Saturday Night Live

A decades-long chronicle of the process by which edgy counterculture overstays its welcome long enough to become subsumed into mainstream culture until it becomes a rudder of pop culture, a standard avenue by which politicos and aristocrats make themselves palatable to a worshipful public. But sometimes they get some good writers and good performers and make the viewer forget for a moment that they long since became even more worthy of derision than those they claim to satirize.

It's obviously impossible to give this show a fair rating due to how wildly the quality varies, even within individual episodes - over the years, it's produced some classic bits of comedy (along with even more clunkers, especially recently). Still, it's undeniably a cultural institution, and I have to respect that.

It's a bizarre show that never works. When talking to people about this show I've noticed that when people describe it they always say the generation before them was good. So someone in the 90's will be like "yeah it sucks now, but it was really good in the 80's!" and someone in the 00's will say "yeah it sucks now but it was really good in the 90s!" Truth is, it always has sucked, always will suck. For every good sketch you see there's probably 50 that completely bomb. A terrible overrated show

This rating is based on the episodes from the 80's and 90's, because I haven't seen the 70's episodes, and the show has been dead since the new millennium. Over the decades, there were a lot of ups and downs, but overall, it set the template for contemporary comedy in a way that few programs can claim to, and it was one of the few places where enormously talented writers and performers could come together to do basically whatever they wanted, free from the constraints of narrative or good taste.

Honestly don't know how to rate this show fairly, as it is so iconic that its lesser years age well and become great years. Generally, though, it has maintained a steady level of quality in the past decade that REALLY depends on the host almost as much as the cast.

The ROI for rummaging through the clips is shit.

Wildly inconsistent. It has legendary sketches buried among scores of inane ones.

Difficult to pin a rating on. If I was forced to sit through every second of every episode I'd probably find it utterly torturous and despise it. But the occasional online highlight is pretty enjoyable.

I like the show very much but only like 5% of the sketches.

Far too hit and miss. Some sketches are timeless and influential for the state of comedy but actually sitting through a full episode from any given year has at least a couple of painfully unfunny sketches, some years of the show are far worse than others but even at its best the good was often outweighed by the bad.

A middle-of-the-road rating for a show that has a huge running time, and just as many memorable sketches as it has forgettable ones.

Based on partial viewings of a couple dozen episodes from 2005ish onwards, haven't seen any of the 70's "golden years" material besides Chevy Chase falling over. Best part of SNL recently was Larry David's Bernie. From a non-American perspective it seems like the show exists as a career pipeline for writers and performers rather than being actually entertaining in of itself.

SNL was never funny, but Bill Clinton put it in the ground. A politician willing to make fun of himself made SNL irrelevant, and the required self-awareness of nearly all public figures means SNL is just re-enactments of the news in stupid wigs, with stupid Wiigs. The concept of the show is what people enjoy: "live," "edgy," "anything can happen." It should be telling that in 40 years of "anything can happen," all that has is a picture of the Pope getting ripped. Anyway, Lorne, tryout please?

listen, it's got some really great skits that'll remain classics forever

Good, then bad, then Eddie-Murphy-and-his-lil-friend-Joe (good), then really really bad, then really good (Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, etc. era), then okay, then Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon was so bad on this show that I had to stop watching it. SNL is forever cursed in my eyes.

A lot of people will tell you SNL was better when they were growing up. The fact is, there's always been a lot of weak sketches, but you end up forgetting those and only remembering the best ones, especially because of the compilation specials. It's still good enough to keep watching every week.

When it has solid cast members and good writers this show does shine... but there were many eras when it had neither. It's constant up and down nature make it hard to recommend at a specific time but it is often worth checking out for the first 3-4 sketches, which are usually good.

best of eddie murphy 58

The best and most iconic comedy skits in history, the most unfunny things you've ever seen, and everything in between.

A mixed bag. Has some pretty great sketches (especially political ones) but a good many others are dull and uninteresting. it's ultimately hard to rate because every episode either has legitimately funny skits mixed with awful ones or the entire episode itself is completely unfunny. Still, watching the occasional skit from the show every now and then isn't too bad.

An extraordinary show in many respects, chiefly: that for all its admittedly remarkable talent throughout its various incarnations, for all its energy and atmosphere on-set of reportedly incredible dynamism, and the elaborate process of creation, for the home viewer it is nearly uniformly fucking garbage. As far as I'm concerned SNL is just a footnote to Norm Macdonald's career.

Insanely hard to rate due the huge range of quality you get from season to season. Pioneering and visionary at times, pandering and plodding at others.

Rating based on episodes of seasons 2013, 2014, 2015.