Splitsider: SNL Recap: Charles Barkley Hosts Sports Night

For the first Splitsider SNL recap of the new year, I discuss how Charles Barkley’s lack of comedic chops had little effect on the quality of the episode, and how we typically hold hosts to far too high of a standard.

Excerpt: 

“Much in the way we expect the president to be much more effectual than he is capable of being, we give way too much credit to an SNL host. The hosts aren’t up there improvising — they’re reading lines written by a talented writing staff, playing opposite some of the most talented comedic performers in showbusiness. That’s not to say a host’s talent has zero effect on the quality of an episode; in the past I have credited Justin Timberlake and Melissa McCarthy for breathing life into the show, and there have been hosts with famously bad attitudes that dragged the whole show down with them (Steven Segal, Paris Hilton).

I don’t tune in every week to see some person who doesn’t perform comedy for a living try to do it for 90 minutes. I tune in to see what Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, and the rest of the team can come up with in a week, and I tolerate the fact that they have to have some new guy temp with them while they work their magic.”

Read the full post on Splitsider.com.