Welcome Back, ‘SNL’ Cartoons, We Didn’t Know How Much We Missed You
Was there ever a more reliable laugh on Saturday Night Live than Robert Smigel’s TV Funhouse cartoons? At some point, Lorne Michaels didn’t even watch the animated shorts before air, confident that they’d be hilarious. Michaels simply wanted to be surprised like the rest of us.
But the show has been relatively cartoon-free since the mid-2000s, with TV Funhouse-style shorts replaced by the live-action antics of Lonely Island and Please Don’t Destroy. The pre-filmed segments generally kill but they don’t leave much room for Smigel-style cartoons. So it was a surprise on this weekend’s SNL, hosted by Timothée Chalamet, when the words “An SNL Animated Short” popped on the screen.
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Welcome back, cartoons, it’s been a minute!
“God,” written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidel, is a spiritual sequel to their Washington’s Dream sketches with Nate Bargatze. Like those popular bits, “God” explores the batshit-crazy logic behind everyday things we take for granted. Volcanos? That’s just a Bro God trying to create something cooler than carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange systems.
“Check it out! It’s like a mountain, right? That explodes! So take the inside of the earth, and it’s gonna come to the outside. It’s gonna be like (EXPLOSION NOISES), like fire and (bleep). It’s sick.”
Kangaroos are an angel mistake, giant bouncing rats with camel heads and human arms. The babies in the afterbirth goo pouch? Disgusting.
Masturbation was an accident. Whoops. God will make up for it by sending offenders straight to hell.
But God’s helpers did a great job designing the universe. “The whole solar system honestly slaps, like the planets,” proclaims the Almighty. “And then my idea for Gooby, the giant creature with the sun in its mouth, it’s, like, brilliant.”
For pure variety’s sake, SNL Animated Shorts are a great idea. Pre-produced pieces usually work better than the live ones — ironically — with no cue-card stumbles or wonky camera moves to derail the comedy. Sure, it means less screen time for cast members but several got to contribute funny voicework, including little-used Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline. Maybe the cartoons are a good way for the new kids to get a foot in the door.
SNL has been picking up steam as Season 50 has progressed, mostly by veering away from the usual game-show parodies and recurring character catchphrases. Animation is a great way to continue this kind of experimentation. How about letting Sarah Sherman and her body-horror comedy take a stab at the next one? I’m already squirming.
