Bill Hader And The Troubled SNL
Bill Hader, the epitome of Saturday Night Live humor and ex regular, hosted the October 11th episode with musical guest Hozier. Despite the fact a dedicated number of fans march behind him (rallying under the website, and I quote now, “fuckyeahbillhader.com”), the episode tied with another to receive some of the lowest ratings Saturday Night Live has ever received.
It seems Saturday Night Live (SNL), which is now in its 40th season, is struggling to keep its audience as it deals with the loss of some of it’s key performers. This is a natural phenomena, as aspiring and eager actors and actresses start here in order to either springboard their acting career or perhaps disappear into the nameless masses. After losing a slew of successful and key stars (Jimmy Fallon, Kristin Wiig, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, just to name a few losses in the more recent seasons), SNL seems to be playing catch-up with its audience.
The success of Saturday Night Live is rooted in several elements: self-deprecating humor, jokes that are rooted in today’s issues, and recurring skits. Bill Hader’s episode had all of these elements, and by all means should have been a hit. His opening monologue centered on the song “Don’t Make Me Sing”, a reference to a classic skit with Kristen Wiig in which she steals the spotlight while encouraged by no one. Hader’s monologue reverses roles, and she joins him on stage and urges him to sing, and when he does, it is a quite terrible and tone deaf imitation of a song, yet still garners applause. This opening echoed Charlize Theron’s monologue song “I Can’t Sing,” which, coincidentally, was the other episode that equaled the lowest rating of all the SNL episodes.
One notable skit that made the Huffington Post (which normally does not acknowledge SNL except for the discontinued SNL scorecard) in a good way, was the skit “39 Cents.” This skit, a mock commercial, centers around Bill Hader’s character ‘Charles Daniels’ walking around an unnamed African country asking the audience to donate just 39 cents a day to help improve the poor African way of life. At this point, people behind him start to wonder who he is, and just how 39 cents a day will qualitatively improve their way of life, and if he can even name what country he is in (spoiler alert: he can’t).The awkwardness is humorous, but the message is still poignant: where does the amount ‘39 cents’ come from, and does this create a culture of dependence or subtle imperialism? Like other skits, this serves to bring up modern issues without telling the audience what to think, and leaves them to consider and appreciate these issues. Check out the article on Huffington Post here.
Even the rebirth of hit characters, such as Herb Welch, the elderly reporter whose main shtick is hitting interviewees with his microphone and being hopelessly out of touch with the issues of today, did not resonate enough to bring up ratings. Although it did draw cheers as audience members recalled the familiar skit, it also reflected the veiled truth that perhaps SNL is not as in touch with it’s audience members today as it once was. Specifically, the age group 18–49, which was the category that rated this episode as one of the lowest.
One character that was revived and met with thunderous applause was the classic ‘Weekend Update’ guest ‘Stefon,’ who always knows the hottest places to go in New York and also is casually in love with the ex host of Weekend Update, Seth Meyers. Stefon, the quirky and lovable homosexual who had a hard time keeping a straight face on camera, speaks to the acting prowess of Bill Hader. Although Hader is naturally shy person, when he steps into the role of Stefon, he is able to channel a bizarre yet familiar persona, that has even inspired some of his bolder fans to publicly announce their love (or lust) for him. On Conan O’Brien, he retold the story of a time a fan came up to him on the street and told him he wanted to copulate with Stefon, while Hader held onto his one-year-old daughter. This is, no doubt, the kind of gusto SNL was going for when bringing back Bill Hader to host, and the yet the ratings did not reflect this enthusiasm.
Perhaps Bill Hader was meant for bigger and brighter roles, such as his role in his newest movie, co-starring ex-SNL regular Kristen Wiig, ‘The Skeleton Twins.’ Their roles as brother and sister displayed a vastly different dimension to the respective actor and actress. Whereas on SNL they were goofy and bizarre, inducing laughs and face-palming giggling, on ‘The Skeleton Twins.’ they portrayed more serious and true to life roles. Even garnering a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes , the notoriously brutal movie rater, demonstrated that Hader and Wiig could evoke both laughs and tears from audience members.
So where next for SNL and Bill Hader? Will their paths converge, or perhaps the more apropos question, should they? 40 tumultuous seasons in, Saturday Night Live may have to try new tactics to draw in new audiences such as infusing their cast with new talent that can capture the spotlight, or simply relegate to second rate ratings. And Hader? The multi-faceted actor has many options, and like so many others will have to balance acting and fatherhood, but has a promising career with a hilarious past and unknown future. One thing I know for a fact is that yours truly would like to see him continue to expand his repertoire and act in as many roles as he can.
