Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life by Steven Hyden

Author:Steven Hyden [Hyden, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2016-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Competing with Yourself and Losing

(Roger Waters vs. the Rest of Pink Floyd)

When asked what my favorite TV show is, I always say Saturday Night Live, even though I know this answer is likely to start an argument with the sort of person who cares what your favorite TV show is. Since 1980, when Lorne Michaels and the original cast left and the show was taken over by infamously ill-equipped replacements, including executive producer Jean Doumanian and “stars” Charles Rocket and Denny Dillon, it has been fashionable for intelligent, television-savvy individuals to dismiss SNL as terrible. (This is another example of a Default Smart Opinion.) To be fair, there have been many times in the past thirty-five or so years when those intelligent, television-savvy individuals were absolutely right. Nevertheless, the conversation about whether SNL happens to suck at this very moment is boring. I’m not interested in attempting to prove that Kate McKinnon is as valid as Gilda Radner, because it has nothing to do with why I’ve remained loyal.

What I love about Saturday Night Live—more than any cast member or recurring character—is the format, which never changes and is helpfully stated right in the title. Saturday Night Live airs on Saturday night, and it is live. That is all the information you need to know going in. There are other aspects of the SNL formula that go beyond the brand name: the cold open that ends with “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”; the monologue; the first musical performance, which takes place before “Weekend Update”; the second musical performance, which takes place before the weird “10-to-1” sketch. Ultimately, I appreciate both the consistency with which SNL is delivered—always on the same day of the week, and never via prerecorded video (commercial parodies and Digital Shorts aside)—and the consistency with which it is crafted: the product is always the same, no matter who happens to be making it. I like this because it re-creates a familiar experience that has resonated with me in the past, and I want to continue experiencing it.

I love SNL for the same reason I love the NFL. It doesn’t matter if my team, the Green Bay Packers, has a great season or a bad season. I won’t stop watching because I happen to think the current crop of Packers isn’t as talented as the Packers from ten, twenty, or forty years ago. I would never argue that the NFL should pack it in for the good of its legacy because the most recent Super Bowl was unsatisfying.

When I watch professional football I am first and foremost enjoying the ritual of watching football. This is an uncomfortable truth that sportswriters who write columns criticizing the public for not caring more about concussions in football (or steroids in baseball) will never understand. They’re focused too much on the sanctity of the game (or the good of society) and not on what actually draws people to sports. Sports fans want stuff to do. We want to watch

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