‘SNL’s Blood-Splattered Sketches Deliver Increasingly Diminishing Returns
Blame Mr. Bunting.
In a 2016 SNL sketch parodying Dead Poets Society, the young male students at an uptight boarding school raise their voices in support of their fired English teacher, Mr. Bunting (Fred Armisen). One by one, the young men stand on their desks, proclaiming, “I sing my song for all to hear!” The group act of defiance is cut short, however, when Pete Davidson’s character climbs the furniture only to have his head separated from his shoulders by an aggressive ceiling fan.
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Mr. Bunting screams as Pete’s dismembered noggin lands in his arms, while the blood from his severed arteries sprays his horrified classmates. It’s one of SNL’s best-ever endings for pure shock value, a horrific twist heightened by gloriously gory special effects unavailable to Dan Aykroyd when his Julia Child accidentally cut her wrist while boning a chicken.
But now Saturday Night Live has a body-horror problem. “Farewell, Mr. Bunting” works because the ending is so unexpected, especially given the high-drama tone established in its setup. These days, the blood geyser has become SNL’s pie in the face, a slap of physical comedy to end a sketch that gets less funny every time it’s employed.
This week, it was “Pip,” an otherwise inventive sketch about a CGI mouse — think Stuart Little — who aspires to win his school’s weightlifting competition. It’s a funny premise, juiced by Lady Gaga’s inspirational ballad. But if you guessed it’s all headed into Sarah Squirm territory, you’re right. The bully-revenge element helps, but any surprise is diminished by the number of times SNL has gone to the bloody well this year.
Just three episodes ago, Dave Chappelle got drenched in a sketch where crimson carnage was the punchline. The bit tried to set the record for most blood spilled in a single episode, with multiple puncture wounds bespattering the characters.
And two episodes prior to that? It was Adam Sandler showing up for old pal Chris Rock as a patient on the operating table awaiting gallbladder surgery. The sketch’s biggest laughs came when the gizmo that shoots fake plasma didn’t work quite right, requiring Sandler and Sherman to jerry-rig it on the fly. There’s no joke outside of the copious amounts of blood.
That makes three times in six shows that the writers ended a sketch by splattering hemoglobin. Enough already!
Bloody gore can work in comedy, but it relies on an element of surprise. Where’s the shock value when SNL trains us to expect the carnage? Like creampies in the face on old, lethargic variety shows, these SNL bloodfests are delivering fewer laughs, leaving only a big mess to clean up during commercials.
