You rarely see British sketch comedy on TV. In fact, British comedy is so rarely shown on television that the genre has been deemed “in crisis” in recent years. So it would have been natural to think that the launch of Saturday Night Live UK, directed by legendary executive producer Lorne Michaels and investing heavily in a new generation of acting and writing talent, would be welcomed with open arms by Brits. right? right? !
question. Have you ever met a British person?
In fact, so much cynicism was being shared among UK viewers online in the run-up to Saturday’s first episode of Sky One that it felt like a Danny Boyle Opening Ceremony-level transformation was needed to make it work. The upcoming promotion certainly didn’t do “SNL UK” any favors. A nondescript skit in which host Tina Fey pretends to be Mary Poppins. The new players pose for a photo next to a bus stop in London. An underground ad featuring baked beans on toast with the show’s contents written on it. All of this together gave the impression that “SNL UK” was an American tourist’s idea of British comedy, rather than a reflection of the current state of British comedy. The eight-episode telecast is like taking a photo in the phone booth next to Big Ben before dining at Angus Steakhouse.
Thankfully, “Saturday Night Live UK” largely stuck to the basics of the American version’s success: comedy skits, rotating guest hosts, and the unpredictability of live broadcasts, and left it to the Brits. It works there. The sketch, overseen by former “Late Late Show with James Corden” producer James Longman, is darker, more surreal, and more deadpan comedy than the U.S. version. Even if all the sketches themselves didn’t work (hey, they kept that feature too), you’ll have enough one-liners to keep working and try the next sketch.
“I’m David Attenborough…soon,” joked George Fouracres, dressed as the legendary British broadcaster. This was just minutes after he told the spineless Keir Starmer: “I’ll do anything, I’ll try anything, I’ll do anything but just stand firm.” Paddy Young and Ania Mariano made the perfect comment about influencers fleeing Dubai during the legendary parody headlines segment Weekend Update, with Young joking: “But I have to stress, it’s not all good news.” Hamed Animashaun also shared his incisive thoughts on movie junkets with a painfully enthusiastic influencer interviewer.
The US version launched the careers of Bill Murray, Maya Rudolph, and Will Ferrell, and the UK version may also have big-name cast members. Jack Shepp seems like a player to watch, pulling off an impression of Princess Diana so well that even when the sketch itself didn’t work, it didn’t bother me. Within minutes, he appeared in another body as a dancing baby fetus. I didn’t know what it was, but thanks to Jack I didn’t care.
The weakest part of “SNL UK” is, well, the “Saturday Night Live” part. Although Fey promised at the top that she would not interfere with the new British cast, she has since participated in nearly every sketch. She’s amazing, I mean literally Tina Fey. But with so much presence and so many lines, we get to know fewer new British players, who are the reason we should be paying attention to this in the first place.
The monologue at the beginning of the show was also made up of the typical American shock that on British TV, you can say swear words like “shithole” and “bollocks,” but on the American version, you can’t, even though it airs late at night. Michael Cera then made a surprise cameo just to say “fuck you” and “bollocks.” Hardly revolutionary. Have you met us? By the time Graham Norton took to the stage, followed by Fay and Norton reciting British catchphrases and ending with them both shouting out the advertisements for “auto glass repair” and “auto glass replacement,” you were left wondering why Norton hadn’t been confirmed as a guest host, despite being such a familiar presence here.
I think this gets to the heart of the problem with “SNL UK”. “Who the hell is this for?” The set was American, the pacing of some of the skits was American, and the fact that it lasted nearly 75 minutes (British audiences are usually tired of loving comedy so no more than 60 minutes) feels terribly American. Sometimes watching this feels like visiting a branch of Five Guys. It’s good, but it’s different from what we eat in America. If this show was just meant to praise an American show that the majority of Brits have never seen before, save for a few viral clips, then it would be a total dud after the initial hype died down. Still, there’s hope if you allow yourself to find your feet confidently before something more British and essentially surreal, like a Cilla Black impression or William Shakespeare showing up on a beeping stolen lime bike and saying, “Pretty little earrings.”
And with an astonishing lack of both comedy and music on British television, promoting it as one of the only places to watch live comedy and music all at once could be a winner.
It’s a British comedy after all.
