SNL Has Found Their New Cast Members And Destroyed 'Please Don't Destroy'

ICYMI, SNL let go of a wave of people last week. Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker were all among the cuts and some of it felt a little surprising. Longfellow has been a bit of a rising star and Gardner has been there as long as Keenan Thompson it feels (just kidding, he will die on that stage). A lot of people were angry but, in my opinion, this has been a long time coming.

I feel that SNL operates best at a very specific ratio of class clown:theater kid. That is to say, you need people that are organically funny. Naturally likable people that can make you laugh just with their delivery. But you also need people that are trained actors. People that know how to command a stage, keep composure, be funny but also play the straight man. To be generous, I'd pin this ratio at 75:25 in favor of the clowns and that ratio has been WAY out of whack over the last 10 years. 

I'm not sure exactly why this is the case. My guess is that Lorne Michaels tried to steer the ship so that he could ride the popular wave of the culture wars which meant a slightly more sterilized version of comedy.The main cast stopped being mostly good comedians and became mostly good performers. Another issue, which Robby brought up in our last episode of LCB, is that nobody leaves. Most main cast members used to spend 5ish years on the show and use it as tape to strike out on their own. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Jost and Che have been hosting weekend update for ELEVEN YEARS. Mikey Day has spent more time on the show than Amy Poehler. 3 of the longest tenured cast members in show history are in this current iteration. That's no good! But now, that cultural wave is rebounding and I think Lorne is starting to adapt. 

If you've watched anything Kill Tony, then you know Kam Patterson. Organically funny comedian that makes you laugh just by the way he says things. Veronika Slowikowska has done some pretty funny stuff on tiktok and was also fantastic in 'Tires'. If you'll notice, we already have two Shane Gillis adjacent people on the board. Jeremy Culhane I've seen in a few funny tiktoks and show clips and I would def put him more on the clown side of things. Don't really know Brennan at all but Marshall was obviously part of Please Don't Destroy and has already been featured on the show quite a bit. 

Speaking of Please Don't Destroy, SNL announced they will no longer be doing skits for the show. Instead, they hired Marshall to the main cast, kept Martin Herlihy (son of SNL producer Martin Herlihy) as a writer while John Higgins(son of SNL producer Steve Higgins) left the show. I've enjoyed some of their skits and I think it kind of served the purpose SNL wanted (drawing the Lonely Island from memory). Also, as far as I can tell, they aren't breaking up as a group. But their time on the show is over. 

I don't know if this is necessarily some big fix for the system, but I'd call it a step in the right direction. You could also argue that nothing even needs to be fixed considering their numbers have remained solid and they still dominate every late night show by pretty big margin. And, what, am I supposed to be the arbiter of comedy? But it feels like their cultural dominance has definitely been waning. As a viewer, getting back to the basics and seeing naturally funny people on screen that I want to laugh at changes the show from "ehhhh ill maybe watch a highlight on youtube tomorrow if someone tells me theres a good skit" to appointment TV.