode, set to air in June, has her TV family dealing with the upcoming presidential election. She says it’s filled with fantasy sequences, making it easy to animate, but future episodes won’t necessarily be cartoons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Animation is one of the few forms of entertainment still in production. For the series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/111678/8-ways-bobs-burgers-is-pure-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Bob’s Burgers\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>animators in South Korea continue to work. And from their homes in Los Angeles, writers and sisters Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux work in the show’s virtual writers’ room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ru6bo3CHO4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You lose a little bit of the fun and the magic of having everybody in the room together and seeing each other,” Lizzie Molyneux says. “But it’s good to remember that we’re all fortunate to be working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Molyneux sisters are also co-executive producers of an upcoming animated sitcom, \u003cem>The Great North\u003c/em>. The cast, which features the voices of Megan Mullally and Will Forte, recently tested out lines during an online table read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally you get the big laughs from the room, but we had everyone other than our actors muted so there wouldn’t be a lot of noise,” Wendy Molyneux says. “But the actors were nice enough to laugh at the jokes themselves as it went along. So that helped it have the feeling of: We’re not saying jokes into an absolute vacuum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TV writers are now wrestling with how future storylines can deal with the coronavirus pandemic and an unknown future. Schur says his showrunner wife, J.J. Philbin, is waiting to see if her sitcom, \u003cem>Single Parents,\u003c/em> gets picked up for another season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her daily question is: ‘When we come back, are these people living in this world?’ Do you ignore it, or do you run right at it?” he says. “It’s hard to know what people will want from TV, whether they’ll want pure escapism or whether they’ll want a sort of reflection of their own reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Audiences may already be tired of watching actors in their living rooms or in mock Zoom meetings. Is it time to innovate new special effects or bring back canned laugh tracks? Stay tuned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nina Gregory edited this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+Hollywood+Works+From+Home%3A+Stay+Tuned+As+TV+Shows+Get+Creative&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>During the pandemic lockdown, what’s left of Hollywood production has gone virtual. Late-night TV hosts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/15753/get-to-know-your-new-daily-show-host-south-african-comedian-trevor-noah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trevor Noah, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/11/02/500303201/late-show-host-stephen-colbert-says-hes-finally-found-his-post-report-voice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Colbert \u003c/a>and the Jimmys—\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/10/12/557331357/jimmy-fallon-on-the-school-of-snl-and-his-tendency-to-smile-too-much\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fallon \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/01/783722818/jimmy-kimmel-writes-a-picture-book-says-kids-are-always-ready-to-laugh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kimmel\u003c/a>—record monologues \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/831174892/late-night-hosts-are-also-working-from-home-with-varying-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from their homes.\u003c/a> \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>, which had its finale over the weekend, had its cast mates and guest stars tape themselves, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848506248/from-parks-and-recreation-a-brief-but-delightful-return-to-pawnee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">special reunion episode\u003c/a> of \u003cem>Parks and Recreation\u003c/em> that aired recently was also written, shot, directed and edited remotely. Showrunner Mike Schur says he and the director, script supervisor and editors worked from their homes, watching on Zoom as the actors did their own camerawork.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/bwYth4JZP3s'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/bwYth4JZP3s'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“We didn’t actually fully know what anything looked like until we got the footage back. It was always a little bit of a surprise,” Schur says. “There were things that were recorded at the wrong frame rate, the little lights that were attached to the mini-rigs that we sent out kept malfunctioning in the middle of takes. It was a struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Schur says the episode worked as a one-off since the series always had a “let’s put on a show” sensibility. But Schur, who created \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/105436/what-the-good-place-has-taught-us-about-philosophy-and-life-so-far\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/103753/saving-brooklyn-nine-nine-was-business-but-the-love-of-it-is-real\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brooklyn Nine-Nine\u003c/a> \u003c/em>and the upcoming series \u003cem>Rutherford Falls\u003c/em>, says the do-it-yourself method isn’t a long-term solution because making a comedy is a team sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t be everyone in his or her own house acting as his or her own hair, makeup, DP [director of photography], rigger, gaffer, grip,” Schur says. “It was really fun to do, but it’s not a blueprint for anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Casting director Jennifer Euston can no longer safely audition actors in person at her small New York City office. And she can’t scout for talent at the theater, like she did for\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/6932/5-reasons-to-start-watching-orange-is-the-new-black-right-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Orange is the New Black. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>But she’s got a plan for casting the upcoming Netflix series \u003cem>Social Distance\u003c/em>, a scripted show set during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to hire actors that are quarantining together as families, as husband and wife, as brother and sister, any combination of people—and it’s not just straight couples,” she says, adding that her goal is to add as much diversity to the show as possible. Not just racial and ethnic diversity, but “all shapes, and sizes, and faces, and looks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>One Day at a Time\u003c/em> executive producer \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/29/737328745/after-new-season-pick-up-one-day-at-a-time-showrunner-looks-ahead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gloria Calderon Kellett \u003c/a>found an alternative to taping her show on a crowded set in front of a live audience. After her rebooted sitcom had to shut down midseason, she had an idea: “My husband’s a cartoonist, so animation is around me all the time. And I just thought maybe we can animate this particular episode.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kellett says the storyline of this particular episode, set to air in June, has her TV family dealing with the upcoming presidential election. She says it’s filled with fantasy sequences, making it easy to animate, but future episodes won’t necessarily be cartoons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Animation is one of the few forms of entertainment still in production. For the series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/111678/8-ways-bobs-burgers-is-pure-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Bob’s Burgers\u003c/em>, \u003c/a>animators in South Korea continue to work. And from their homes in Los Angeles, writers and sisters Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux work in the show’s virtual writers’ room.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/7Ru6bo3CHO4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/7Ru6bo3CHO4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“You lose a little bit of the fun and the magic of having everybody in the room together and seeing each other,” Lizzie Molyneux says. “But it’s good to remember that we’re all fortunate to be working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Molyneux sisters are also co-executive producers of an upcoming animated sitcom, \u003cem>The Great North\u003c/em>. The cast, which features the voices of Megan Mullally and Will Forte, recently tested out lines during an online table read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally you get the big laughs from the room, but we had everyone other than our actors muted so there wouldn’t be a lot of noise,” Wendy Molyneux says. “But the actors were nice enough to laugh at the jokes themselves as it went along. So that helped it have the feeling of: We’re not saying jokes into an absolute vacuum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TV writers are now wrestling with how future storylines can deal with the coronavirus pandemic and an unknown future. Schur says his showrunner wife, J.J. Philbin, is waiting to see if her sitcom, \u003cem>Single Parents,\u003c/em> gets picked up for another season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her daily question is: ‘When we come back, are these people living in this world?’ Do you ignore it, or do you run right at it?” he says. “It’s hard to know what people will want from TV, whether they’ll want pure escapism or whether they’ll want a sort of reflection of their own reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Audiences may already be tired of watching actors in their living rooms or in mock Zoom meetings. Is it time to innovate new special effects or bring back canned laugh tracks? Stay tuned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nina Gregory edited this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+Hollywood+Works+From+Home%3A+Stay+Tuned+As+TV+Shows+Get+Creative&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "snl-just-wrapped-its-45th-season-its-time-to-cruelly-rank-its-musical-guests",
"title": "'SNL' Just Wrapped its 45th Season: It's Time to Cruelly Rank its Musical Guests",
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"headTitle": "‘SNL’ Just Wrapped its 45th Season: It’s Time to Cruelly Rank its Musical Guests | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>We’re roughly two months into a collective crisis that’s kept us sheltered in place, cut off from friends and fearful for the future of our health, our families and our economic well-being. Our emotions frequently form a thick slurry of anxiety, worry, boredom, rage and desperate desire for threads of normalcy; for moments of mundanity; for the calming comfort of the familiar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is why, in the interest of national unity—of shared struggle, of resilience, of all-in-this-togetherness, of \u003cem>patriotism\u003c/em>—it is \u003cem>vital\u003c/em> that we reflect on the most recent season of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> and mean-spiritedly rank the quality of its musical guests. We did this \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/20/724884348/snl-musical-guests-ranked-from-no-1-to-greta-van-fleet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last year\u003c/a> (with apologies to Greta Van Fleet) and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/05/21/612911877/this-season-s-snl-musical-guests-cruelly-ranked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the year before\u003c/a> (with apologies to James Bay, whose performance almost definitely happened, though we can’t be 100 percent certain). So now, friends, that tradition continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few quick notes about \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>‘s 45th season, which ended Saturday: Due to COVID-19, what was intended to be a 21-episode season was shortened to 18 shows, only 15 of which took place before a live audience. The last three, nicknamed \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>, were cobbled together from performers’ residences—including those of the musical guests. \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>‘s Studio 8H stage isn’t always kind to musicians, but it’s bound to present advantages over a setting that provides no audience feedback. We’ll attempt to take that into consideration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, maybe it was the smaller sample size, but no one in this year’s lineup toppled headlong into a grisly train wreck the way certain acts (\u003cem>cough\u003c/em> Kanye West \u003cem>cough\u003c/em> DJ Khaled \u003cem>cough\u003c/em> Greta Van Fleet) did last season. So last place in Season 45 should be read as more “meh” than… you know, traumatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All right, let’s do this! \u003cem>(Oh, and we’ve linked to every performance that’s still officially available on YouTube.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>18. The Weeknd, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17GxpgE-Fwo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Blinding Lights\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nm9RZqBaBM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Scared to Live\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nm9RZqBaBM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, so let’s start with the weirdly busted-up face: As with The Weeknd’s other appearances in support of his new album \u003cem>After Hours\u003c/em>, the singer performed on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> wearing makeup designed to make it look as if he’d just broken his nose. (The album chronicles a rough night out on the town, after all.) So, you know: red suit jacket, nice shoes, blood streaming down his cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To liven up the actual performances, it’s best to imagine a backstage scenario in which, say, Cecily Strong was like, “Hey, The Weeknd! Your 2016 song ‘I Feel It Coming (feat. Daft Punk),” while catchy, is nakedly derivative of Michael Jackson! [*bomp*]”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We certainly wouldn’t wish actual violence upon the singer, nor would anyone accuse Cecily Strong of such impudence. It’s just that a little bit of fiction livens up the fact that this performance of “Scared to Live” was \u003cem>so, so, so boring\u003c/em>. On the album, the song is a moody tone-setter; on the \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stage, it was a bathroom break in song form. With the singer standing gamely alongside bright panels of mirrors, “Blinding Lights” put a bit more pep in its step, but The Weeknd still seemed to have expended most of his energy and dynamism in the makeup chair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>17. Luke Combs, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B38JvahZxlc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Lovin’ on You\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A_CIU4mU60\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Beer Never Broke My Heart\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B38JvahZxlc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unfair to Luke Combs to rank him on a scale that rewards onstage spectacle: The singer is one of the biggest stars in country music, at least in part \u003cem>because\u003c/em> his most muscular, rowdily beer-forward songs are so straight-ahead and lyrically unadorned. It’s not a putdown to say that Combs’ \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> renditions of “Lovin’ on You” and “Beer Never Broke My Heart” are indistinguishable from performances he and his band would give in a bar. (Not that they’ve played bars in years; Combs was selling out arenas pre-COVID.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue here is that the songs themselves just aren’t \u003cem>interesting\u003c/em>. “Lovin’ on You” is one of those here-is-a-list-of-things country songs that could have been written by an app, while “Beer Never Broke My Heart” sounds like… well, it could have been written by an app that makes beer commercials. With his bushy red beard and acrylic baseball cap, Combs is as approachable a superstar as you’ll find. But on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>, he stuck to his most boilerplate material, leaving softer stunners like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kqqmr2HWI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Even Though I’m Leaving\u003c/a>” for another day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>16. Niall Horan, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRA-h44Nn98\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Nice to Meet Ya\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iboimrLFE8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Put a Little Love on Me\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iboimrLFE8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a truncated \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> season, fully one-ninth of the headlining musical guests were former members of One Direction: That’d be Harry Styles (see below) and Niall Horan, who put out a fine solo album back in March, just as the world was beginning to crumble around us. Horan previewed that record on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> by performing a pair of its singles: the chugging “Nice to Meet Ya” and the tender piano ballad “Put a Little Love on Me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each song is sturdy enough—and catnip for Horan’s zillions of fans—but both felt a little drab on the \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stage. “Nice to Meet Ya” reverberated gamely with the reincarnated spirit of Rick Astley (who, it must be noted, is not dead), but little else about the performance would be remembered by morning. And while Horan gave “Put a Little Love on Me” his all vocally, the piano-bar arrangement generated scarcely enough energy to warm up a teacup full of skim milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, we got Harry Styles and Niall Horan, but no Zayn Malik? Bring us Zayn, you ghouls! #justiceforzayn #nozaynnopeace\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>15. Camila Cabello, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLorxdRxRg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Cry for Me\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syzcvdm1hq4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Easy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syzcvdm1hq4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camila Cabello has spent years on the pop-star treadmill—first in Fifth Harmony and then as the chart-topping singer of songs like “Havana” and “Señorita”—without establishing a terribly distinct public persona. The Cuban-American’s songs often evoke a sense of place to match their sultriness, but Cabello herself remains somewhat unknowable; no matter how thoughtfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/camila-cabello-anxiety-nervous-singing-public-shawn-mendes-senorita-a9015041.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she’s opened up to the public\u003c/a>, her candor rarely seems to seep into the songs she sings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t change with the skillful-but-bloodless singles she performed in her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut, although “Cry for Me” at least got a grandly choreographed theatrical staging, complete with Marie Antoinette get-up and dancers twirling around in vintage attire. By comparison, “Easy” felt a bit stilted and pageant-y, as Cabello performed the song while standing in a white silk gown, her feet planted to the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>14. Boyz II Men with Babyface, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLXlbaF9cE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>A Song for Mama\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLXlbaF9cE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final episode of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>—and of the show’s 45th season—happened to take place on the eve of Mother’s Day. So the show opted for a brief, good-natured, low-key tribute courtesy of Babyface and Boyz II Men, whose members performed their 1997 chart-topper “A Song for Mama” from the confines of their respective domiciles. (\u003cem>SNL’\u003c/em>s home editions have provided peeks into many performers’ home lives. In this case, we learned that Babyface and Boyz II Men live among many, many framed gold and platinum records.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for “A Song for Mama,” the moment was sweet—and rendered that much more sentimental via the screening of archival photos of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> cast members with their moms. But with each performer appearing remotely, the finished product felt a little… well, remote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, now that Mother’s Day is over, may we recommend \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sasPmpBhR10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a far livelier COVID performance\u003c/a> by Boyz II Men, in which the singing sensations appear from their homes along with New Kids on the Block, Naughty by Nature, Big Freedia (!!!), Jordin Sparks and an assortment of bonkers cameos? Because it is ridiculous, and it is fun, and it’s a reminder that staying home doesn’t mean you can \u003cem>only\u003c/em> listen to songs about what a low-key bummer it is to stay home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>13. Justin Bieber, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9DBJsXtays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Yummy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiJmC_kqXJ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Intentions\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> feat. Quavo”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9DBJsXtays\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: Justin Bieber tore through two new songs from \u003cem>Changes\u003c/em> with considerable energy, backed by starkly lit dancers, attention-grabbing sets and, late in “Intentions,” a welcome appearance by Migos rapper Quavo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The less-good news: Bieber’s vocals were pretty wobbly and… yeah, “Yummy” is \u003cem>at least\u003c/em> as insipid as its title suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which is to say: This was the latest mixed bag in a career that’s produced some A+ pop bangers, some forgettable trifles, a lavish assortment of embarrassing growing pains and one ugly-ass mustache.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>12. Halsey, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYo1bmqn40\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>You Should Be Sad\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFcIBSgk9dQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Finally // Beautiful Stranger\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYo1bmqn40\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halsey grew up in New Jersey, which places her not terribly far from 30 Rockefeller Plaza. So, while we’re not suggesting that Halsey currently lives in a supply closet at 30 Rock so that she can be available to perform on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> at a moment’s notice, we’re also not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> suggesting that Halsey currently lives in a supply closet at 30 Rock so that she can be available to perform on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> at a moment’s notice. Halsey is on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> a \u003cem>lot\u003c/em>. From the beginning of 2018 through January of this year, the show featured women as headlining musical guests 16 out of a possible 44 times. Halsey has claimed \u003cem>three\u003c/em> of those spots, and that’s not even counting the time the singer popped up during Lil Wayne’s set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest iteration of Halsey on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> felt oddly low-energy—which is kind of a feat when you consider that 1.) she performed the midtempo “You Should Be Sad” while glued into a Frederick’s of Hollywood castoff; and 2.) she opened her set astride a mechanical bull and later got hoisted aloft by scantily clad dancers. “Finally // Beautiful Stranger” was less eventful (by design) and slower still: a vocal showcase that demonstrated both Halsey’s range and her tendency to embellish her vocals with what can only be described as “simulated AutoTune.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>11. King Princess, “1950” and “Hit the Back”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King Princess (a.k.a. Mikaela Straus) has only released an album and an EP, but she’s already working from a toolkit that encompasses and transcends multiple blended genres. For her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut, the young shapeshifter showed off her affinity for two of them: the slick, wiry, slow-burning, guitar-wielding rock of “1950” and the coyly suggestive, alternately seething and propulsive dance-pop of “Hit the Back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken as a whole, the performance felt more like an introduction than a coronation: King Princess waited to really cut loose until late in “Hit the Back,” when a series of body-rolls gave way to full-blown thrashing. Norm-busting icons generally aren’t made overnight, but she’s well on her way; this relatively contained \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stop felt like Step 1 on a long journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>10. Chris Martin, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdzFWMhNPc0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Shelter From The Storm\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdzFWMhNPc0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once COVID-19 made it impossible to put together a traditional episode of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>—and forced the cancellation of a planned show with musical guest Dua Lipa—producers did what they could to assemble an episode cobbled together from material recorded at performers’ homes. Casualties of this arrangement included the live audience, the live laughter, the live applause, the 30 Rock soundstage, much of the interpersonal chemistry, the musical guest’s second song and an unwritten rule that prevents singers from headlining more than one episode in a single season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Martin’s band Coldplay was the musical guest back in November—see below—but he returned in April to perform a cover of Bob Dylan’s situationally appropriate 1975 classic “Shelter From the Storm.” Shot in dusky, grayish black-and-white (presumably to pay tribute to the film \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061589/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Dont Look Back\u003c/em>\u003c/a>), the set-up felt bare-bones in a cable-access sort of way, as Martin wisely skipped embellishments that might have watered down the original. Hardly a Technicolor showstopper, but right for the moment at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>9. Harry Styles, “Lights Up” and “Watermelon Sugar”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a wonder that Harry Styles found the time to put together grabby stage presentations of “Lights Up” and “Watermelon Sugar,” given his to-do list for the night: The former One Direction star (and current \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/814424330/2-green-bay-packers-fans-chat-behind-the-tiny-desk-and-one-of-them-is-harry-styl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers fan\u003c/a>) was also serving as \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> \u003cem>host\u003c/em>, acting in a bunch of sketches and, at one point, appearing in a prerecorded video as the human embodiment of Aidy Bryant’s dog. The live songs, performed in the run-up to Styles’ recent album \u003cem>Fine Line\u003c/em>, could’ve easily registered as an afterthought, and they thankfully didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opening with the more subdued “Lights Up,” Styles appeared with a stately band and a solemn choir. As such, the performance felt a little uneventful—though it should be noted that Styles brought his wardrobe A-game in a way other men seriously ought to emulate. (That sparkly jumpsuit is \u003cem>killer\u003c/em>.) “Watermelon Sugar” brings another great outfit and a nice jolt of fervent energy, as Styles danced and strutted about while surrounded by a crack band that included a four-piece horn section.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>8. Taylor Swift, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmipFjOtMA8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Lover\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjD3LoXp-Pw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>False God\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmipFjOtMA8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was hardly Taylor Swift’s first \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> rodeo, given that she’s been a host, made a few cameos and served as a headlining musical guest more than once. And Swift has spent countless promotional cycles serving up lavish, uneven, often high-concept performances at awards shows and on late-night TV. So it was actually refreshing to see her so dialed-down and at-ease in these stripped-down performances of highlights from her latest album, \u003cem>Lover\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That record’s wedding-ready title track got an especially raw treatment on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>, as her solo-piano rendition highlighted the song’s conversational emotionalism and a hook so subtle, you hardly notice it burrowing into your brain for eternity. Less emotionally rich but more visually eventful was “False God,” in which Swift glided through the song amid soft, floating coils of light and the prominent saxophone solos of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> bandleader (and former Tower of Power player) Lenny Pickett.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>7. Miley Cyrus, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYo8xQf4PY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Wish You Were Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYo8xQf4PY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first week of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em> made a valiant attempt to re-create an episode of the show while juggling technological limitations, a dark national mood and the fact that virtually no one could be in the same room together. The second week ran far more smoothly: Funnier and slicker, it also benefited from the fact that its musical guest, Miley Cyrus, didn’t look as if she was starring in a hostage video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bathed in red light while sitting aside a fire pit at night, Cyrus belted out Pink Floyd’s 1975 lighter-waver “Wish You Were Here” with the socially distanced accompaniment of guitarist Andrew Watt. (The choice of Watt—a bestselling pop producer, guitarist and songwriter who’s working with Cyrus on her next album—felt notable, in part because Watt \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/news/music-producer-andrew-watt-coronavirus-pneumonia-1203537066/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has written publicly\u003c/a> about his recent battle with COVID-19.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a simple set-up recorded under difficult circumstances, Cyrus’ performance did a pretty ingenious job of turning back-porch busking into the stuff of late-night sound stages. It had visual drama: smoke, flames, distinct lighting, moody accompaniment, lavish fashion. But it also served up the umpteenth reminder that Miley Cyrus is a marvelous singer, with vocal—and emotional—range to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>6. Coldplay, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUxsb0Zpe8w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Orphans\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “Everyday Life”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUxsb0Zpe8w\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bash Coldplay all you want, but this performance of “Orphans” showed exactly how to liven up a typical spot as a late-night musical guest: Chris Martin opened the song from a supply closet in the back of the room before making his way into the audience to perform with clusters of cast members, musicians and randos. He eventually ran to the stage, at which point he finished the song while backed by members of his band, a colorful animated video on a giant screen and an enormous throng of dancers. It was an immensely buoyant, memorable performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, “Everyday Life” couldn’t help but fizzle earnestly, though the song’s melancholy notes of tentatively uplifting empathy resonate more now than they did all the way back in November 2019. But let’s not neglect the \u003cem>real\u003c/em> takeaway here: Sure, Chris Martin’s distressed tee probably cost $1,400 or something, but he looked like he just got done insulating his attic. Could you imagine Halsey getting to perform in that grubby rag? We will never achieve gender equality until male performers dress better (see: Harry Styles) or female performers dress worse—preferably both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>5. DaBaby, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffEyeWn_fA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Bop\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGLwe53-LI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Suge\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffEyeWn_fA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DaBaby understands that you can perform a couple of songs on TV, or you can put on a show of your own. Backed by a few musicians, a giant throng of dancers and a woman who periodically twerked from a full handstand, DaBaby served as both rapper and ringmaster. Unafraid to dive into the choreography, he felt fully integrated into the mayhem—which featured not only the hip-hop dance crew Jabbawockeez, but also a whole bunch of stage fighting. (Why stage fighting? Hey, why did the other 17 entries on this list \u003cem>not\u003c/em> include stage fighting? Lookin’ your way, Niall Horan.