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Meeting someone can be complicated when you prefer quiet nights, small circles, and time to think before speaking. But the stories introverted men shared online show that relationships rarely follow one script. Some met their wives through friends who took matters into their own hands, while others found connection at work, in class, or through dating apps. A few stories began with awkward introductions, unexpected conversations, or courage at the right moment. These accounts are funny, touching, and sometimes completely unexpected, showing that finding a partner does not always require becoming the loudest person in the room.

The post 15 Introverts Share How They Met Their Wife appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

The Captain has left the bridge. Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86. With his passing comes the opportunity to remember the remarkable body of work that he left behind, including roles on the stage and screen, ranging from genre works like Dune and X-Men to stirring reinterpretations of Ebenezer Scrooge and King […]

The post Patrick Stewart Finally Became a Star Trek Captain in TNG’s First Great Episode appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for Mama Bear. Horror fans’ latest obsession is back with a new short film. Just days before Halloween, Obsession director Curry Barker returned to his original format with Mama Bear, a five-minute short film that once again deals with the supernatural and a cursed relationship. But unlike Obsession, Mama Bear isn’t […]

The post Mama Bear Explained: What Curry Barker’s New Horror Short Is Really About appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

I only ever saw Sir Patrick Stewart once in person. It was on stage at the Cort Theatre in New York City, where he starred opposite his late-in-life best friend Sir Ian McKellen. Rife with humor, but also the crushing existential misery that makes Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot such a challenge, both for performers […]

The post Patrick Stewart: A Man Who Bridged Our Past with the Future appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

eBay Live is expanding into automotive sales while celebrating the history of cars in video games, including titles like the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI. To commemorate this, eBay Live has unveiled its eBay Most Wanted Collection, four cars going up for auction in a livestream hosted by Fast & Furious star and noted automotive […]

The post The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction Celebrates Car Culture in Gaming appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

Another year, another Halloween. And apparently, another party you didn’t prepare for and now you have to scramble to find a proper costume. But if all of the costume shops are sold out, how in the world are you going to find something to wear? You can just go in plain clothes and say you’re portraying a pedestrian, right?

Well, this year at least, we’ve got you covered. These following ideas are sure to aid you on your journey to have a simple yet recognizable costume. A lot of iconic outfits use surprisingly cheap materials, so let’s find you something to wear for that hypothetical party.

The post 15 Cheap Costume Ideas For A Last Minute Halloween appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired. Launched in 1975, SNL took the […]

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.

Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different. 

With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions. 

Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.” 

Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada. 

The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence

When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output. 

Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond). 

While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.

An Era Of Controversy And Competition

From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade. 

High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.

The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.

With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL. 

Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time. 

The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite. 

While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.

With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise. 

While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL. 

Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase

Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL. 

Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison. 

That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.

Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired appeared first on Den of Geek.

In the 1950s, many in the elite running community had begun to believe it wasn’t possible to run a mile in less than four minutes. Runners had been attempting it since the late 19th century and were beginning to draw the conclusion that the human body simply wasn’t built for the task. 

But on May 6, 1956, Roger Bannister took everyone by surprise. It was a cold, wet day in Oxford, England—conditions no one expected to lend themselves to record-setting—and yet Bannister did just that, running a mile in 3:59.4 and becoming the first person in the record books to run a mile in under four minutes. 

This shift in the benchmark had profound effects; the world now knew that the four-minute mile was possible. Bannister’s record lasted only forty-six days, when it was snatched away by Australian runner John Landy. Then a year later, three runners all beat the four-minute barrier together in the same race. Since then, over 1,400 runners have officially run a mile in under four minutes; the current record is 3:43.13, held by Moroccan athlete Hicham El Guerrouj.

We achieve far more when we believe that something is possible, and we will believe it’s possible only when we see someone else has already done it—and as with human running speed, so it is with what we believe are the hard limits for how a website needs to perform.

Establishing standards for a sustainable web

In most major industries, the key metrics of environmental performance are fairly well established, such as miles per gallon for cars or energy per square meter for homes. The tools and methods for calculating those metrics are standardized as well, which keeps everyone on the same page when doing environmental assessments. In the world of websites and apps, however, we aren’t held to any particular environmental standards, and only recently have gained the tools and methods we need to even make an environmental assessment.

The primary goal in sustainable web design is to reduce carbon emissions. However, it’s almost impossible to actually measure the amount of CO₂ produced by a web product. We can’t measure the fumes coming out of the exhaust pipes on our laptops. The emissions of our websites are far away, out of sight and out of mind, coming out of power stations burning coal and gas. We have no way to trace the electrons from a website or app back to the power station where the electricity is being generated and actually know the exact amount of greenhouse gas produced. So what do we do? 

