SNL aims at late night tv war - did it miss the mark?

Last night, Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) turned its lethal pen on NBC’s catastrophic mismanagement of its late night talk show lineup.  The skit, involves a Larry King Live (@kingsthings) segment with Larry King (played by Fred Armisen) interviewing a befuddled and cornballish Jay Leno in head-to-toe denim (hot!) (played by Darrell Hammond) and an uninspired, bored-looking Conan (played by talented Bill Hader).  Also making an appearance in the skit is a hyper-giddy David Letterman (played by Jason Sudeikis).

Meh.

All in all, this skit offered very little commentary and even less laughs (compared to what they could have done).  The writers (talented though they are) were handed ample ammunition — from talk show hosts and celebrities rallying to Conan’s side and denouncing Leno as Douche of the Decade, to the tremendous outpouring of hatred towards NBC in social media, to the comments and jokes by Leno and Conan themselves during their monologues this week where they made countless snipping comments at NBC and each other.  There was far to much material propagated in the media this week to have come up with a Larry King interview where fake Conan sits (mummified) and fake Leno cracks a few corny jokes.  The situation calls for acidic and ruthless analysis by SNL — this was far too tame and polite (after all, we’re dealing with NBC here — they’re begging to be eviscerated).

Am I being too harsh –  did the writers hit a home run?

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