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, all that ludicrous theatrical chaos wouldn’t have mattered much without tight, hooky songs to back it up, and DaBaby came to work there, too. Performing with a showman’s charisma, the young star seemed to be having a blast. That can be more than half the battle, right there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4. Billie Eilish, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1Uwsg3eRQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>bad guy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6AdQLB_19g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>I Love You\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> (feat. Finneas O’Connell)”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1Uwsg3eRQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billie Eilish was basically bulletproof in 2019: Her debut album spawned a string of huge hits, and “bad guy” was the only juggernaut omnipresent enough to knock “Old Town Road” off its perch at the top of the pop charts. She kicked off 2020 by sweeping every major category at the Grammys—the youngest artist ever to do so. And, along the path to domination, she provided one of the biggest “wow” moments in recent \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a concept liberally borrowed from the 1951 film \u003cem>Royal Wedding\u003c/em>—the one in which Fred Astaire climbs the walls before dancing on the ceiling—Eilish’s pajama- and walking-boot-clad \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> performance of “bad guy” duplicated the gravity-defying effect to perfection, thanks to a boxy miniaturized set (and a camera) that rotated like a hamster wheel. Before viewers could finish Googling “How did Billie Eilish do that \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>,” the show panned out to reveal the trick, which somehow made the whole thing seem even more impressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After so much razzle-dazzle, Eilish hardly needed to return for a second song. But she took a decent-sized swing anyway, showcasing her balladeering softer side—still a new look for her back in September—in a whispery take on “I Love You.” Joined on guitar by her similarly Grammy-festooned brother Finneas O’Connell, Eilish more than held her own. But it was somewhat drowsy as a set-closer, especially after the sugar high she’d just pulled off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. Chance The Rapper, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlUnGj54hM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Zanies and Fools\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwX2IpcmN_w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Handsome\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwX2IpcmN_w\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was Chance the Rapper’s second stint as a musical guest, his second stint as an enormously funny and good-natured \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> host, and his first time pulling double duty. Hell, he even introduced himself at the top of “Zanies and Fools,” letting a clip of his adorable daughter fill the time between his introduction (“Ladies and gentlemen, Chance the Rapper”) and the performance itself. The guy does it all, and does it extraordinarily well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chance also knows how to share—and lavishly fill—a stage, and for “Zanies and Fools,” the rapper found himself surrounded by a swirl of dancers, not to mention a small army of percussionists and string players. The choreography unfurled around him without really involving him, but he compensated by unleashing a rapid-fire vocal that kept the viewer’s attention center stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Handsome,” Chance’s collaborators crowded into the background, which gave him the opportunity to move around a bit before ceding the spotlight to the most formidable presence imaginable: Megan Thee Stallion. Meg kept her intensity in second gear to match her stage partner—and found a way to give herself a network-television-friendly edit in real time—but her star power was beyond unmistakable. Next season, she’d be well suited to follow in Chance’s footsteps and try her hand as a host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. David Byrne, “Once in a Lifetime” and “Toe Jam”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> usually makes room for a rock or pop legend here and there, including Paul Simon last year and U2 the year before. This year, the chosen veteran was David Byrne, to coincide with the Broadway staging of his \u003cem>American Utopia\u003c/em> concerts. Crucially, he brought his robust, gray-suited cast to join him in filling the stage with movement, sound and all-around effervescence. Deploying between three and six percussionists at any given moment, these performances radiated good cheer and spiky humor, propelled by a Broadway production’s mandate to thrill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, really, “thrilling” just about sums it up. Most \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> guests are promoting new material, so catalog hits aren’t the norm. Here, we got Talking Heads’ unimpeachable classic “Once in a Lifetime” and the terrific “Toe Jam,” which Byrne co-wrote for the U.K. electro-pop band The Brighton Port Authority back in 2008. Byrne happened to appear on perhaps the season’s most widely beloved \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> episode—the one hosted by the marvelous John Mulaney—but you couldn’t have blamed the show had it just turned the whole thing over to Byrne & Co.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. Lizzo, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7oze-nu38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Truth Hurts\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj83ri3lSe0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Good As Hell\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj83ri3lSe0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took Lizzo years of hustle and grind to rise all the way to pop superstardom, so there was no way she’d make her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut and not crush it. Marrying lavishly choreographed dance routines to undeniable musicianship and unfettered joy, she and her dancers twerked, spun and frolicked through Lizzo’s two greatest hits to date: “Truth Hurts” (backed by an airtight band, populated exclusively by black women) and “Good As Hell” (performed on a Christmas-themed set in which dancers twirled on poles striped like candy canes).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>‘s Studio 8H stage can be sterile and unforgiving: It’s a nondescript space with an iffy sound mix, and the crowds are largely there to watch comedy. So it’s a special kind of joy to watch Lizzo douse that canvas with vibrancy, color, movement and good cheer—not to mention transcendent vocal talent—in a set perfectly tailored to elevate the space, the show and the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27SNL%27+Just+Wrapped+Its+45th+Season%3A+It%27s+Time+To+Cruelly+Rank+Its+Musical+Guests&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "It is vital that we reflect on the most recent season of 'Saturday Night Live' and mean-spiritedly rank its 18 featured musical acts from worst to best.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>We’re roughly two months into a collective crisis that’s kept us sheltered in place, cut off from friends and fearful for the future of our health, our families and our economic well-being. Our emotions frequently form a thick slurry of anxiety, worry, boredom, rage and desperate desire for threads of normalcy; for moments of mundanity; for the calming comfort of the familiar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is why, in the interest of national unity—of shared struggle, of resilience, of all-in-this-togetherness, of \u003cem>patriotism\u003c/em>—it is \u003cem>vital\u003c/em> that we reflect on the most recent season of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> and mean-spiritedly rank the quality of its musical guests. We did this \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/20/724884348/snl-musical-guests-ranked-from-no-1-to-greta-van-fleet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last year\u003c/a> (with apologies to Greta Van Fleet) and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/05/21/612911877/this-season-s-snl-musical-guests-cruelly-ranked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the year before\u003c/a> (with apologies to James Bay, whose performance almost definitely happened, though we can’t be 100 percent certain). So now, friends, that tradition continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few quick notes about \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>‘s 45th season, which ended Saturday: Due to COVID-19, what was intended to be a 21-episode season was shortened to 18 shows, only 15 of which took place before a live audience. The last three, nicknamed \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>, were cobbled together from performers’ residences—including those of the musical guests. \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>‘s Studio 8H stage isn’t always kind to musicians, but it’s bound to present advantages over a setting that provides no audience feedback. We’ll attempt to take that into consideration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, maybe it was the smaller sample size, but no one in this year’s lineup toppled headlong into a grisly train wreck the way certain acts (\u003cem>cough\u003c/em> Kanye West \u003cem>cough\u003c/em> DJ Khaled \u003cem>cough\u003c/em> Greta Van Fleet) did last season. So last place in Season 45 should be read as more “meh” than… you know, traumatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All right, let’s do this! \u003cem>(Oh, and we’ve linked to every performance that’s still officially available on YouTube.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>18. The Weeknd, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17GxpgE-Fwo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Blinding Lights\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nm9RZqBaBM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Scared to Live\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6Nm9RZqBaBM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6Nm9RZqBaBM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Okay, so let’s start with the weirdly busted-up face: As with The Weeknd’s other appearances in support of his new album \u003cem>After Hours\u003c/em>, the singer performed on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> wearing makeup designed to make it look as if he’d just broken his nose. (The album chronicles a rough night out on the town, after all.) So, you know: red suit jacket, nice shoes, blood streaming down his cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To liven up the actual performances, it’s best to imagine a backstage scenario in which, say, Cecily Strong was like, “Hey, The Weeknd! Your 2016 song ‘I Feel It Coming (feat. Daft Punk),” while catchy, is nakedly derivative of Michael Jackson! [*bomp*]”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We certainly wouldn’t wish actual violence upon the singer, nor would anyone accuse Cecily Strong of such impudence. It’s just that a little bit of fiction livens up the fact that this performance of “Scared to Live” was \u003cem>so, so, so boring\u003c/em>. On the album, the song is a moody tone-setter; on the \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stage, it was a bathroom break in song form. With the singer standing gamely alongside bright panels of mirrors, “Blinding Lights” put a bit more pep in its step, but The Weeknd still seemed to have expended most of his energy and dynamism in the makeup chair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>17. Luke Combs, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B38JvahZxlc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Lovin’ on You\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A_CIU4mU60\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Beer Never Broke My Heart\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/B38JvahZxlc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/B38JvahZxlc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s unfair to Luke Combs to rank him on a scale that rewards onstage spectacle: The singer is one of the biggest stars in country music, at least in part \u003cem>because\u003c/em> his most muscular, rowdily beer-forward songs are so straight-ahead and lyrically unadorned. It’s not a putdown to say that Combs’ \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> renditions of “Lovin’ on You” and “Beer Never Broke My Heart” are indistinguishable from performances he and his band would give in a bar. (Not that they’ve played bars in years; Combs was selling out arenas pre-COVID.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue here is that the songs themselves just aren’t \u003cem>interesting\u003c/em>. “Lovin’ on You” is one of those here-is-a-list-of-things country songs that could have been written by an app, while “Beer Never Broke My Heart” sounds like… well, it could have been written by an app that makes beer commercials. With his bushy red beard and acrylic baseball cap, Combs is as approachable a superstar as you’ll find. But on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>, he stuck to his most boilerplate material, leaving softer stunners like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kqqmr2HWI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Even Though I’m Leaving\u003c/a>” for another day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>16. Niall Horan, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRA-h44Nn98\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Nice to Meet Ya\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iboimrLFE8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Put a Little Love on Me\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/5iboimrLFE8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/5iboimrLFE8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In a truncated \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> season, fully one-ninth of the headlining musical guests were former members of One Direction: That’d be Harry Styles (see below) and Niall Horan, who put out a fine solo album back in March, just as the world was beginning to crumble around us. Horan previewed that record on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> by performing a pair of its singles: the chugging “Nice to Meet Ya” and the tender piano ballad “Put a Little Love on Me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each song is sturdy enough—and catnip for Horan’s zillions of fans—but both felt a little drab on the \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stage. “Nice to Meet Ya” reverberated gamely with the reincarnated spirit of Rick Astley (who, it must be noted, is not dead), but little else about the performance would be remembered by morning. And while Horan gave “Put a Little Love on Me” his all vocally, the piano-bar arrangement generated scarcely enough energy to warm up a teacup full of skim milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, we got Harry Styles and Niall Horan, but no Zayn Malik? Bring us Zayn, you ghouls! #justiceforzayn #nozaynnopeace\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>15. Camila Cabello, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLorxdRxRg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Cry for Me\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syzcvdm1hq4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Easy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Syzcvdm1hq4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Syzcvdm1hq4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Camila Cabello has spent years on the pop-star treadmill—first in Fifth Harmony and then as the chart-topping singer of songs like “Havana” and “Señorita”—without establishing a terribly distinct public persona. The Cuban-American’s songs often evoke a sense of place to match their sultriness, but Cabello herself remains somewhat unknowable; no matter how thoughtfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/camila-cabello-anxiety-nervous-singing-public-shawn-mendes-senorita-a9015041.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she’s opened up to the public\u003c/a>, her candor rarely seems to seep into the songs she sings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t change with the skillful-but-bloodless singles she performed in her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut, although “Cry for Me” at least got a grandly choreographed theatrical staging, complete with Marie Antoinette get-up and dancers twirling around in vintage attire. By comparison, “Easy” felt a bit stilted and pageant-y, as Cabello performed the song while standing in a white silk gown, her feet planted to the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>14. Boyz II Men with Babyface, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLXlbaF9cE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>A Song for Mama\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/pLLXlbaF9cE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/pLLXlbaF9cE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The final episode of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>—and of the show’s 45th season—happened to take place on the eve of Mother’s Day. So the show opted for a brief, good-natured, low-key tribute courtesy of Babyface and Boyz II Men, whose members performed their 1997 chart-topper “A Song for Mama” from the confines of their respective domiciles. (\u003cem>SNL’\u003c/em>s home editions have provided peeks into many performers’ home lives. In this case, we learned that Babyface and Boyz II Men live among many, many framed gold and platinum records.