Why ‘Too Carol Burnett’ Was the Ultimate Diss on Early ‘Saturday Night Live’

The New York Times’ Jason Zinoman has a bone to pick with Saturday Night, the new movie about the first episode of SNL. For all of the movie’s comedy history lessons, why didn’t it include young Lorne Michael’s animosity for the era’s grand dame of sketch, Carol Burnett?

While Saturday Night is already overstuffed with show lore, Zinoman is right that Burnett was treated as comedy kryptonite in SNL’s earliest days. Host Buck Henry remembered wanting to rewrite an early sketch to give it more of a traditional ending, but SNL writers dismissed him. “It was considered really corny to go for a joke,” he remembered in oral history Live From New York. “They thought somehow it was like Carol Burnett.”

Paul Shaffer had similar memories. Even something like the credits had to be approached in a counterculture style, otherwise, “it sounded, as we said back then, ‘too Carol Burnett.’” 

In the movie, Michaels corrects director Dave Wilson for using the word “skit.” Lorne said a “skit” was something Carol Burnett would do, according to Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. His show would do “sketches” instead. 

What was so wrong with The Carol Burnett Show? Prior to Saturday Night Live, it was the era’s gold standard for sketch comedy, winning 23 Emmys for its excellence. 

But in Michael’s mind, per Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, that show’s polished style was everything his SNL would avoid. “It lacked subtlety and nuance; it was too broad, too bourgeois, and too smug — especially when the performers broke out laughing in mid-sketch, doubling up at the hilarity of themselves. There will be more integrity and respect for the writing here, (Michaels) said.”

It’s easy to see what’s going on here — the kids rebelling at the way mom and dad did things, even while they subconsciously followed many of the same rules. After all, Burnett was a whopping eleven years older than Michaels. The irony, of course, is that Saturday Night Live became exactly what it set out to rebel against — a slickly packaged institution that regularly features comics cracking up at themselves.

Another irony, Zinoman points out, is the number of SNL greats who revere Burnett. In Bossypants, Tina Fey lists Burnett first on her list of childhood inspirations. Maya Rudolph patterned her own Michaels-produced variety show after Burnett’s. Amy Poehler presented her with both Mark Twain and Screen Actors Guild awards, citing her show as a major influence. “Carol is better than all of us,” she remarked. 

For her part, Burnett has never forgotten the disrespect, even as comedy stars gathered to celebrate her 90th birthday in a TV special last year. She told Fox News Digital that, despite campaigns by Patton Oswalt and fans, she had zero desire to host SNL. “I would not be interested. That’s all I can say.”