Saturday Night Live has been on for a whopping 50 years, and just started season 51, while MADtv was only on for 15 seasons. Despite that, I have always much preferred it to SNL.
And, like, huh? SNL has such an amazing legacy. Not only that, but they have so many movies based on sketches that I love – such as The Blues Brothers, which is still one of the best music movies of all time – that it doesn’t make sense. MADtv never got a single movie, and the characters were all stuck on the small screen. What gives?!
Well, be that as it may, I would still much rather watch repeats of MADtv over SNL any day of the week, and I have a number of reasons why. Here are just a few.
Mad TV Always Felt A Lot Grungier And More Low Brow Than SNL, Which I Preferred
Now, let me make this clear. SNL wasn’t always above a cheap gag at somebody else’s expense. I remember when it caught heat for making fun of former New York governor David Paterson’s eyesight. So, they have indeed dipped their toe into poor taste territory.
I’m not saying that I’m pro-mocking disabilities (I’m certainly not), I do like to see comedy be low brow every now and then, and SNL has usually not gone for the low hanging fruit. MADtv, however, was always a lot grungier, shaggier, and low brow on a consistent basis. The cretin in me (especially in my younger years), always found this funnier.
For example, I really loved when Debra Wilson would parody Oprah, which always felt off limits back then. Here was a woman who was always seen as somebody who wanted to help people, and Wilson sometimes made her seem like an absolute monster (So, even though Wilson’s impression is spot-on, I don’t think Oprah would ever want her to star in her long-overdue biopic, if there ever was one).
Similarly, when the R. Kelly scandal broke, they had a fake music video ready almost immediately (I can only imagine how the show would have gone after Diddy if it was still on the air). What I’m saying is, SNL would poke fun at people, but I don’t think they would often do it in a way that could be considered mean-spirited. MADtv would, though. And, even though I know I probably shouldn’t laugh at some of the digs they took, I can’t help what I find funny.
I Always Liked Mad TV’s Cast Over SNL’s
Now, this one might sound absolutely bonkers given the alums who have come from SNL. I’m talking (just to name a few): Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Amy Poehler, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell (who I miss from his Frat Pack Era days). Again, that’s just naming a few.
However, here’s the thing. While I love all of those aforementioned comedians, I still didn’t necessarily like them on SNL. Sure, I enjoyed bits like “Opera Man”, or The Coneheads. But, I much prefer movies like Happy Gilmore, or Dan Aykroyd’s work (as an example) when he did stuff away from the comedy, like Ghostbusters, Trading Places, and a guilty pleasure of mine, Nothing But Trouble (which I should write about someday).
That said, I’ve always preferred MADtv’s cast, even though they were never as big (Well, besides Key and Peele). Like, I’ve never NOT laughed whenever Will Sasso opened his mouth. Or, when Bobby Lee played Connie Chung (even though I’ve heard that he didn’t like doing it). Mo Collins was always hilarious whenever she graced us with her presence, and Michael McDonald probably had the highest rate of laughs throughout most of the series.
I understand the appeal of the various SNL cast members, I just think MADtv had better comedians on a more consistent basis. Though, a lot of that might be because of the various characters that they played, which I’ll get into next.
I Also Preferred The Characters And Parodies
Here’s another one that might sound wrong, but just hear me out. I’m going to be completely honest with you – I do not like a vast majority of the characters from SNL. Yes, I know, I mentioned how I loved The Blues Brothers earlier, and I love fourth-wall-breaking characters like Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World. But, what’s strange is that I never really liked them in bite-sized increments.
I actually think some of these characters were much stronger in movies, and the myriad of other characters just never did it for me whenever one of their sketches would come on. The same goes for the parodies. I don’t care what anybody says, you can’t convince me that Alec Baldwin was ever funny as Trump. Nor did I think Jim Carrey was funny as Biden. We can go back further. I didn’t think Darrell Hammond was funny as Clinton (though I did like Ferrell’s impression of George W, and Dana Carvey did a pretty good HW).
That said, I LOVE MADtv’s characters. Miss Swan, Stuart Larkin (stahhhhp), Bon Qui Qui, The Depressed Persian Tow Truck Man, the list goes on and on. Plus, I even liked their parodies more. Because as much as I liked Ferrell’s George W, I think Frank Caliendo’s was better (and don’t even get me started on his John Madden).
Don’t hate, but I always just found MADtv’s characters to be uproariously funny much more than SNL’s, and it seemed like we’d get more of them since MADtv felt more like a sketch comedy show than SNL, which is my next point.
I Liked That Mad TV Focused More On Sketch Comedy Than Musical Guests Or Stars
Do you want to know what’s sad? Sometimes, I wouldn’t even watch SNL for its comedy. I’d actually just tune in for the monologue, or for the musical guest at the end. In fact, some musical guests have been on SNL multiple times, meaning I might have tuned in multiple times just to see Kanye West perform (back when I was actually a fan of his work).
However, MADtv always seemed to focus more on sketch comedy than anything else. Yes, there would be special guests at times (Like one weird episode where they actually had on Ike Turner, and the actors pretended to be scared of him), but it never seemed like the whole show was centered around one particular guest (as with that godawful episode of SNL where Elon Musk played Wario. Yeesh).
No, when I tuned into MADtv, it was always for the comedy first. This is something that my wife always says, too. She actually likes SNL a lot more than I do, and she still considers it relevant, which I haven’t really thought for quite some time. She says that when MADtv was on, she would switch back and forth between the programs, and would typically laugh more than at SNL, which she merely thought was humorous most of the time.
But, it makes a lot of sense to me because MADtv always just felt like the funnier show. Its sketches were usually better and zanier, which led to a more interesting program overall.
However, what do you think? Did you also prefer MADtv to SNL? I’d love to hear your thoughts.