Anyone who grew up in the 1990's as a junior high or high school student probably watched a lot of Saturday Night Live. Without streaming or YoutTube to later watch on your own time, if you wanted to see Mike Myers, Chris Farley, and Adam Sandler, you had to be home at 11:30pm on Saturday and watch what would become the eventual lunchroom conversation (along with The Simpsons) or risk the earliest form of FOMO. Not every sketch was a homerun, but every week was must see viewing. What SNL did was train us to watch sketches in a certain way, and through the prism of talented writers, producers, and executives, that format became the standard. There's a reason we still remember SNL sketches but nothing from MADtv really made it into the cultural zeitgeist. The only sketch show to come close was In Living Color, but that was so edgy, it was unsustainable to maintain on network TV.
Today, everyone is a creating sketches. But here's the catch. The SNL style is now considered dated by younger generations. The TikTok/IG Reel culture has created a new model. Out are the 5-10 minute long form sketches and in are the 60 second sketches that rack up views and are immediately disposed of after consuming. So I want to look at the three basic forms of sketch writing, because if you are using the SNL structure online, your chances to go viral are DOA. And if you don't have a 6-8 page sketch on file, your chances of getting hired by a showrunner becomes zilch. Stage Sketches Before most of the SNL cast members became household names, many of them were Improv and sketch characters. They honed their craft through performance groups in UCB and Groundlings classes. These types of sketches feed off the energy of the (young) crowd and have a traditional structure where the actors learn lines (often without cue cards) and allow for playful improv. If you watch these sketches on poorly shot video on YouTube today you'll find them rather static and boring. That's because they're meant to be felt, not just watched. It's a humorous experience where actors and writers are learning what works and what doesn't. Sketches on the stage don't make a lot of money, but the purpose is to find a voice in a workshop environment. SNL TV Sketch Here is where we see the classic SNL format play out and influence writers for decades. These multi-camera sketches usually start with a sort of based in reality premise. Then the sketch progressively grows and escalates into a more bizarre ending. Think about the SNL presidential sketches. The candidates walk out like they're going to have a normal debate and then the moderator loses control as more and more nonsense is spewed. Think about Chris Farley's Matt Foley, the man who lives in a van down by the river. The sketch doesn't really get into a big laugh until 2 minutes in! The sketch starts with concerned parents trying to get their kids off pot. Then they set up the joke with the premise they hired a motivational speaker. Then Farley shows up. Then it builds and builds until the family reunites afraid that Foley will live with them. Many would say it's the funniest sketch in SNL history, and they would be right. But today, that sketch wouldn't survive the Reels/TikTok algorithm. This classical long form style might stand the test of time, but it doesn't stand the test of catching a viewer in the first five seconds. The structure is set up-punchline, but through a traditional story narrative. For the millennials and Gen Xers it's the way it's supposed to be, but for the social media generation, it doesn't work. Social Media Sketches That brings us to today's sketches. Today, the hook (premise) can't take two minutes, but instead has to be introduced within the first five seconds. Whether it's Trevor Wallace's famous There's No Laws with White Claws or the current Content Machine's gender/dating videos, the jokes come within seconds, like a funny commercial; and the product is their brand of humor. Trevor's brand of quick hook sketches was a sort of transitional era back in the 2018-2020 era. He started with 4-5 minutes traditional lengths and eventually found a solid sweet spot of shorter sketches. He later converted these characters into the voice of his comedy. It took a few years, but after finding that voice, he has turned himself into one of the top comics in the country. Meanwhile, the Content Machine team has turned the 60-90 second sketch into a clear brand, mocking everything from dating culture to the corporate workplace, mocking the entire Gen Z experience. This quick 60-90 second structure packs a joke every ten seconds. With their rolodex of beautiful female guest stars, these two dudes have become the standard of sharable meme-sketches. Another example of this is @Cherdleys, who portrays a young man dressed like a Mormon, preaching self-righteous messages and putting down women. It's all done in good cheer, but these videos are sometimes just 10 seconds. With a mixture of silly rainbow graphics and fonts, they get thousand's of shares. With over 1 million followers, clearly this is working. Think of SNL as the Albert Brooks, Woody Allen, or Steve Martin type of films and today's new crop as the next group of Airplane! or Naked Gun films - layering the jokes on top of each other. One gets Oscar nominations. The others make millions at the box office. Why This Matters Often I talk to friends who want to create sketches to go viral, and there are a lot of them, but they try for a few months and don't go much further than filming a bunch and then giving up. Views never get past a certain number and they get discouraged. Which is essentially the network TV mindset. Low ratings equals a failure. But that's not how the current algorithm works today. The ratings/views are less important than the amount of content you post. Whereas SNL takes a whole week writing and rewriting sketches, content creators pump out similar style sketches matching certain brands and themes daily. If you want to go viral, the trick is to create quick, disposable, rapid-fire content. It's like a video meme you send to friends and then weeks from now you've forgotten it. In our new world, this is the template. Just keep filming and putting up content. The algorithm will eventually reward you for feeding the machine. Think of Sketches as a Portfolio While going viral is a goal and eventual pathway to other successes, keep in mind that most won't. So it is important to film content you think is funny and you can be proud of. Even if you want to create long form SNL sketches, then just make them as great as you can. You might not build a fan base, but you might be able to show them to showrunners and producers down the road. By having a strong portfolio, you can prove to TV executives that you have the chops to create content, work with talent, write scripts, and film. So don't look at each view as life or death, but look at each individual piece as a bigger part of selling your writing or directing or editing. Final Thoughts Being a comic today means you have to have your hand in a few things beyond stand up. Creating your own web based content is crucial to creating a voice, but so is having a writing example. One thing you'll notice is that the viral social media creators don't always transition to TV. Their brand of comedy works in 30-90 second pieces, but if they try to expand to 30 minute episodes, they can't find the same magic. That's why you must work all the writing muscles. This is why Adam Sandler made it. He was a sketch writer/performer, but also had high concept script writing abilities. He took "sketch" characters like Billy Madison and Bobby Boucher and found a way to put them in full length feature films. If you can't transition to other forums, you will age out of your platform. So just like you should have a 5 minute, a 10 minute, and 20-30 minute tape to send bookers, you need to be creating short and long form sketches and shows to help push your creative boundaries and keep your brand fresh and diverse.
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Paul Douglas Moomjean Blog's About What's on His MindBlogging allows for me to rant when there is no stage in the moment to talk about what's important and/or funny to me. Archives
February 2025
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