If we can’t measure the actual carbon emissions, then we need to find what we can measure. The primary factors that could be used as indicators of carbon emissions are:

1. Data transfer 
2. Carbon intensity of electricity

Let’s take a look at how we can use these metrics to quantify the energy consumption, and in turn the carbon footprint, of the websites and web apps we create.

Data transfer

Most researchers use kilowatt-hours per gigabyte (kWh/GB) as a metric of energy efficiency when measuring the amount of data transferred over the internet when a website or application is used. This provides a great reference point for energy consumption and carbon emissions. As a rule of thumb, the more data transferred, the more energy used in the data center, telecoms networks, and end user devices.

For web pages, data transfer for a single visit can be most easily estimated by measuring the page weight, meaning the transfer size of the page in kilobytes the first time someone visits the page. It’s fairly easy to measure using the developer tools in any modern web browser. Often your web hosting account will include statistics for the total data transfer of any web application (Fig 2.1).

The nice thing about page weight as a metric is that it allows us to compare the efficiency of web pages on a level playing field without confusing the issue with constantly changing traffic volumes. 

Reducing page weight requires a large scope. By early 2020, the median page weight was 1.97 MB for setups the HTTP Archive classifies as “desktop” and 1.77 MB for “mobile,” with desktop increasing 36 percent since January 2016 and mobile page weights nearly doubling in the same period (Fig 2.2). Roughly half of this data transfer is image files, making images the single biggest source of carbon emissions on the average website. 

History clearly shows us that our web pages can be smaller, if only we set our minds to it. While most technologies become ever more energy efficient, including the underlying technology of the web such as data centers and transmission networks, websites themselves are a technology that becomes less efficient as time goes on.

You might be familiar with the concept of performance budgeting as a way of focusing a project team on creating faster user experiences. For example, we might specify that the website must load in a maximum of one second on a broadband connection and three seconds on a 3G connection. Much like speed limits while driving, performance budgets are upper limits rather than vague suggestions, so the goal should always be to come in under budget.

Designing for fast performance does often lead to reduced data transfer and emissions, but it isn’t always the case. Web performance is often more about the subjective perception of load times than it is about the true efficiency of the underlying system, whereas page weight and transfer size are more objective measures and more reliable benchmarks for sustainable web design. 

We can set a page weight budget in reference to a benchmark of industry averages, using data from sources like HTTP Archive. We can also benchmark page weight against competitors or the old version of the website we’re replacing. For example, we might set a maximum page weight budget as equal to our most efficient competitor, or we could set the benchmark lower to guarantee we are best in class. 

If we want to take it to the next level, then we could also start looking at the transfer size of our web pages for repeat visitors. Although page weight for the first time someone visits is the easiest thing to measure, and easy to compare on a like-for-like basis, we can learn even more if we start looking at transfer size in other scenarios too. For example, visitors who load the same page multiple times will likely have a high percentage of the files cached in their browser, meaning they don’t need to transfer all of the files on subsequent visits. Likewise, a visitor who navigates to new pages on the same website will likely not need to load the full page each time, as some global assets from areas like the header and footer may already be cached in their browser. Measuring transfer size at this next level of detail can help us learn even more about how we can optimize efficiency for users who regularly visit our pages, and enable us to set page weight budgets for additional scenarios beyond the first visit.

Page weight budgets are easy to track throughout a design and development process. Although they don’t actually tell us carbon emission and energy consumption analytics directly, they give us a clear indication of efficiency relative to other websites. And as transfer size is an effective analog for energy consumption, we can actually use it to estimate energy consumption too.

In summary, reduced data transfer translates to energy efficiency, a key factor to reducing carbon emissions of web products. The more efficient our products, the less electricity they use, and the less fossil fuels need to be burned to produce the electricity to power them. But as we’ll see next, since all web products demand some power, it’s important to consider the source of that electricity, too.

Carbon intensity of electricity

Regardless of energy efficiency, the level of pollution caused by digital products depends on the carbon intensity of the energy being used to power them. Carbon intensity is a term used to define the grams of CO₂ produced for every kilowatt-hour of electricity (gCO₂/kWh). This varies widely, with renewable energy sources and nuclear having an extremely low carbon intensity of less than 10 gCO₂/kWh (even when factoring in their construction); whereas fossil fuels have very high carbon intensity of approximately 200–400 gCO₂/kWh. 

