You Now Have the Only SNL Podcast You'll Ever Need
You Now Have the Only SNL Podcast You'll Ever Need
'Wasn't That Special' will track the show from season one through season 50
If you know me well, you know that one of my favorite things to talk about is Saturday Night Live. I was only two years old when the show started, and I can’t remember any point of my sentient life that I wasn’t a fan. I have written about the show over and over, produced a book proposal about the history of politics on SNL, and even gave a college class lecture on the history of how the “Weekend Update” segment changed the way we look at comedy.
That is why, after nearly two years of work (many hours of which cut into writing here), I’m excited to announce the creation of a new podcast that will cover SNL from the first season to the 50th, which occurs two years from now.
The show is called Wasn’t That Special, and on it, me and my cohost, Scot Bertram, will spend each episode covering a single season of SNL. We will tell you what the best and worst sketches were, who the strongest and weakest performers and hosts were, and exhume some of the sketches time may have forgot. We will do so with years of research under our belts, so few stones will be left uncovered.
As we note in the show’s first post, the podcast will serve a few important causes. For one, it will exhume some of the names of comedy legends that have been lost to entertainment history. Remember a few years ago when Gilda’s Club, a charity funding cancer research, changed its name because young people didn’t know who Gilda Radner was anymore? That madness has to stop.
Further, we seek to settle a whole host of arguments. What cast or season was the best? What are the top sketches of all time? Are there bits that went unnoticed at the time that deserved much more notoriety?
We are going to settle all these questions. Each episode is going to have a general discussion of the show and its themes. Then we will start giving out awards for each season - Most Valuable Player, Best Sketch, Best Host, Sketch that Couldn’t Be Done Today, Sketch That Could Be a Movie, and the like. You’ll learn more about the show than you ever knew you could know.
(Side note: the Peacock streaming network currently has all the SNL episodes available, but dedicated show watchers know those versions are dramatically edited due to the show being unable to clear music rights. So some shows are cut down to 20 total minutes because sketches that contain copyrighted material can’t be shown. WE, however, have all the full episodes with the complete roster of sketches. You’re getting the real deal.)
Further, the show will serve as an almanac of the current events that happened in each of the seasons SNL ran. If you want to understand America writ large over the last 50 years, dropping into an old season is a good way to see what was on our minds. The show had an amazing ability to both react to and influence the way we lived. The story of SNL is the story of America, and we are going to bring it to you with intelligence and humor.
When I started proposing this project, I looked around and was shocked at how little SNL-related material there was out there in the podcast world. There are a couple of shows that cover one SNL episode at a time, which will take around 10 years to complete. There are some podcast run by big-time SNL alums, but they aren’t typically focused on the history of the show and are they hesitant to be critical in places the show actually deserved it.
A note on how we are distributing the show - it will be hosted at our website, but also available on Apple and everywhere else you listen to your podcasts. The first few episodes will be free. Then, given all the time and work it takes to put the show on, we will transfer the show to a subscription model. (Scot has his own music podcast which has hundreds of paid subscribers, proof his listeners believe the cost is well worth it.)
Offering it via subscription allows the show to be advertisement-free and allows us to offer perks to those who subscribe at higher amounts. I know most podcasts are free, but we are going to work to really build a community of subscribers that appreciate what we’re doing.
So please join us - it’s gonna be fun! Click the button below to sign up for Wasn’t That Special, take the first couple of episodes for a free spin, and if you like them, stick around to join our community of SNL-heads.
ALSO:
In the most recent National Review magazine, I wrote a piece praising those weekend warriors who go out and crush at sports despite carrying a few extra pounds.
Every town is full of these weekend warriors whose metabolism may have slowed even as their hand–eye coordination has not. They are dads who can attack a softball with the same ferocity they bring to the all-you-can-eat buffet at Golden Corral. Or moms who will smoke you on a tennis court, then celebrate with a box of wine. (The famous “slay then rosé” diet.)
…
But competitive achievement is actually more impressive for the fathletes who look more like the average Joe or Jane and yet still dominate. It is difficult to haul all that extra love around, especially in sports like basketball that require endurance as well as quickness. This is why Zion Williamson, once hailed as a generational athlete like Barkley, has been forced by injury to miss nearly half his career. Joints simply aren’t built to throw 300 pounds around a basketball court.
…
Fathletes achieve athletic glory with a far higher level of difficulty and so deserve greater respect than we give them. Sometimes, more is more.
ALSO:
Some of my other pieces since we last spoke:
Democrats Rail against a Fictional Supreme Court
Gen Z Is the ‘Surveillance Generation’
The Supreme Court Stifles Art
The DOJ Has Given Donald Trump a Gift
Of course, they are all paywalled, but good columns ain’t free!
ALSO: Now that Meta is giving Twitter a run for its money, I have joined its bird site competitor, Threads. You can find me at @cmschneid19.
FINALLY:
Behold the awesomeness of the 1988 Miss Junior America Wisconsin pageant: