SNL is also blessed with easy targets


I think if I were famous enough to get a celebrity impersonation on television, Brad Pitt wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice. Anthony Fauci has got to be stoked.

It’s a good message, though.

The whole SNL episode is interesting for its new format: everyone is just doing their own thing from home, probably using good consumer-grade cameras, with maybe some off-site editing. Clearly some of them must have knowledge of lighting, since it’s their business. It comes off pretty well, maybe even a little better than their usual in-studio show.

Comments

  1. cartomancer says

    I thought the Fast Show had already done PZ… no, wait, that was Professor Denzil Dexter of the University of Southern California…

  2. lotharloo says

    They really had no jokes, only played D. Trump clips. Can’t say I blame them, don’t think anyone can out do Trump.

  3. marcoli says

    I have thought that SNL has been better while they are all doing it from home. Not sure why that would be, but maybe this has gotten them to try harder.

  4. says

    I will have you know I am more neatly groomed than Professor Dexter (although that may change in the next few months), and that most of his research is absurd, and nothing that I would waste my time on. Well, except maybe for the spacebats. That sounds intriguing.

  5. robro says

    I just saw a news story that Fauci had quipped about Pitt playing him on SNL during a CNN interview on April 10th. He got his wish. Hope it doesn’t get him fired.

    As you probably know, a lot of “live” TV is coming from the homes of the principles right now: Colbert, Noah, etc. I find the bits I’ve seen to be flat because they don’t have the live audiences…laughter is infectious, and audiences drive the timing.

    As for their production qualities, once the producers knew they were going to do this (rather than reruns), they may have had a small technical crew set up lighting, sound (a tricky thing), video cameras, and so forth which they could probably do with sufficient social distancing and caution. Colbert has actually mentioned that two of his kids are helping with technical stuff while taping.

    I’m sure they’re doing post-taping work just to iron out the latency problems. Of course, many of the “live” shows (LSSC for example) are recorded in front of a live audience, edited, and then aired, so that’s not so different.

  6. cartomancer says

    Well clearly something must account for the almost total lack of spiders up there. It’s as good an explanation as any!

  7. birgerjohansson says

    Trump’s press briefings about the coronavirus.

    “Suppose you brought the ( UV) light inside the body?”
    .
    Trump is a topological genius! If we could invent some kind of Rhennius device that turns humans inside out*, we could simply irradiate the tissue. Of course, then we would have to put them back together, along with the contents of the circulatory and gastrointestinal systems (you do not want to mix them up).

    Byt there is also the issue of chirality; get that wrong and the patient will be unable to consume food because the chemicals now have the opposite left-right twist.
    And all text will appear to be mirror-reversed to the patient.
    * I stole the idea from the late Roger Zelazny

  8. blf says

    I normally avoid clips like those in the OP — my own tastes, nothing more (and no cheese, observes the mildly deranged penguin, complaining about the OP’s clip also not satisfying her own tastes) — but this particular one has gotten my interest, as it is being (widely?) reported / commented-about as a good one. Sadly, Generalissimo Google™’s youfube is claiming The uploader has not made this video available in you country, France. So, does anyone happen to know (or can suggest) a link / reupload / whatever (possibly) without that restriction?

  9. blf says

    Sean Boyd@13, Yeah, in principle that is possible. Without resorting to such tricks, I’ve (now) managed to see excerpts on his performance on several different sites — and it does indeed seem to be quite good — albeit not the whole thing.

  10. rrhain says

    The celebrity impersonator for you is easy, PZ: Zach Galifianakis. He might have to grey up, but he should be able to do it.