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Ariana Baio
Oct 22, 2022
SNL's TikTok sketch is a perfect representation of the 'for you' page
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When Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live in 2021, people deemed it the cringiest episode ever because they felt the writers tried too hard to appeal to younger people.
The episode featured a notoriously bad Gen Z hospital sketch filled with strange variations of trending words out of context. It was a clear attempt at the show to garner younger viewers but it missed the mark.
Since then, the show has done its best to refine its humor to more subtly mimic Gen Z's unique internet humor.
But the more effort the show puts in to seem cool and funny to younger people, the less Gen Z seems to enjoy it.
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And they have TikTok to thank for that.
\u201cTikTok is top-tier sketch comedy and that\u2019s why no one likes SNL anymore\u201d— Julia Scott (she/her/they) (@Julia Scott (she/her/they)) 1666335405
For many young people, it doesn't make a lot of sense to turn on the television at 11 pm on a Saturday (assuming you have cable) to watch funny sketches when you have access to them freely at your fingertips.
TikTok has revolutionized sketch comedy.
It forces comics to fight for viewers' attention with short videos that perfectly encapsulate Gen Z humor. But mimicking the style of funny, random videos on the app isn't easy on a live television show.
\u201c@nbcsnl Is SNL just a tiktok amateur hour now?\u201d— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@Saturday Night Live - SNL) 1665934200
The show has taken inspiration directly from the popular video-sharing app.
People have noticed musical guests and hosts are younger and popular on TikTok- like Jack Harlow, Lizzo, Miles Teller, Willow, and Megan Thee Stallion.
Random jokes from the app are sometimes thrown into sketches, the monologue, or Weekend Update. Last season, Chloe Fineman dressed up as Elmo to talk about her "beef" with Rocco on Weekend Update after the sound went viral on the app.
"Elmo vs. Rocco was funny until SNL ruined it," a Twitter user wrote, gaining 20k likes.
"Lol people for real stopped talking about Elmo and Rocco the second SNL did a parody of it. SNL has become a comedy killer," another person tweeted.
\u201cI swear SNL has gone full blown catering to gen z. The try guys sketch and the \u201cmodern\u201d logo change and now this too, like yeah they gotta do what they can to survive on tv but atp random people on tiktok and YouTube have become funnier now than any sketch will ever be\u201d— Ian (@Ian) 1665895441
From trying to poke fun at the recent Try Guys drama and failing to jumping in on the BeReal memes weeks after it went viral - the show is trying hard to remain relevant with young people. But 15 - 60 second TikTok humor doesn't seem to translate well in 3-7 minute sketches.
\u201cIn case anyone wanted to see an actually funny version of that dumbass snl \u201cgen z\u201d skit\u201d— mimi\u2728 (@mimi\u2728) 1620596606
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