SNL UK: Flawed, yet promising

Saturday Night Live UK has taken its spin on the US format these past few weeks, delivering a live sketch-show that, while a welcome change of pace for the UK comedy scene, offers only mixed results.

Airing on Sky 1 every Saturday at 10:00pm, SNL UK follows in the footsteps of its Atlantic predecessor, starring a celebrity host and accompanied by a cast of homegrown, upcoming comics in both live and pre-recorded sketches. In addition, it invites two musical performances by a different band each week. However, of the three out of eight episodes aired thus far, has SNL UK succeeded in asserting itself upon the British comedy scene?

The best way to assess SNL UK’s success would be in its sketches. Like the US version, SNL UK’s sketches are very hit-and-miss. Some standout ones however include: ‘British-themed pub,’ a rap about how Brits in Spain only go, ironically, to British places; ‘the Last Supper,’ where David Attenborough resurrects some of Britain’s most iconic figures, like Churchill and Princess Diana, for a meal that soon descends into chaos; ‘Operation: A Party Game With A Problem,’ was also quite good, starring the week 3 host Riz Ahmed as he descends into madness trying to successfully win a game of Operation.

Still, many of the sketches fail to reach these stronger moments. This is to be expected and is well-bred into the SNL formula generally. Nevertheless, the sketches of SNL UK fall victim to consistent issues that, if unaddressed, are likely to prevent the show’s survival past its assigned eight-episode run.

The core of these issues are runtime and length. Most of the sketches (even the standout ones), drag their ideas out as far as they can stretch them. This, at times, agonising length is seen in sketches like ‘Hostage,’ where Jamie Dorman and a woman he has kidnapped act like giddy schoolgirls. This bit uses the same idea, of Dorman and the hostage acting like BFFs, for a painful five and a half minutes when the jokes are already drained within the first thirty seconds.

Another problem with the show’s sketches, albeit less pressing, is their tendency to poke their supposedly sharp satire at targets already easy to make fun of. This somewhat lacking degree of satirical originality is particularly evident in the show’s references to Prince Andrew, who is mentioned at least once in each episode thus far. There is no one easier to make fun of in contemporary British politics than the former Duke of York. Peter Mandelson is another common target in the political ‘satire’ sketches and the news-like weekly roundups, hosted by Ania Magliano and Paddy Young. It’s not that SNL does not give these sexually exploitative and predatory men their adequate dose of criticism, but more so that it seems to prefer to criticise easy targets, like Andrew, Mandelson, and Trump, with a lacking sharpness or bite that is unable to add anything new to the conversation, except a laugh or two at their actions. Perhaps that is enough, and one should not expect cutting edge political commentary from a new comedy sketch show!

However, under the curtain of doom and gloom presented so far, there are many promising aspects of SNL UK, asides from the standout sketches mentioned previously.

For one, the musical performances have been excellent. Wet Leg and Wolf Alice (sorry Kasabian) in particular were great. ‘Leaning Against the Wall’ by Wolf Alice, and ‘Mangetout’ by Wet Leg were personal favourites. The use of more indie bands by SNL UK is a good way to provide such bands with enhanced exposure, as well as a way for the show to cement itself as a grittier alternative to SNL US (reinforced further by the UK version’s post-watershed profanity).

In other compliments to SNL UK, the hosts have been generally good. The opening monologues can have their flat moments, but this is an issue with the US version as well. So far, we’ve had Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, and Riz Ahmed, each bringing a welcome and unique flair to their respective weeks. Tina Fey did an exceptional job of starting the SNL UK run, with her monologue actually lacking the usual dullness; Dorman brought an individual, although rather self-indulgent charm, into each of his appearances; and Riz Ahmed practically turned into a new person in each of his sketches.

SNL UK may not be perfect, or even consistently all that funny. Still, it is certainly entertaining, even if some of the sketches make my skin crawl and cringe as they continue to drag out an unfunny idea, and with some of the political satire feeling more like a dull stone than a sharp razor. However, each episode holds at least several instances of promise for its future which, honestly, I hope it has.

★★★½