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for “A Song for Mama,” the moment was sweet—and rendered that much more sentimental via the screening of archival photos of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> cast members with their moms. But with each performer appearing remotely, the finished product felt a little… well, remote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, now that Mother’s Day is over, may we recommend \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sasPmpBhR10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a far livelier COVID performance\u003c/a> by Boyz II Men, in which the singing sensations appear from their homes along with New Kids on the Block, Naughty by Nature, Big Freedia (!!!), Jordin Sparks and an assortment of bonkers cameos? Because it is ridiculous, and it is fun, and it’s a reminder that staying home doesn’t mean you can \u003cem>only\u003c/em> listen to songs about what a low-key bummer it is to stay home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>13. Justin Bieber, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9DBJsXtays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Yummy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiJmC_kqXJ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Intentions\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> feat. Quavo”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/b9DBJsXtays'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/b9DBJsXtays'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The good news: Justin Bieber tore through two new songs from \u003cem>Changes\u003c/em> with considerable energy, backed by starkly lit dancers, attention-grabbing sets and, late in “Intentions,” a welcome appearance by Migos rapper Quavo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The less-good news: Bieber’s vocals were pretty wobbly and… yeah, “Yummy” is \u003cem>at least\u003c/em> as insipid as its title suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which is to say: This was the latest mixed bag in a career that’s produced some A+ pop bangers, some forgettable trifles, a lavish assortment of embarrassing growing pains and one ugly-ass mustache.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>12. Halsey, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYo1bmqn40\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>You Should Be Sad\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFcIBSgk9dQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Finally // Beautiful Stranger\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/jGYo1bmqn40'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/jGYo1bmqn40'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Halsey grew up in New Jersey, which places her not terribly far from 30 Rockefeller Plaza. So, while we’re not suggesting that Halsey currently lives in a supply closet at 30 Rock so that she can be available to perform on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> at a moment’s notice, we’re also not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> suggesting that Halsey currently lives in a supply closet at 30 Rock so that she can be available to perform on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> at a moment’s notice. Halsey is on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> a \u003cem>lot\u003c/em>. From the beginning of 2018 through January of this year, the show featured women as headlining musical guests 16 out of a possible 44 times. Halsey has claimed \u003cem>three\u003c/em> of those spots, and that’s not even counting the time the singer popped up during Lil Wayne’s set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest iteration of Halsey on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> felt oddly low-energy—which is kind of a feat when you consider that 1.) she performed the midtempo “You Should Be Sad” while glued into a Frederick’s of Hollywood castoff; and 2.) she opened her set astride a mechanical bull and later got hoisted aloft by scantily clad dancers. “Finally // Beautiful Stranger” was less eventful (by design) and slower still: a vocal showcase that demonstrated both Halsey’s range and her tendency to embellish her vocals with what can only be described as “simulated AutoTune.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>11. King Princess, “1950” and “Hit the Back”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King Princess (a.k.a. Mikaela Straus) has only released an album and an EP, but she’s already working from a toolkit that encompasses and transcends multiple blended genres. For her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut, the young shapeshifter showed off her affinity for two of them: the slick, wiry, slow-burning, guitar-wielding rock of “1950” and the coyly suggestive, alternately seething and propulsive dance-pop of “Hit the Back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken as a whole, the performance felt more like an introduction than a coronation: King Princess waited to really cut loose until late in “Hit the Back,” when a series of body-rolls gave way to full-blown thrashing. Norm-busting icons generally aren’t made overnight, but she’s well on her way; this relatively contained \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> stop felt like Step 1 on a long journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>10. Chris Martin, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdzFWMhNPc0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Shelter From The Storm\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/MdzFWMhNPc0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/MdzFWMhNPc0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Once COVID-19 made it impossible to put together a traditional episode of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>—and forced the cancellation of a planned show with musical guest Dua Lipa—producers did what they could to assemble an episode cobbled together from material recorded at performers’ homes. Casualties of this arrangement included the live audience, the live laughter, the live applause, the 30 Rock soundstage, much of the interpersonal chemistry, the musical guest’s second song and an unwritten rule that prevents singers from headlining more than one episode in a single season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Martin’s band Coldplay was the musical guest back in November—see below—but he returned in April to perform a cover of Bob Dylan’s situationally appropriate 1975 classic “Shelter From the Storm.” Shot in dusky, grayish black-and-white (presumably to pay tribute to the film \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061589/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Dont Look Back\u003c/em>\u003c/a>), the set-up felt bare-bones in a cable-access sort of way, as Martin wisely skipped embellishments that might have watered down the original. Hardly a Technicolor showstopper, but right for the moment at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>9. Harry Styles, “Lights Up” and “Watermelon Sugar”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a wonder that Harry Styles found the time to put together grabby stage presentations of “Lights Up” and “Watermelon Sugar,” given his to-do list for the night: The former One Direction star (and current \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/814424330/2-green-bay-packers-fans-chat-behind-the-tiny-desk-and-one-of-them-is-harry-styl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers fan\u003c/a>) was also serving as \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> \u003cem>host\u003c/em>, acting in a bunch of sketches and, at one point, appearing in a prerecorded video as the human embodiment of Aidy Bryant’s dog. The live songs, performed in the run-up to Styles’ recent album \u003cem>Fine Line\u003c/em>, could’ve easily registered as an afterthought, and they thankfully didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opening with the more subdued “Lights Up,” Styles appeared with a stately band and a solemn choir. As such, the performance felt a little uneventful—though it should be noted that Styles brought his wardrobe A-game in a way other men seriously ought to emulate. (That sparkly jumpsuit is \u003cem>killer\u003c/em>.) “Watermelon Sugar” brings another great outfit and a nice jolt of fervent energy, as Styles danced and strutted about while surrounded by a crack band that included a four-piece horn section.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>8. Taylor Swift, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmipFjOtMA8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Lover\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjD3LoXp-Pw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>False God\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/dmipFjOtMA8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/dmipFjOtMA8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This was hardly Taylor Swift’s first \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> rodeo, given that she’s been a host, made a few cameos and served as a headlining musical guest more than once. And Swift has spent countless promotional cycles serving up lavish, uneven, often high-concept performances at awards shows and on late-night TV. So it was actually refreshing to see her so dialed-down and at-ease in these stripped-down performances of highlights from her latest album, \u003cem>Lover\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That record’s wedding-ready title track got an especially raw treatment on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>, as her solo-piano rendition highlighted the song’s conversational emotionalism and a hook so subtle, you hardly notice it burrowing into your brain for eternity. Less emotionally rich but more visually eventful was “False God,” in which Swift glided through the song amid soft, floating coils of light and the prominent saxophone solos of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> bandleader (and former Tower of Power player) Lenny Pickett.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>7. Miley Cyrus, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYo8xQf4PY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Wish You Were Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” (from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zUYo8xQf4PY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zUYo8xQf4PY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The first week of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live at Home\u003c/em> made a valiant attempt to re-create an episode of the show while juggling technological limitations, a dark national mood and the fact that virtually no one could be in the same room together. The second week ran far more smoothly: Funnier and slicker, it also benefited from the fact that its musical guest, Miley Cyrus, didn’t look as if she was starring in a hostage video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bathed in red light while sitting aside a fire pit at night, Cyrus belted out Pink Floyd’s 1975 lighter-waver “Wish You Were Here” with the socially distanced accompaniment of guitarist Andrew Watt. (The choice of Watt—a bestselling pop producer, guitarist and songwriter who’s working with Cyrus on her next album—felt notable, in part because Watt \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/news/music-producer-andrew-watt-coronavirus-pneumonia-1203537066/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has written publicly\u003c/a> about his recent battle with COVID-19.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a simple set-up recorded under difficult circumstances, Cyrus’ performance did a pretty ingenious job of turning back-porch busking into the stuff of late-night sound stages. It had visual drama: smoke, flames, distinct lighting, moody accompaniment, lavish fashion. But it also served up the umpteenth reminder that Miley Cyrus is a marvelous singer, with vocal—and emotional—range to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>6. Coldplay, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUxsb0Zpe8w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Orphans\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “Everyday Life”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/EUxsb0Zpe8w'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/EUxsb0Zpe8w'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Bash Coldplay all you want, but this performance of “Orphans” showed exactly how to liven up a typical spot as a late-night musical guest: Chris Martin opened the song from a supply closet in the back of the room before making his way into the audience to perform with clusters of cast members, musicians and randos. He eventually ran to the stage, at which point he finished the song while backed by members of his band, a colorful animated video on a giant screen and an enormous throng of dancers. It was an immensely buoyant, memorable performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, “Everyday Life” couldn’t help but fizzle earnestly, though the song’s melancholy notes of tentatively uplifting empathy resonate more now than they did all the way back in November 2019. But let’s not neglect the \u003cem>real\u003c/em> takeaway here: Sure, Chris Martin’s distressed tee probably cost $1,400 or something, but he looked like he just got done insulating his attic. Could you imagine Halsey getting to perform in that grubby rag? We will never achieve gender equality until male performers dress better (see: Harry Styles) or female performers dress worse—preferably both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>5. DaBaby, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffEyeWn_fA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Bop\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGLwe53-LI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Suge\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/YffEyeWn_fA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/YffEyeWn_fA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>DaBaby understands that you can perform a couple of songs on TV, or you can put on a show of your own. Backed by a few musicians, a giant throng of dancers and a woman who periodically twerked from a full handstand, DaBaby served as both rapper and ringmaster. Unafraid to dive into the choreography, he felt fully integrated into the mayhem—which featured not only the hip-hop dance crew Jabbawockeez, but also a whole bunch of stage fighting. (Why stage fighting? Hey, why did the other 17 entries on this list \u003cem>not\u003c/em> include stage fighting? Lookin’ your way, Niall Horan.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, all that ludicrous theatrical chaos wouldn’t have mattered much without tight, hooky songs to back it up, and DaBaby came to work there, too. Performing with a showman’s charisma, the young star seemed to be having a blast. That can be more than half the battle, right there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4. Billie Eilish, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1Uwsg3eRQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>bad guy\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6AdQLB_19g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>I Love You\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> (feat. Finneas O’Connell)”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Jn1Uwsg3eRQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Jn1Uwsg3eRQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Billie Eilish was basically bulletproof in 2019: Her debut album spawned a string of huge hits, and “bad guy” was the only juggernaut omnipresent enough to knock “Old Town Road” off its perch at the top of the pop charts. She kicked off 2020 by sweeping every major category at the Grammys—the youngest artist ever to do so. And, along the path to domination, she provided one of the biggest “wow” moments in recent \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a concept liberally borrowed from the 1951 film \u003cem>Royal Wedding\u003c/em>—the one in which Fred Astaire climbs the walls before dancing on the ceiling—Eilish’s pajama- and walking-boot-clad \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> performance of “bad guy” duplicated the gravity-defying effect to perfection, thanks to a boxy miniaturized set (and a camera) that rotated like a hamster wheel. Before viewers could finish Googling “How did Billie Eilish do that \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>,” the show panned out to reveal the trick, which somehow made the whole thing seem even more impressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After so much razzle-dazzle, Eilish hardly needed to return for a second song. But she took a decent-sized swing anyway, showcasing her balladeering softer side—still a new look for her back in September—in a whispery take on “I Love You.” Joined on guitar by her similarly Grammy-festooned brother Finneas O’Connell, Eilish more than held her own. But it was somewhat drowsy as a set-closer, especially after the sugar high she’d just pulled off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. Chance The Rapper, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlUnGj54hM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Zanies and Fools\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwX2IpcmN_w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Handsome\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RwX2IpcmN_w'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RwX2IpcmN_w'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This was Chance the Rapper’s second stint as a musical guest, his second stint as an enormously funny and good-natured \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> host, and his first time pulling double duty. Hell, he even introduced himself at the top of “Zanies and Fools,” letting a clip of his adorable daughter fill the time between his introduction (“Ladies and gentlemen, Chance the Rapper”) and the performance itself. The guy does it all, and does it extraordinarily well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chance also knows how to share—and lavishly fill—a stage, and for “Zanies and Fools,” the rapper found himself surrounded by a swirl of dancers, not to mention a small army of percussionists and string players. The choreography unfurled around him without really involving him, but he compensated by unleashing a rapid-fire vocal that kept the viewer’s attention center stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Handsome,” Chance’s collaborators crowded into the background, which gave him the opportunity to move around a bit before ceding the spotlight to the most formidable presence imaginable: Megan Thee Stallion. Meg kept her intensity in second gear to match her stage partner—and found a way to give herself a network-television-friendly edit in real time—but her star power was beyond unmistakable. Next season, she’d be well suited to follow in Chance’s footsteps and try her hand as a host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. David Byrne, “Once in a Lifetime” and “Toe Jam”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> usually makes room for a rock or pop legend here and there, including Paul Simon last year and U2 the year before. This year, the chosen veteran was David Byrne, to coincide with the Broadway staging of his \u003cem>American Utopia\u003c/em> concerts. Crucially, he brought his robust, gray-suited cast to join him in filling the stage with movement, sound and all-around effervescence. Deploying between three and six percussionists at any given moment, these performances radiated good cheer and spiky humor, propelled by a Broadway production’s mandate to thrill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, really, “thrilling” just about sums it up. Most \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> guests are promoting new material, so catalog hits aren’t the norm. Here, we got Talking Heads’ unimpeachable classic “Once in a Lifetime” and the terrific “Toe Jam,” which Byrne co-wrote for the U.K. electro-pop band The Brighton Port Authority back in 2008. Byrne happened to appear on perhaps the season’s most widely beloved \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> episode—the one hosted by the marvelous John Mulaney—but you couldn’t have blamed the show had it just turned the whole thing over to Byrne & Co.