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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I used to do improv and sketch comedy. Most improve and sketch comedians are okay with breaking when it's organic (like the person really cannot control themselves and is fighting it) and when they usually keep it together and play the scene.

What Jimmy Fallon did when he was on SNL is universally despised in improve/sketch comedy and people will cite Fallon specifically when they tell people not to do this. Fallon broke on purpose because he was hoping it would get him a laugh. It was his bit, like "ah look at me, I can't help it! I'm laughing!" When that is the *main* way you get a lap, it's incredibly cheap. On a show like SNL where people are writing sketches constantly, there are dozens of sketches pitched every week that don't make it to air (they will be cutting sketches all the way up to dress rehearsal so you might work on a sketch all week, have costumes, and do it at dress, and then it gets cut), breaking for a cheap laugh is just lazy.

The breaking in the Ryan Gosling episode was probably absolutely hilarious in the room but I think it was only so-so on screen, at least for me. In several scenes, you'd hear the audience cracking up at someone breaking but it would be off camera, so as a TV audience member you weren't in on the joke. That's alienating. This was worst in the Cyclops sketch, though Ashley Padilla did a really good job bringing it back and keeping it funny. It still wasn't anywhere near as funny on TV as it probably was in person.

But you could tell that the cast was just having a good time, Gosling was really making them laugh with his takes on the sketches, and they couldn't help it. It was just a loose show.

I think the best is when you have one powerhouse comedian who NEVER breaks doing something totally insane and everyone around them is fighting really hard to keep it together but they are just 100% committed to the bit. That's a really fun dynamic to watch. All the greatest SNL cast members have had the ability to do this in the past -- Will Farrell, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Belushi, Phil Hartman, Molly Shannon.

No one on the current cast does this for me right now. I actually think Connor Storrie was better at committing to the bit than much of the current cast last week. He's a real pro, it's actually a shame his career went the way it did because he would have made a good cast member.[/quote]

I would like to know what the cyclops were doing off screen to make everyone break character and laugh.[/quote]

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