These ‘SNL’ Cartoons Are Becoming the Show’s Most Reliable Comedy
Mikey Day and Streeter Seidel can’t sit around waiting for Nate Bargatze to return to SNL. The trio collaborated on the comedian’s “Washington’s Dream” series of sketches that satirized all the dumb rules Americans never question. But why stop there?
The Saturday Night Live writing duo turned to animation during this year’s Timothée Chalamet episode, replacing Washington with God and questioning the goofy-ass decisions He made while creating the universe.
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And on this week’s SNL, hosted by Mikey Madison, the original city planners of New York get skewered for their chaotic vision. Day and Seidel are on to something here — this series of Bob Newhart-esque observations, delivered in lovably crude animation, is becoming one of the show’s most reliable laugh-getters.
We’re back in 1620, where early explorers concoct their plans for a great new city. “A city that’s too much!” enthuses one voiced by Bowen Yang. “Too much everything! And crazy!”
A map is drawn, then covered in haphazard scribbles. Down on the bottom, the streets will be laid out helter-skelter, a nice contrast to the perfectly straight streets at the city’s top. How to name the streets? That’s easy — First Avenue, Second Avenue, Third Avenue.
“Fourth Avenue” is next, guesses the explorer voiced by Day.
Nope, says Yang’s dreamer. “Lexington.” Then Fourth Avenue? Try again — it’s Park Avenue. Then Madison Avenue.
“Then Fourth Avenue?”
Of course not — it’s Sixth.
“Oh my God,” approves Explorer Day, “you are on one right now.”
The early city planners get extra-weird, placing a long, broad way on a diagonal through the middle of town. Why not add a bunch of triangles while they’re at it? Of course, they’ll call them “squares.”
Out-of-nowhere parks, wonky public transportation and an overwhelming smell of summer urine are part of the plan. And all of the city’s inhabitants will be total a-holes — perfect.
Seidel and Day have one other trick up their sleeves to make their cartoons sing: They’re deliciously short. The lesson for the SNL writing staff: Deliver the funniest jokes on a specific subject, then get out!
At least on the Mikey Madison show, sketches that were twice as long delivered half the laughs.