Most electricity comes from national or state grids, where energy from a variety of different sources is mixed together with varying levels of carbon intensity. The distributed nature of the internet means that a single user of a website or app might be using energy from multiple different grids simultaneously; a website user in Paris uses electricity from the French national grid to power their home internet and devices, but the website’s data center could be in Dallas, USA, pulling electricity from the Texas grid, while the telecoms networks use energy from everywhere between Dallas and Paris.

We don’t have control over the full energy supply of web services, but we do have some control over where we host our projects. With a data center using a significant proportion of the energy of any website, locating the data center in an area with low carbon energy will tangibly reduce its carbon emissions. Danish startup Tomorrow reports and maps this user-contributed data, and a glance at their map shows how, for example, choosing a data center in France will have significantly lower carbon emissions than a data center in the Netherlands (Fig 2.3).

That said, we don’t want to locate our servers too far away from our users; it takes energy to transmit data through the telecom’s networks, and the further the data travels, the more energy is consumed. Just like food miles, we can think of the distance from the data center to the website’s core user base as “megabyte miles”—and we want it to be as small as possible.

Using the distance itself as a benchmark, we can use website analytics to identify the country, state, or even city where our core user group is located and measure the distance from that location to the data center used by our hosting company. This will be a somewhat fuzzy metric as we don’t know the precise center of mass of our users or the exact location of a data center, but we can at least get a rough idea. 

For example, if a website is hosted in London but the primary user base is on the West Coast of the USA, then we could look up the distance from London to San Francisco, which is 5,300 miles. That’s a long way! We can see that hosting it somewhere in North America, ideally on the West Coast, would significantly reduce the distance and thus the energy used to transmit the data. In addition, locating our servers closer to our visitors helps reduce latency and delivers better user experience, so it’s a win-win.

Converting it back to carbon emissions

If we combine carbon intensity with a calculation for energy consumption, we can calculate the carbon emissions of our websites and apps. A tool my team created does this by measuring the data transfer over the wire when loading a web page, calculating the amount of electricity associated, and then converting that into a figure for CO₂ (Fig 2.4). It also factors in whether or not the web hosting is powered by renewable energy.

If you want to take it to the next level and tailor the data more accurately to the unique aspects of your project, the Energy and Emissions Worksheet accompanying this book shows you how.

With the ability to calculate carbon emissions for our projects, we could actually take a page weight budget one step further and set carbon budgets as well. CO₂ is not a metric commonly used in web projects; we’re more familiar with kilobytes and megabytes, and can fairly easily look at design options and files to assess how big they are. Translating that into carbon adds a layer of abstraction that isn’t as intuitive—but carbon budgets do focus our minds on the primary thing we’re trying to reduce, and support the core objective of sustainable web design: reducing carbon emissions.

Browser Energy

Data transfer might be the simplest and most complete analog for energy consumption in our digital projects, but by giving us one number to represent the energy used in the data center, the telecoms networks, and the end user’s devices, it can’t offer us insights into the efficiency in any specific part of the system.

One part of the system we can look at in more detail is the energy used by end users’ devices. As front-end web technologies become more advanced, the computational load is increasingly moving from the data center to users’ devices, whether they be phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, or even smart TVs. Modern web browsers allow us to implement more complex styling and animation on the fly using CSS and JavaScript. Furthermore, JavaScript libraries such as Angular and React allow us to create applications where the “thinking” work is done partly or entirely in the browser. 

All of these advances are exciting and open up new possibilities for what the web can do to serve society and create positive experiences. However, more computation in the user’s web browser means more energy used by their devices. This has implications not just environmentally, but also for user experience and inclusivity. Applications that put a heavy processing load on the user’s device can inadvertently exclude users with older, slower devices and cause batteries on phones and laptops to drain faster. Furthermore, if we build web applications that require the user to have up-to-date, powerful devices, people throw away old devices much more frequently. This isn’t just bad for the environment, but it puts a disproportionate financial burden on the poorest in society.

In part because the tools are limited, and partly because there are so many different models of devices, it’s difficult to measure website energy consumption on end users’ devices. One tool we do currently have is the Energy Impact monitor inside the developer console of the Safari browser (Fig 2.5).

You know when you load a website and your computer’s cooling fans start spinning so frantically you think it might actually take off? That’s essentially what this tool is measuring. 

It shows us the percentage of CPU used and the duration of CPU usage when loading the web page, and uses these figures to generate an energy impact rating. It doesn’t give us precise data for the amount of electricity used in kilowatts, but the information it does provide can be used to benchmark how efficiently your websites use energy and set targets for improvement.