‘Saturday Night Live’ re-watch: Abraham Lincoln still rules Louis C.K.’s show
We remember publishing our review of “Saturday Night Live” featuring Louis C.K. in November, and then looking around the internet to quickly realize one thing: we were awfully hard on the guy compared to the rest of the media. the “Louie” star presided over a show that was very important for its specific moment in time, as it was the weekend after Hurricane Sandy, and there were some pretty cool stories about how many of the “SNL” crew members were bunking together and having to take their kids to work with them in order to get the show done.
As a story, this episode (which repeats this weekend) is pretty wonderful and we don’t want to take away from that; unfortunately, it does not really hold up well. Many Americans have already forgotten who sign-language translator Lydia Callis is, and that makes the once-funny cold open a little bit irrelevant to watch. The same of course goes for some of the Presidential election-themed material, but at least that tapes into a time of broader nostalgia (if we can even call it that at this given moment). As for everything else, we either just found it tired the second time around, or just not entertaining at all.
If there is one sketch that is just as funny (if not funnier) to watch several months after the fact, it is the brilliant send-up “Lincoln” that takes the style of “Louie” but throws our famed President into the mix. With the success of the Steven Spielberg movie, it still feels even more topical than it did back when it first aired, and we also have a feeling that it would still be funny even if there was no movie out there about Lincoln at all. It’s just an example of good writing and how “SNL” is often at its best these days when it throws its lens onto other parts of pop culture.
Do you think that any sketches from Louis’ show become better upon re-watching them? If you want to see who is hosting the two new “Saturday Night Live” shows coming up later this month, you can find out over at the link here.
Photo: NBC
