Afternoon Delights: ‘Mr. Westerberg’
Saturday Night Live is a cultural institution that has always been seen as something it’s not. Each new season (or batch of players) usually prompts scathing editorials about how it’s no longer funny or it doesn’t pack the same punch it used to and on and on. But then suddenly there’s a critical re-evaluation down the line and one of those episodes from a “Saturday Night Dead” is a legit classic that helped launch the career of some comedy powerhouse.
There’s a theory that whatever Saturday Night Live cast was on when you were between 16-21 years old is the “best” in your opinion, and forms how you think of the show. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that people hated some of the seasons that I found bizarre and entertaining. There’s also a common criticism that SNL pulls punches and is no longer the acerbic political takedown it once was. Which…is bullshit. There was a recurring sketch in the first season whose sole premise was “what if our cast were bees?” Seriously. That’s it. That’s the sketch. (To be fair, it was kept around because NBC hated it and Lorne Michaels was quite the little imp then!) This is not Voltaire; it’s a funny joke show that had their Bill Clinton bite into Big Macs and Gerald Ford fall down so much he got Chevy Chase addicted to pills.
That being said, there have been noticeable declines in various aspects (seriously - why is the sound for the live music always awful? They’ve only had 46 years to figure that out). But one element that has curiously changed is the pre-taped segments growing in strength and number. This probably started around when Adam McKay used to make a handful with Ferrell and others, then blossomed with The Lonely Island’s time at the show (and the simultaneous beginnings of videos going ‘viral’), but has now become one of the more consistent aspects where absurd comedy, good direction, thought out camera work/blocking, and actual endings are the rule and not the exception (like in the live skits).
One of my favorites is from a May 2015 episode of Saturday Night Live with Reese Witherspoon hosting. Simply titled “Mr. Westerberg”, it features co-workers at a greeting card company mocking their boss as something far darker begins to emerge. It features Witherspoon, Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer, Beck Bennett, Pete Davidson, and Bobby Moynihan. And it was written by Tim Robinson, Zach Kanin, and Michael Che. Enjoy!