Matt Fletcher has a Rant about Saturday Night Live – Part 2

May 27th, 2010

Hello readers,

We are back. For more ranting. I refuse to stop raving, unless someone chokes me with a sock. And even then, I would eat that damn sock up and keep on going.

And now, the not-so-shocking but hopefully mildly unpredictable conclusion to my two part series – Matt Fletcher Has a Rant.

An Open Letter to the Cast of Saturday Night Live (PART II of II)

Look, if I wanted to watch people read cue-cards, I’d… actually, I wouldn’t! I don’t want to watch that! So why do you do it?

Most of you aren’t in that many sketches, anyway!

Maybe I’m being too hard on you. Maybe you’re just like me and countless other performing artists: you just don’t have enough time, because you’re working a job during the day that enables you to do the thing you love at night, and there’s just not enough time in the day to learn your lines, rehearse, and get ready for SNL at the end of the week. That must be it!

Pictured: the best thing I found for a google image search of “starving artist.”

Look, I get it. It’s live! You don’t want to mess it up!

But you’re comedians, improvisers, you don’t mess up! Or if you do, it’s hilarious! It’s LIVE TV! I watch it so that I can watch you mess up! And then watch how you make it brilliant! That’s what makes it worth watching!

The only reason Jimmy Fallon has a career is because, as much as I dislike his smug face, he got it. He broke all. The. Time. But it was (kinda) funny! Because it was live! There was immediacy, a sense of danger, a sense that this is really happening. And by George, it’s funny!

Kinda.

But you read! Cue cards! Teleprompters! You’re reading! And I lose your eyes as a result. I need your eyes! It’s film! It’s performing! It’s all about your eyes! (Acting 201: “It’s all about your eyes.”) It’s about connection, and we need to watch you connect with each other, with us, with your eyes.

Pictured: a connection.

And instead you read! And it reads to me like you don’t care.

And that’s what salts me the most. You don’t give a crap.

You stand on the shoulders of giants. You have a responsibility to the institution of Saturday Night Live. You have a responsibility to learn your lines because, damn it, you have a responsibility to your audience!

And lastly, and most importantly (to me, because it’s my blog post), you have a responsibility to us performers out there. Those of us who don’t have that job, who want it maybe more than you do. And you phone it in. Week after week.

Who told you that was okay?