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. Lizzo, “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7oze-nu38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Truth Hurts\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>” and “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj83ri3lSe0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Good As Hell\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Aj83ri3lSe0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Aj83ri3lSe0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It took Lizzo years of hustle and grind to rise all the way to pop superstardom, so there was no way she’d make her \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> debut and not crush it. Marrying lavishly choreographed dance routines to undeniable musicianship and unfettered joy, she and her dancers twerked, spun and frolicked through Lizzo’s two greatest hits to date: “Truth Hurts” (backed by an airtight band, populated exclusively by black women) and “Good As Hell” (performed on a Christmas-themed set in which dancers twirled on poles striped like candy canes).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>‘s Studio 8H stage can be sterile and unforgiving: It’s a nondescript space with an iffy sound mix, and the crowds are largely there to watch comedy. So it’s a special kind of joy to watch Lizzo douse that canvas with vibrancy, color, movement and good cheer—not to mention transcendent vocal talent—in a set perfectly tailored to elevate the space, the show and the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27SNL%27+Just+Wrapped+Its+45th+Season%3A+It%27s+Time+To+Cruelly+Rank+Its+Musical+Guests&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "charting-michael-ches-fall-from-endearing-comic-to-embarrassing-bully",
"title": "Charting Michael Che's Fall From Endearing Comic to Embarrassing Bully",
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"headTitle": "Charting Michael Che’s Fall From Endearing Comic to Embarrassing Bully | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The signs have been there for a while. For months now, Michael Che—one half of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>‘s “Weekend Update” team and one of the show’s head writers—has been increasingly punching down in his comedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started slowly. He was a super-likable presence during his brief stint on \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em> in 2014, and a welcome addition to the on-screen talent of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> that same year, after working behind the scenes as a writer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrp_pWajmA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2016’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6209400/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Michael Che Matters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the comedian had started to walk a fine line that wasn’t quite as successful. In that Netflix special, brilliant material about Black Lives Matter, religion and gentrification rubbed uncomfortably up against jokes making light of street harassment and homelessness, and criticizing the sexual practices of both straight women and gay men. For the most part, though, Che was careful when stepping into offensive territory to first openly acknowledge that he was doing so, and second, to make a larger point in order to justify it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one particularly infamous bit, the comic used a transgender slur. “I just recently stopped using the word ‘tranny’ because a trans friend of mine told me how much it hurts,” he said. “I was like ‘What? How the f–k is ‘tranny’ hurtful? I just added a Y!’ … She was like ‘How would you like it if I called you ‘blacky’? Well played, tranny. Well played…” Is it difficult to hear Che use this language? Of course. But at least he did so in the course of drawing connections between marginalized groups, and trying to help one understand the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, however, Che has descended straight into territory that punches down just for the hell of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an October “Weekend Update” segment, Che plunged headfirst into transphobic misgendering, for no valid reason at all. While attempting to make a joke about Kanye West’s music going “G-rated,” he said: “At first, I thought Kanye was losing his mind, and now I feel like he’s … just turning into an old white lady … It’s like, how long before this guy changes his name to Kathy? … Now, you might think I’m crazy, but about five years ago there was a fella named Bruce Jenner…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMdn2Ao7-88\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, he made sexist and ageist comments on the show after a 67-year-old woman gave birth in China. Che prompted a mix of laughter and groans when he said: “She can breastfeed just by standing over the crib,” and “doctors described the birth as pulling a penny out of a wad of gum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0l6e1iOsU&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more troubling than his recent descent into unfunny is Che’s penchant for using his social media to call out specific individuals who happen to not share his views.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, \u003ca href=\"https://theoutline.com/post/8583/michael-che-feud-snl-jack-allison?utm_source=TW&zr=mi2arnha&zd=1&zi=mpawsoe6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Outline\u003c/em> published a story\u003c/a> by ex-\u003cem>Jimmy Kimmel Live\u003c/em> writer Jack Allison that detailed bullying behavior by Che. After Allison took to Twitter to criticize a (definitely shady) practice used by \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> to acquire jokes, Che called out Allison directly on Instagram, listing his Twitter handle and using specific insults about Allison’s appearance and social life. (“he’s one of those bearded white guys with glasses that hates snl, but talks a lot about snl.. not much about his personal life on there, but i’m sure its awesome.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the article, Allison describes in detail how Che repeatedly reignited their squabble online, criticizing Allison’s career (“continue to submit your packet to shows that don’t know/like you! lol i heard thingssssss!”) and personality, and even attempting to paint him as a disingenuous drug addict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/jackallisonLOL/status/1210296178996203520\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allison notes: “Sometimes weeks or whole months would go by with nothing, before all of a sudden, I made another appearance on [Che’s] Instagram Story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same \u003cem>Outline\u003c/em> article, an Uproxx critic named Steven Hyden describes coming under similar fire after writing \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/tv/colin-jost-hate-saturday-night-live/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an article\u003c/a> about Che’s “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost that described him as “the epitome of white-male mediocrity.” Hyden explained that Che “decided to mock me on his Instagram. He called me a ‘mediocre ass white dude’ and then said I like to ‘suck off rescue dogs.’ … Also, someone—can’t say it was Che, though it happened immediately after he went into his tirade against me—went into my Wikipedia page and changed it to reflect my supposed preference for having sex with canines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, when \u003cem>Daily Beast\u003c/em> writer Samantha Allen wrote an article about \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/dear-ricky-gervais-and-other-comics-your-caitlyn-jenner-jokes-are-getting-old\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">transphobia in comedy\u003c/a>, Che—who wasn’t even mentioned in the piece—responded by pointing his 440,000 Instagram followers squarely in her direction. The incident appeared to be less about defending controversial comedy and more about an attempt to dox a writer for having a different opinion to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13873757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1200x1114.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1920x1782.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13873758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1200x1114.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1920x1783.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reports suggest that Che has been taking things this personally since before his TV career even took off. In 2013, after writing \u003ca href=\"https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-trouble-with-snls-white-christmas/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an article\u003c/a> for \u003cem>Black Girl Nerds\u003c/em> that criticized one of Che’s \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> skits, writer Faye McCray claimed that he “made personal attacks on [her], the editor and the publication.” (McCray’s original article has since disappeared from the website.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Che’s social media bullying could now be considered a full-blown pattern. And, aside from obvious issues relating to pettiness, fragile masculinity and a flagrant imbalance of power, there is also some deep irony here. In \u003cem>Michael Che Matters\u003c/em>, the comedian made a point of saying that he was open to hear criticism about his more controversial viewpoints, in order to learn from them. “Maybe you’ve got some f–ked up views about something,” he said, “but unless you’re honest about it, how are you going to get better? You’ve gotta stop accusing people just for being honest. You can school me!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a public figure actively working in a profession that attracts critics, it goes without saying that having a much thicker skin than this is an essential part of the job. Not only is Che’s laser-like focus on anyone who hurts his feelings exhausting to watch, it’s deeply embarrassing—for SNL, for fans watching, and most of all, for him.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In six years, Michael Che's gone from a 'Daily Show' correspondent to one of the most important figures at 'SNL.' Along the way, he also turned into a bully.",
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"title": "Charting Michael Che's Fall From Endearing Comic to Embarrassing Bully | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The signs have been there for a while. For months now, Michael Che—one half of \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>‘s “Weekend Update” team and one of the show’s head writers—has been increasingly punching down in his comedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started slowly. He was a super-likable presence during his brief stint on \u003cem>The Daily Show\u003c/em> in 2014, and a welcome addition to the on-screen talent of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> that same year, after working behind the scenes as a writer.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/oFrp_pWajmA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/oFrp_pWajmA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>By 2016’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6209400/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Michael Che Matters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the comedian had started to walk a fine line that wasn’t quite as successful. In that Netflix special, brilliant material about Black Lives Matter, religion and gentrification rubbed uncomfortably up against jokes making light of street harassment and homelessness, and criticizing the sexual practices of both straight women and gay men. For the most part, though, Che was careful when stepping into offensive territory to first openly acknowledge that he was doing so, and second, to make a larger point in order to justify it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one particularly infamous bit, the comic used a transgender slur. “I just recently stopped using the word ‘tranny’ because a trans friend of mine told me how much it hurts,” he said. “I was like ‘What? How the f–k is ‘tranny’ hurtful? I just added a Y!’ … She was like ‘How would you like it if I called you ‘blacky’? Well played, tranny. Well played…” Is it difficult to hear Che use this language? Of course. But at least he did so in the course of drawing connections between marginalized groups, and trying to help one understand the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, however, Che has descended straight into territory that punches down just for the hell of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an October “Weekend Update” segment, Che plunged headfirst into transphobic misgendering, for no valid reason at all. While attempting to make a joke about Kanye West’s music going “G-rated,” he said: “At first, I thought Kanye was losing his mind, and now I feel like he’s … just turning into an old white lady … It’s like, how long before this guy changes his name to Kathy? … Now, you might think I’m crazy, but about five years ago there was a fella named Bruce Jenner…”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/fMdn2Ao7-88'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/fMdn2Ao7-88'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A week later, he made sexist and ageist comments on the show after a 67-year-old woman gave birth in China. Che prompted a mix of laughter and groans when he said: “She can breastfeed just by standing over the crib,” and “doctors described the birth as pulling a penny out of a wad of gum.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/tw0l6e1iOsU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/tw0l6e1iOsU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Even more troubling than his recent descent into unfunny is Che’s penchant for using his social media to call out specific individuals who happen to not share his views.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, \u003ca href=\"https://theoutline.com/post/8583/michael-che-feud-snl-jack-allison?utm_source=TW&zr=mi2arnha&zd=1&zi=mpawsoe6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Outline\u003c/em> published a story\u003c/a> by ex-\u003cem>Jimmy Kimmel Live\u003c/em> writer Jack Allison that detailed bullying behavior by Che. After Allison took to Twitter to criticize a (definitely shady) practice used by \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> to acquire jokes, Che called out Allison directly on Instagram, listing his Twitter handle and using specific insults about Allison’s appearance and social life. (“he’s one of those bearded white guys with glasses that hates snl, but talks a lot about snl.. not much about his personal life on there, but i’m sure its awesome.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the article, Allison describes in detail how Che repeatedly reignited their squabble online, criticizing Allison’s career (“continue to submit your packet to shows that don’t know/like you! lol i heard thingssssss!”) and personality, and even attempting to paint him as a disingenuous drug addict.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Allison notes: “Sometimes weeks or whole months would go by with nothing, before all of a sudden, I made another appearance on [Che’s] Instagram Story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same \u003cem>Outline\u003c/em> article, an Uproxx critic named Steven Hyden describes coming under similar fire after writing \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/tv/colin-jost-hate-saturday-night-live/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an article\u003c/a> about Che’s “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost that described him as “the epitome of white-male mediocrity.” Hyden explained that Che “decided to mock me on his Instagram. He called me a ‘mediocre ass white dude’ and then said I like to ‘suck off rescue dogs.’ … Also, someone—can’t say it was Che, though it happened immediately after he went into his tirade against me—went into my Wikipedia page and changed it to reflect my supposed preference for having sex with canines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, when \u003cem>Daily Beast\u003c/em> writer Samantha Allen wrote an article about \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/dear-ricky-gervais-and-other-comics-your-caitlyn-jenner-jokes-are-getting-old\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">transphobia in comedy\u003c/a>, Che—who wasn’t even mentioned in the piece—responded by pointing his 440,000 Instagram followers squarely in her direction. The incident appeared to be less about defending controversial comedy and more about an attempt to dox a writer for having a different opinion to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13873757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1200x1114.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-1920x1782.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13873758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1200x1114.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/che-insta-2-1920x1783.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reports suggest that Che has been taking things this personally since before his TV career even took off. In 2013, after writing \u003ca href=\"https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-trouble-with-snls-white-christmas/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an article\u003c/a> for \u003cem>Black Girl Nerds\u003c/em> that criticized one of Che’s \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> skits, writer Faye McCray claimed that he “made personal attacks on [her], the editor and the publication.” (McCray’s original article has since disappeared from the website.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Che’s social media bullying could now be considered a full-blown pattern. And, aside from obvious issues relating to pettiness, fragile masculinity and a flagrant imbalance of power, there is also some deep irony here. In \u003cem>Michael Che Matters\u003c/em>, the comedian made a point of saying that he was open to hear criticism about his more controversial viewpoints, in order to learn from them. “Maybe you’ve got some f–ked up views about something,” he said, “but unless you’re honest about it, how are you going to get better? You’ve gotta stop accusing people just for being honest. You can school me!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a public figure actively working in a profession that attracts critics, it goes without saying that having a much thicker skin than this is an essential part of the job. Not only is Che’s laser-like focus on anyone who hurts his feelings exhausting to watch, it’s deeply embarrassing—for SNL, for fans watching, and most of all, for him.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sorrow-is-not-the-same-as-pessimism-comedian-jenny-slate",
"title": "'Sorrow is Not the Same as Pessimism': Comedian Jenny Slate",
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"content": "\u003cp>For comedian and actor Jenny Slate, the path to finding her own voice went through crushing failure (professional) and heartbreak (divorce).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She began her career in stand-up, was drafted to \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>—and was fired. The path that followed was uncharted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She starred in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/06/08/319463693/obvious-child-tells-an-abortion-story-with-rom-com-heart\">an indie comedy about abortion\u003c/a> (\u003cem>Obvious Child\u003c/em>), voiced a viral stop-motion animated character who is a gender non-conforming sea artifact (\u003cem>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On\u003c/em>), and went onto a fair bit of voice acting (\u003cem>Zootopia\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Secret Life of Pets\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Big Mouth\u003c/em>). And she wrote. This fall, Slate has released her first TV comedy special for Netflix (\u003cem>Stage Fright\u003c/em>) and a book of essays (\u003cem>Little Weirds\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p02P8HRtPFc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenny Slate grew up around books, studied literature at Columbia University and her father is a poet. (“I read a lot of books before I decided to write one,” she says.) \u003cem>Little Weirds \u003c/em>is not a memoir or biography, but more like a series of observational stories, essays, and ruminations on the struggles of adulthood. In one of them, she compares herself to a croissant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I actually have always been an avid reader, but I guess I just felt like: Well, I’m an actress and I’m a comedian, so … I’m not a writer, or something,” Slate says. “I think I limited myself a bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/753757133/shes-funny\">She’s Funny\u003c/a>, the \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> series on women who have broken the rules in comedy, Slate and I sat down together on stage at Lisner Auditorium in Washington D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Interview Highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On Gilda Radner, her first role model in comedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[I] couldn’t pay attention in school. I think that I felt for a while like I wasn’t smart because I couldn’t listen traditionally and people were mad at me for it. And my dad brought in these tapes of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/647886381/love-gilda-a-comedy-legend-in-her-own-words\">Gilda Radner\u003c/a>, and it was sort of like, “No no no, you’re just—you’re like this.” Which is, first of all, a great honor. … It was a huge honor, and then it was just like: How can I get there?” …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a sketch that Gilda does where—I think it’s called “The Judy Miller Show”—she’s a little Girl Scout, she’s a Brownie, and she’s jumping up and down on her bed in her room, and just playing. She’s playing. That’s what this whole sketch is. And she freaks out—this woman, alone, they gave her the whole stage—she just freaks out for, like, seven minutes. And she’s exhausted, and she’s out of breath, and it’s like a silly, silly, sloppy ballet. And I remember seeing that thinking like, “Oh, I don’t want to be a ballerina. I want to be a funny thing like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezWNh64s38o&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the atmosphere at \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t like that there was a culture of fear and intimidation. Whether or not you’re going to be directly sexist and give all the parts to the men or whatever, or whether there’s going to be what I actually think is a much more confusing culture of misogyny that encourages fear and shame. That’s what was going on there. That’s a culture that is encouraged by the people that run the show. … I think that feeling dressed-down, feeling shamed, feeling like you shouldn’t have tried: those are all pressures that are encouraged in a misogynist environment, where there’s not an openness, there’s not a sense that power can present in a way that represents plurality—that there are many, many different ways to access power, and different people can hold it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being fired from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, I just felt really, really embarrassed and terrible. … Hardly anyone gets kicked out of a cult, because I guess they want you to stay. Like, they’re never like, “You’re bad—leave.” They’re like, “You’re bad, get in the bad closet. You have to make the salad dressing for everybody for three weeks!” But suddenly I just couldn’t imagine anything worse than getting fired. And then I just thought: I have to keep going. And no one can ever take away the dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And nothing will ever dim the lights of that experience, which was like: getting the job, leaving 30 Rock, calling my parents and saying “I am going to be on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>“? That is what it is. It’s such a beautiful achievement. And it’s real and I did it. But it’s also the same as thinking you really met your soulmate, and going on the fourth date, and being like, “Did they just say ‘\u003cem>li-bary\u003c/em>‘”? … Get over it, it’s not a match. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what had also happened at the time, and what always happens, is that: Until I eventually croak, I will not die. I truly will not lie down. And you can be kicked out of a place; I definitely believe that. But I also believe the opportunity to find self-love and creative fulfillment is not a hallway with one door guarded by a super-old man. Actually, it’s spherical, and you just have to hold it between your legs. Just look down, find your opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First of all, it allowed me to be sweet and melancholy at once—and to understand one of the things that is essential in my belief as a performer, which is that sorrow is not the same as pessimism, and that you can feel sadness and still be an optimist and not be worried that that’s being wrung out. … And also, doing Marcel, for me, was like, “No, I can still be really strong at comedy, but I don’t really want to compromise on sweetness.” Like, I just don’t think it’s for wimps. I actually think it’s for the strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On if she’s found her voice in comedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, I do feel like that. I do. … I really feel that something that started with “Marcel the Shell,” which was drawing close sweetness, and understanding that smallness doesn’t necessarily mean that you suffer from essential diminishment. Starting to gather things that can be held at once was really important. But then writing this book—first, I meant to write something else, and then I started to write things to soothe myself, and I started to like to read my reading to myself. And I just—you know, especially on the internet, there’s so much snark and posturing and posturing at joy and fabricated joy or people taking pictures of themselves in mid-laugh and stuff and really putting that there like, “I’m just happiness in action, there’s nothing else going on for me! I promise! No stress!” I was reacting to that a little bit, to just feeling like I want to tell the truth. And the truth about me is not that I’m really volatile and I’m unstable, but that I’m really vibrant, and the color of my sorrow is just as bright as the stripes of my delight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13870048\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 304px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13870048\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85.jpg\" alt=\"'Little Weirds' by Jenny Slate.\" width=\"304\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85.jpg 304w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85-160x237.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Little Weirds’ by Jenny Slate. \u003ccite>(Little, Brown and Company)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And I started to really find words that I loved, and now they won’t go away. And I also noticed that in writing, I really enjoyed the odd pairing that occurs when you are trying to employ alliteration. And that my writing—at least to me without being juvenile—had all the tricks of a limerick, without being, like, “stupid little so-and-so fell into a shoe” or whatever … I guess there is [poetry in my writing]. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I think there is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Christina Cala, Bilal Qureshi, Joanna Pawlowska and Emily Kopp produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Patrick Jarenwattananon adapted it for the Web.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Sorrow+Is+Not+The+Same+As+Pessimism%27%3A+Comedian+Jenny+Slate&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For comedian and actor Jenny Slate, the path to finding her own voice went through crushing failure (professional) and heartbreak (divorce).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She began her career in stand-up, was drafted to \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>—and was fired. The path that followed was uncharted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She starred in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/06/08/319463693/obvious-child-tells-an-abortion-story-with-rom-com-heart\">an indie comedy about abortion\u003c/a> (\u003cem>Obvious Child\u003c/em>), voiced a viral stop-motion animated character who is a gender non-conforming sea artifact (\u003cem>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On\u003c/em>), and went onto a fair bit of voice acting (\u003cem>Zootopia\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Secret Life of Pets\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Big Mouth\u003c/em>). And she wrote. This fall, Slate has released her first TV comedy special for Netflix (\u003cem>Stage Fright\u003c/em>) and a book of essays (\u003cem>Little Weirds\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/p02P8HRtPFc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/p02P8HRtPFc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Jenny Slate grew up around books, studied literature at Columbia University and her father is a poet. (“I read a lot of books before I decided to write one,” she says.) \u003cem>Little Weirds \u003c/em>is not a memoir or biography, but more like a series of observational stories, essays, and ruminations on the struggles of adulthood. In one of them, she compares herself to a croissant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I actually have always been an avid reader, but I guess I just felt like: Well, I’m an actress and I’m a comedian, so … I’m not a writer, or something,” Slate says. “I think I limited myself a bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/753757133/shes-funny\">She’s Funny\u003c/a>, the \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> series on women who have broken the rules in comedy, Slate and I sat down together on stage at Lisner Auditorium in Washington D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Interview Highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On Gilda Radner, her first role model in comedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[I] couldn’t pay attention in school. I think that I felt for a while like I wasn’t smart because I couldn’t listen traditionally and people were mad at me for it. And my dad brought in these tapes of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/647886381/love-gilda-a-comedy-legend-in-her-own-words\">Gilda Radner\u003c/a>, and it was sort of like, “No no no, you’re just—you’re like this.” Which is, first of all, a great honor. … It was a huge honor, and then it was just like: How can I get there?” …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a sketch that Gilda does where—I think it’s called “The Judy Miller Show”—she’s a little Girl Scout, she’s a Brownie, and she’s jumping up and down on her bed in her room, and just playing. She’s playing. That’s what this whole sketch is. And she freaks out—this woman, alone, they gave her the whole stage—she just freaks out for, like, seven minutes. And she’s exhausted, and she’s out of breath, and it’s like a silly, silly, sloppy ballet. And I remember seeing that thinking like, “Oh, I don’t want to be a ballerina. I want to be a funny thing like this.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ezWNh64s38o'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ezWNh64s38o'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the atmosphere at \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t like that there was a culture of fear and intimidation. Whether or not you’re going to be directly sexist and give all the parts to the men or whatever, or whether there’s going to be what I actually think is a much more confusing culture of misogyny that encourages fear and shame. That’s what was going on there. That’s a culture that is encouraged by the people that run the show. … I think that feeling dressed-down, feeling shamed, feeling like you shouldn’t have tried: those are all pressures that are encouraged in a misogynist environment, where there’s not an openness, there’s not a sense that power can present in a way that represents plurality—that there are many, many different ways to access power, and different people can hold it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being fired from \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, I just felt really, really embarrassed and terrible. … Hardly anyone gets kicked out of a cult, because I guess they want you to stay. Like, they’re never like, “You’re bad—leave.” They’re like, “You’re bad, get in the bad closet. You have to make the salad dressing for everybody for three weeks!” But suddenly I just couldn’t imagine anything worse than getting fired. And then I just thought: I have to keep going. And no one can ever take away the dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And nothing will ever dim the lights of that experience, which was like: getting the job, leaving 30 Rock, calling my parents and saying “I am going to be on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em>“? That is what it is. It’s such a beautiful achievement. And it’s real and I did it. But it’s also the same as thinking you really met your soulmate, and going on the fourth date, and being like, “Did they just say ‘\u003cem>li-bary\u003c/em>‘”? … Get over it, it’s not a match. