Weekend Update (sketch)
Weekend Update is a regular comedy sketch performed on the television series Saturday Night Live.
Typically scheduled after the first musical performance of the guest music act, the action consists of a mock newsroom with one or two of the players in the role of news anchor, telling jokes based on current events.
In between stories, various other SNL cast members and guests give humorous and sometimes bizarre editorials, commentaries, or other performances.
The segment gained a sharper political satire focus during the six-year anchorship of acerbic comedian Dennis Miller; he was followed by the more affable Kevin Nealon.
Nealon's successor, Norm McDonald, had a three-year stint as anchor which is regarded by many fans as perhaps the best in the segment's history. His mordant, deapan style was ideally suited to the segment and he introduced many hilarious recurring items and catchphrases, including his repeated references to the Germans and their love of Baywatch star David Hasselhof, regular jokes about the poor job status of 'crack whores' and some very audacious comedic attacks on public figures such as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson.
Throughout the infamous OJ trial, MacDonald constantly pilloried the former football star and repeatedly suggested that Simpson was guilty of the brutal slaying of his wife Nicole.
In another particularly notorious item ca. 1995, MacDonald attacked Michael Jackson (a favourite SNL target) during a report about the singer's recent collapse and hospitalisation. Referring to a report of how Jackson had decorated his hospital room with giant photographs of Shirley Temple, Norm stated that: " .. in case viewers are confused, we'd like to remind you that Michael Jackson is in fact a homosexual pedophile". The outrageous joke elicited audible gasps of disbelief from some audience members.
McDonald's time with SNL ended controversially in 1997 when he was sacked from the show at the behest of an NBC senior executive, who reportedly pressured the producers to remove him, claiming that MacDonald was "not funny" -- despite clear evidence to the contrary in his rapturous weekly reception by the SNL live audience. It later transpired that the executive was a close personal friend of former footballer and then murder suspect OJ Simpson. Simpson had been a regular target of MacDonald's withering satire, with Norm constantly suggesting that he was guilty of the killing of his wife Nicole.
MacDonald was replaced by friend and cast member Colin Quinn, but Norm proved a hard act to follow and Quinn's tenure was short. Quinn was replaced by a duo, the first for nearly 20 years, and the current team of Tina Fey (who is also the segment's head writer) and Jimmy Fallon has proved extremely popular.
Weekend Update anchors
See also
