Re: SNL (Re: Free Castle Break on Steam!)

On Sun, 13 Oct 2024 23:58:39 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

Ross Ridge <rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson  <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

TL;DR: in twenty years, we (either personally or as a culture) be
looking back fondly on a lot of the current SNL skits and wondering
why the 2050 cast is so unfunny ;-)

>

I remember first watching Saturday Night Live a few years after it
first aired and already people were telling me that original cast was
much better.  I beleived them too, since most of the original cast
where big name stars with movie careers by then.  How could nobodies
like Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo compare with the likes of Dan Aykroyd
or Chevy Chase?

>

As I continued to watch and enjoy it, I kept hearing how previous seasons
and casts were better and how far downhill it had gone.  Except now they
were talking about seasons and casts I had seen myself.  While I could
agree such-and-such a sketch was a classic and so-and-so who left the
show was really funny, I was still enjoying the show.

>

By the time the 90's rolled around I realized people were just going
to continue saying the show had gone downhill and whatever season and
cast they first watched was the best.  No one really had a viewpoint
where they could objectively compare the seasons.  Even me who never
thought the show was bad couldn't really see where the show had it's
inevitiable up and downs.  Just too hard to objectively compare a show
you're watching today to a show you saw years ago.

>

When I heard people making similar complaints about The Simpsons I just
ignored them.  Somehow both perputually downhill shows have managed to
survive even now when TV itself is in decline.

>
Like gaming. Older computer action games were better. /s ;)

They definitely weren't though.

   [yes, I saw your /s tag. I chose to ignore it so I can rant :-)]

Sure, there were some good games. I'm particularly fond of titles like
"Doom", or original "Civilization", or "Full Throttle", for instance.
But there were so many _awful_ titles back then, and even a lot of
what we remember as "good" games don't hold a candle to the modern
game experiences. I _loved_ "Pool of Radiance" when it was new... but
even if you were to upgrade the visuals of that game to modern
standards, the _gameplay_ and controls would make it waaaay too
tedious to play today.

I love my obscenely-large collection of old-timey video-games... but
damn if most of them just aren't worth playing even for a few moments.