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what had also happened at the time, and what always happens, is that: Until I eventually croak, I will not die. I truly will not lie down. And you can be kicked out of a place; I definitely believe that. But I also believe the opportunity to find self-love and creative fulfillment is not a hallway with one door guarded by a super-old man. Actually, it’s spherical, and you just have to hold it between your legs. Just look down, find your opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/VF9-sEbqDvU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/VF9-sEbqDvU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>First of all, it allowed me to be sweet and melancholy at once—and to understand one of the things that is essential in my belief as a performer, which is that sorrow is not the same as pessimism, and that you can feel sadness and still be an optimist and not be worried that that’s being wrung out. … And also, doing Marcel, for me, was like, “No, I can still be really strong at comedy, but I don’t really want to compromise on sweetness.” Like, I just don’t think it’s for wimps. I actually think it’s for the strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On if she’s found her voice in comedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, I do feel like that. I do. … I really feel that something that started with “Marcel the Shell,” which was drawing close sweetness, and understanding that smallness doesn’t necessarily mean that you suffer from essential diminishment. Starting to gather things that can be held at once was really important. But then writing this book—first, I meant to write something else, and then I started to write things to soothe myself, and I started to like to read my reading to myself. And I just—you know, especially on the internet, there’s so much snark and posturing and posturing at joy and fabricated joy or people taking pictures of themselves in mid-laugh and stuff and really putting that there like, “I’m just happiness in action, there’s nothing else going on for me! I promise! No stress!” I was reacting to that a little bit, to just feeling like I want to tell the truth. And the truth about me is not that I’m really volatile and I’m unstable, but that I’m really vibrant, and the color of my sorrow is just as bright as the stripes of my delight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13870048\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 304px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13870048\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85.jpg\" alt=\"'Little Weirds' by Jenny Slate.\" width=\"304\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85.jpg 304w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/9780316485340_custom-d039e96113c653d6ceb2d83f01308a54e75ad7e6-s500-c85-160x237.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Little Weirds’ by Jenny Slate. \u003ccite>(Little, Brown and Company)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And I started to really find words that I loved, and now they won’t go away. And I also noticed that in writing, I really enjoyed the odd pairing that occurs when you are trying to employ alliteration. And that my writing—at least to me without being juvenile—had all the tricks of a limerick, without being, like, “stupid little so-and-so fell into a shoe” or whatever … I guess there is [poetry in my writing]. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I think there is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s a skit that didn’t even make it into a \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> broadcast. In “Alan,” Bill Hader starred as “the future of casual entertainment”: a robot that dances in a goofy, dad-friendly way that never quite progresses past the point of pedestrian. The very funny bit was cut for time in 2015, but thankfully found its way online after the episode aired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=xplEPT5I39E\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a new Twitter account is taking the Alan to new and seemingly boundless heights thanks to the discovery that Hader’s dancing in the skit goes with, well, absolutely everything. And somehow, the more videos \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@billhaderdancin\u003c/a> posts, the funnier this gets. Observe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alan works with classic rock:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1178009490765033472?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1178321115845926914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1178321115845926914&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydot.com%2Funclick%2Fbill-hader-dancing-meme%2F\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He works with contemporary pop:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1177651408474198017\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1178372131719122946\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he even works with indie rock tunes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1176507672503431168\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhaderdancin/status/1174121070678482944\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An 18-year-old Florida woman named \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lustsfilm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sam\u003c/a>, a big fan of Hader and Keanu Reeves, discovered the versatility of the Alan dance and launched the account on September 17. Its videos have already garnered well over a million views. No wonder—thanks to Hader’s inability to do anything badly, this is destined to be a gift that keeps on giving.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"slug": "love-gilda-a-new-documentary-remembers-snls-not-so-secret-weapon",
"title": "'Love, Gilda': A New Documentary Remembers SNL's Not-So-Secret Weapon",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">D\u003c/span>o you have a foolproof video that always makes you laugh? A TV or movie clip that, no matter what particular brand of despair filled your day—the fear and anxiety of daily headlines, work frustrations or relationship troubles—can at the very least get you to smile?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13839927\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap-160x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a handful of media that I regularly employ in such a medicinal fashion, but my No. 1 has held steady for years now. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/extremely-stupid/n8642\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a skit that ran on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> in December 1976\u003c/a>, during the 10th episode of the second season. Candice Bergen hosted; Frank Zappa was the musical guest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sketch is a fake commercial, a public service announcement for the stupidity-rights movement, featuring Bergen and Gilda Radner. The premise is, appropriately, extremely stupid, and would likely have only been moderately funny if things had gone according to script. But then magic happens: Bergen flubs a line, and Radner runs with it in such a simple yet hilarious way that the studio audience erupts with laughter and, simultaneously, Bergen breaks. Straight-up loses it. I’m talking slumber party, wipe-your-eyes, pee-your-pants style giggle fit, which the viewer gets to watch over Radner’s right shoulder for the duration of the sketch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sketch is \u003cem>so dumb\u003c/em>, but I love it. I love the face Radner makes as she’s deciding to deliver the ad-libbed line that sends the thing over the top; I love seeing a seasoned actress rendered helpless by laughter. But there’s also something that’s just perfectly-distilled \u003cem>Gilda\u003c/em> here: open, silly, contagious joy. It feels like an old friend making you laugh, finding your weak spot and doubling down on it, trying to make milk shoot out of your nose. I wish this skit lasted 10 minutes longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wish we got even 10 more minutes of Gilda in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-800x803.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-800x803.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-160x161.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-768x771.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1020x1024.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1195x1200.jpg 1195w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1180x1185.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-960x964.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-240x241.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-375x377.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-520x522.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">“T\u003c/span>here’s truly a timeless, universal quality to what she did. Amy Poehler said she thinks of Gilda as a red-blue state: loved by all,” says Lisa D’Apolito, the director of \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em>, a new documentary about the late comedian that hits theaters Sept. 21. (It had its world premiere as the opening film at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival in April, with an emotional introduction from Tina Fey.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She just enjoyed performing \u003cem>so much\u003c/em>,” says D’Apolito of Radner. “And she obviously had an acute sense of character, but physical comedy was always part of it. The way she uses her body—even if you didn’t understand the language she was speaking, I think you could just watch Gilda and laugh.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just watch Gilda and laugh” is, fittingly, what most \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> viewers will leave the theater wanting to do, so prepare to lose at least an hour or two afterward in a YouTube rabbit hole, revisiting beloved characters like Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna and Lisa Loopner. But casual fans of the comedian—who died tragically at 42, of ovarian cancer—will also gain insight on lesser-known aspects of her life; the documentary isn’t shy about her demons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840744\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-800x808.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Schiller, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"808\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-800x808.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-160x162.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-768x776.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1020x1031.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1188x1200.jpg 1188w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1180x1192.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-960x970.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-240x242.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-375x379.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-520x525.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup.jpg 1544w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Schiller, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Born into an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Detroit, Radner was a happy but chubby kid; her parents put her on diet pills while she was still in elementary school. Meanwhile, she honed a self-deprecating sense of humor as a way to debarb insults from other children, and grew to crave the feeling of love that came with making people laugh. Then Radner’s father, her most enthusiastic audience, died when she was 14. In context, her deep insecurities (even at the height of her fame) and her ongoing battle with bulimia as an adult (diary entries from her stay at an eating disorder clinic are particularly tough to hear) snap into painfully sharp focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Apolito earned the trust of Radner’s brother, as well as ex-husband Gene Wilder and other close friends over the course of the four-year filmmaking process, gaining access to previously unreleased material, and the film feels both intimate and protective of Radner’s legacy as a result. To be sure, it’s fun to see Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy, Bill Hader and other current comics voice their awe about Radner, while onetime colleagues like Lorne Michaels and Martin Short get the chance to reminisce. The doc touches on the comedian’s romantic relationships, including marriages to \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> bandleader G.E. Smith and, of course, to Wilder. (Bill Murray, who had a two-year, deep but reportedly tumultuous relationship with Radner, didn’t respond to the filmmaker’s requests for an interview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s the primary sources that make \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> hit you in the chest. Using home movies, diaries, and a series of audiotapes the comedian recorded in the process of writing her memoir \u003cem>It’s Always Something\u003c/em>, the film smartly allows Radner to narrate her own story, in her own voice, wherever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840708\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-800x254.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-800x254.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-160x51.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-768x244.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1020x324.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1200x381.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1180x375.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-960x305.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-240x76.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-375x119.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-520x165.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s in these journals that we get closest to understanding a central tension for Radner: that of a natural star who got blindsided by the realities of actual stardom. The first person cast in the “Not Ready For Primetime Players”—the freshman group of comedians on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> in 1975 that included Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd—Radner was in many ways an archetypal \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/jennifer-lawrence-and-the-history-of-cool-girls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cool Girl\u003c/a>. She could hold her own with literally the best of them; there was an innocence about her, but she also loved to get gross, tell fart jokes; she could play kids or old ladies and anything in between. She was always having fun—explosive, fully committed fun—and she didn’t mind \u003ca href=\"http://fuckyeahgildaradner.tumblr.com/post/67929609392/jagweedish-deactivated20140427-gilda-radner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">if it came with a few bruised ribs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the show’s first season, viewers across America had fallen in love with her. And just like that, she could barely leave the house without a disguise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think she saw life as a playground, and she loved to go out and play,” says D’Apolito. “But once she started to become famous she couldn’t go out, and I think that’s when the eating disorder got worse … her friends told me she liked getting her makeup done for magazines, but she definitely wasn’t after fame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean, exactly, to love an audience but dislike being famous? What do you owe your fans, if anything? And how much heavier are those questions when you’re a young woman whom nearly everyone, myself included, has subconsciously come to think of as a friend?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840712\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-800x543.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner with Gene Wilder and dog Sparkle in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1200x814.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1180x801.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-960x652.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-240x163.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-375x254.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-520x353.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner with Gene Wilder and dog Sparkle in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>t’d be ridiculous to attempt to list the performers, male and female, who owe Gilda Radner a debt in some way. Mike Myers has said she’s the reason he wanted to be on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>. Personally, I can’t watch Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, Ali Wong, Jenny Slate—the list goes on—without seeing sparks of Gilda’s electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the whole doc clocking in at just 86 minutes, \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> doesn’t have time to fully map that lineage either. The final half-hour feels a bit rushed, covering Radner’s life in Los Angeles, grief over a miscarriage, diagnosis with ovarian cancer, and discovery of the Wellness Community, a cancer support organization that later inspired Wilder to found Gilda’s Club in his wife’s honor. (The two organizations have since merged.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those of us who are still in love with her, it might also be true that even a five-hour film wouldn’t feel sufficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I first started trying to drum up support for the film, I was hearing concern about whether there would be enough interest in her—I think especially among younger viewers, who might not know who she is,” says D’Apolito. But D’Apolito had worked with Gilda’s Club; she knew exactly how much Radner meant to clients there. And since the film first premiered she’s held screenings in select cities—when we talk, she’s just hosted San Diego’s the night before—and “every time, there are 20 or 25 people who wait to just tell me ‘thank you’ after. They’re \u003cem>grateful\u003c/em> for her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840742\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840742\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-800x537.