dear saturday night live

watching a group of actors (neil patrick harris and the snl cast, on tonight's show) lampoon another group of actors for...uh...being unemployed – while show after show is closing on broadway – really isn't all that funny.

see, while you guys (actors and comics who are getting paid) make fun of those folks in phantom or wicked (p.s. snl, annie, cats, fiddler, music man all haven't been on broadway in years) the actors who were employed in shows like hairspray, gypsy, grease, young frankenstein, rent, spring awakening, legally blonde, chorus line, spamalot, all my sons, speed the plow, and boeing-boeing will all be looking for work soon. their health insurance could eventually run out, and so could their savings.

it'd be like the group of factory workers who got to keep their jobs, mocking the guys who got laid off – those guys who are wondering how they're gonna support their families, buy medicine for their kids, put food on the table.

now that's funny.

UPDATE 1/11/09 - 1:02 a.m. – wow snl, you're on a roll! on the same program you were able to be incredibly insensitive to actors and romanians. offering poor (stupid?) romanian villagers a whopper taste test, and then laughing while they tell the spokesman that two burgers could feed their village for days? funny! (btw, romania is often referred to as the poorhouse of europe – nearly 14% of romanians live below the poverty level. you guys sure know comedy.)

UPDATE 1/11/09 - 11:20 p.m. – about the "save broadway" sketch, reader katie reminds us that it's not just the actors who suffer when a show closes:

"what most (well, a lot of) people don't get is it's not just the highfalutin' actors (present company excepted, of course) but the ushers, and the stage managers, and the musicians, and the bartenders, and the tchotchke sellers and the cabbies and the restaurants and the hotels...and on and on."

yes. let's hear it for the tchotchke sellers. angie is worried about there being something to see:

"we're taking another group of theater students to new york this summer again to, uh...see shows. we hope there will be some!"

and leslie sums it up for the snl cast quite succinctly:

"one word: karma."

better late than never

i'm not sellin' cars, okay?

it's late.

i wanted to post something deniro, to help explain to those who don't understand exactly why my arm hairs stood at attention the other night.

raging bull, i thought. ("whadya doin? i just said don't overcook it, you're overcookin' it, bring it over. bring it over. it's like a piece a charcoal bring it over here!!!")

no. taxi driver. of course. ("look, can i see you again? no, i don't mean like that, i mean regularly -- this is nothing for a person to do.")

wait, what about new york, new york? not the most popular, but still one of my favorites. ("let's forget it, that's what i said. no, that's what I said. i said it -- i forgot it already.")

but then there's the deer hunter. the scene i wanted to post from the deer hunter was the second russian roulette scene, and if you haven't seen the movie...well you should see the movie. i first saw it with my friend ross rothmeier when we were in high school -- just about old enough to enlist, or be drafted -- if the situation ever arose. in a year or two i would register, at least.

as we drove away from the theater we both were nauseous. "i never, ever want to go to war, " i remember saying to ross. "i never want to go through that." i was embarrased to say it. ashamed. as though it made me less of a man, less of a person. ross said he didn't ever want to go either.

if you have seen the deer hunter, this may remind you of how powerful it, and deniro, is.

and after you've watched all those clips, here's something short and sweet and to the point. something i'd not seen. something worthy of 1:30 a.m. on a sunday night / monday morning.