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-800x537.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1200x805.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1180x792.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-960x644.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-375x252.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-520x349.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gilda Radner died on the afternoon of May 20, 1989, which also happened to be a Saturday, a few hours before the finale of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>’s 14th season. The news broke as host Steve Martin was rehearsing; the cast and crew were understandably devastated—apparently few of them were aware of how ill she’d been—and the decision was made to scrap the intro monologue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, visibly choked up, Martin introduces a \u003ca href=\"http://classicajays.tumblr.com/post/7734859743/so-here-it-is-everyone-the-steve-martin-monologue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clip of a sketch he performed with her on the show in 1978\u003c/a>. It’s entirely wordless: a musical number in which the pair, dressed in white, both obviously masters of physical comedy, swerve between attempts at sensual ballroom dancing and goofy, hysterical, limb-swinging freakouts—all culminating in Radner climbing back into her chair at a dinner table in, and I don’t know how else to phrase this, the funniest way anyone has ever tried to segue from dancing into sitting back down at a dinner table in the history of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sketch was apparently parodying a well-known routine from a Fred Astaire movie, but I didn’t know that the first few times I saw it. All I knew was that it made me laugh like crazy, and that it, too, was top-shelf, quadruple-distilled Gilda. Which is to say, joyful. Game for anything. Sweet beyond belief, but cut with the signs of an absolute maniac. And perfectly, imperfectly human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Love, Gilda’ opens nationally Sept. 21.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Emma Silvers is a writer living in San Francisco. Find her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/emmaruthless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">D\u003c/span>o you have a foolproof video that always makes you laugh? A TV or movie clip that, no matter what particular brand of despair filled your day—the fear and anxiety of daily headlines, work frustrations or relationship troubles—can at the very least get you to smile?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13839927\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap-160x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/EmmaSilvers.HeadshotwCap.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a handful of media that I regularly employ in such a medicinal fashion, but my No. 1 has held steady for years now. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/extremely-stupid/n8642\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a skit that ran on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> in December 1976\u003c/a>, during the 10th episode of the second season. Candice Bergen hosted; Frank Zappa was the musical guest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sketch is a fake commercial, a public service announcement for the stupidity-rights movement, featuring Bergen and Gilda Radner. The premise is, appropriately, extremely stupid, and would likely have only been moderately funny if things had gone according to script. But then magic happens: Bergen flubs a line, and Radner runs with it in such a simple yet hilarious way that the studio audience erupts with laughter and, simultaneously, Bergen breaks. Straight-up loses it. I’m talking slumber party, wipe-your-eyes, pee-your-pants style giggle fit, which the viewer gets to watch over Radner’s right shoulder for the duration of the sketch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sketch is \u003cem>so dumb\u003c/em>, but I love it. I love the face Radner makes as she’s deciding to deliver the ad-libbed line that sends the thing over the top; I love seeing a seasoned actress rendered helpless by laughter. But there’s also something that’s just perfectly-distilled \u003cem>Gilda\u003c/em> here: open, silly, contagious joy. It feels like an old friend making you laugh, finding your weak spot and doubling down on it, trying to make milk shoot out of your nose. I wish this skit lasted 10 minutes longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wish we got even 10 more minutes of Gilda in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-800x803.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-800x803.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-160x161.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-768x771.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1020x1024.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1195x1200.jpg 1195w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-1180x1185.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-960x964.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-240x241.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-375x377.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-520x522.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/5-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">“T\u003c/span>here’s truly a timeless, universal quality to what she did. Amy Poehler said she thinks of Gilda as a red-blue state: loved by all,” says Lisa D’Apolito, the director of \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em>, a new documentary about the late comedian that hits theaters Sept. 21. (It had its world premiere as the opening film at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival in April, with an emotional introduction from Tina Fey.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She just enjoyed performing \u003cem>so much\u003c/em>,” says D’Apolito of Radner. “And she obviously had an acute sense of character, but physical comedy was always part of it. The way she uses her body—even if you didn’t understand the language she was speaking, I think you could just watch Gilda and laugh.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just watch Gilda and laugh” is, fittingly, what most \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> viewers will leave the theater wanting to do, so prepare to lose at least an hour or two afterward in a YouTube rabbit hole, revisiting beloved characters like Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna and Lisa Loopner. But casual fans of the comedian—who died tragically at 42, of ovarian cancer—will also gain insight on lesser-known aspects of her life; the documentary isn’t shy about her demons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840744\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-800x808.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Schiller, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"808\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-800x808.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-160x162.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-768x776.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1020x1031.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1188x1200.jpg 1188w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-1180x1192.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-960x970.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-240x242.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-375x379.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-520x525.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/gildaSNLgroup.jpg 1544w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Schiller, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Born into an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Detroit, Radner was a happy but chubby kid; her parents put her on diet pills while she was still in elementary school. Meanwhile, she honed a self-deprecating sense of humor as a way to debarb insults from other children, and grew to crave the feeling of love that came with making people laugh. Then Radner’s father, her most enthusiastic audience, died when she was 14. In context, her deep insecurities (even at the height of her fame) and her ongoing battle with bulimia as an adult (diary entries from her stay at an eating disorder clinic are particularly tough to hear) snap into painfully sharp focus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Apolito earned the trust of Radner’s brother, as well as ex-husband Gene Wilder and other close friends over the course of the four-year filmmaking process, gaining access to previously unreleased material, and the film feels both intimate and protective of Radner’s legacy as a result. To be sure, it’s fun to see Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy, Bill Hader and other current comics voice their awe about Radner, while onetime colleagues like Lorne Michaels and Martin Short get the chance to reminisce. The doc touches on the comedian’s romantic relationships, including marriages to \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> bandleader G.E. Smith and, of course, to Wilder. (Bill Murray, who had a two-year, deep but reportedly tumultuous relationship with Radner, didn’t respond to the filmmaker’s requests for an interview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s the primary sources that make \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> hit you in the chest. Using home movies, diaries, and a series of audiotapes the comedian recorded in the process of writing her memoir \u003cem>It’s Always Something\u003c/em>, the film smartly allows Radner to narrate her own story, in her own voice, wherever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840708\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-800x254.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-800x254.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-160x51.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-768x244.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1020x324.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1200x381.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-1180x375.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-960x305.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-240x76.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-375x119.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/3-520x165.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s in these journals that we get closest to understanding a central tension for Radner: that of a natural star who got blindsided by the realities of actual stardom. The first person cast in the “Not Ready For Primetime Players”—the freshman group of comedians on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> in 1975 that included Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd—Radner was in many ways an archetypal \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/jennifer-lawrence-and-the-history-of-cool-girls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cool Girl\u003c/a>. She could hold her own with literally the best of them; there was an innocence about her, but she also loved to get gross, tell fart jokes; she could play kids or old ladies and anything in between. She was always having fun—explosive, fully committed fun—and she didn’t mind \u003ca href=\"http://fuckyeahgildaradner.tumblr.com/post/67929609392/jagweedish-deactivated20140427-gilda-radner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">if it came with a few bruised ribs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the show’s first season, viewers across America had fallen in love with her. And just like that, she could barely leave the house without a disguise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think she saw life as a playground, and she loved to go out and play,” says D’Apolito. “But once she started to become famous she couldn’t go out, and I think that’s when the eating disorder got worse … her friends told me she liked getting her makeup done for magazines, but she definitely wasn’t after fame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean, exactly, to love an audience but dislike being famous? What do you owe your fans, if anything? And how much heavier are those questions when you’re a young woman whom nearly everyone, myself included, has subconsciously come to think of as a friend?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840712\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-800x543.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner with Gene Wilder and dog Sparkle in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1200x814.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-1180x801.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-960x652.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-240x163.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-375x254.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/12-520x353.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner with Gene Wilder and dog Sparkle in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>t’d be ridiculous to attempt to list the performers, male and female, who owe Gilda Radner a debt in some way. Mike Myers has said she’s the reason he wanted to be on \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>. Personally, I can’t watch Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, \u003cem>Broad City\u003c/em>, Ali Wong, Jenny Slate—the list goes on—without seeing sparks of Gilda’s electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the whole doc clocking in at just 86 minutes, \u003cem>Love, Gilda\u003c/em> doesn’t have time to fully map that lineage either. The final half-hour feels a bit rushed, covering Radner’s life in Los Angeles, grief over a miscarriage, diagnosis with ovarian cancer, and discovery of the Wellness Community, a cancer support organization that later inspired Wilder to found Gilda’s Club in his wife’s honor. (The two organizations have since merged.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those of us who are still in love with her, it might also be true that even a five-hour film wouldn’t feel sufficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I first started trying to drum up support for the film, I was hearing concern about whether there would be enough interest in her—I think especially among younger viewers, who might not know who she is,” says D’Apolito. But D’Apolito had worked with Gilda’s Club; she knew exactly how much Radner meant to clients there. And since the film first premiered she’s held screenings in select cities—when we talk, she’s just hosted San Diego’s the night before—and “every time, there are 20 or 25 people who wait to just tell me ‘thank you’ after. They’re \u003cem>grateful\u003c/em> for her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13840742\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13840742\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-800x537.jpg\" alt=\"Gilda Radner in 'Love, Gilda.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-800x537.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1200x805.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-1180x792.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-960x644.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-375x252.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/GildaWriting-520x349.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilda Radner in ‘Love, Gilda.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gilda Radner died on the afternoon of May 20, 1989, which also happened to be a Saturday, a few hours before the finale of \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em>’s 14th season. The news broke as host Steve Martin was rehearsing; the cast and crew were understandably devastated—apparently few of them were aware of how ill she’d been—and the decision was made to scrap the intro monologue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, visibly choked up, Martin introduces a \u003ca href=\"http://classicajays.tumblr.com/post/7734859743/so-here-it-is-everyone-the-steve-martin-monologue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clip of a sketch he performed with her on the show in 1978\u003c/a>. It’s entirely wordless: a musical number in which the pair, dressed in white, both obviously masters of physical comedy, swerve between attempts at sensual ballroom dancing and goofy, hysterical, limb-swinging freakouts—all culminating in Radner climbing back into her chair at a dinner table in, and I don’t know how else to phrase this, the funniest way anyone has ever tried to segue from dancing into sitting back down at a dinner table in the history of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sketch was apparently parodying a well-known routine from a Fred Astaire movie, but I didn’t know that the first few times I saw it. All I knew was that it made me laugh like crazy, and that it, too, was top-shelf, quadruple-distilled Gilda. Which is to say, joyful. Game for anything. Sweet beyond belief, but cut with the signs of an absolute maniac. And perfectly, imperfectly human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Love, Gilda’ opens nationally Sept. 21.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Emma Silvers is a writer living in San Francisco. Find her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/emmaruthless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
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