Class vs. Laughs

At the risk of offending every comedy-buff in existence....

MadTV > SNL.

I believe this whole-heartedly. MadTV is funnier, and better than SNL.

Now, before you fall over and have a coronary, please hear me out.

I understand the classy appeal of all things SNL, and even have an incorruptible appreciation for it's history. Once in awhile it's still possible to catch a note-worthy, chuckle-inducing sketch, but the truth is (in my opinion) that SNL started to slide on a slippery slope shortly after Jimmy Fallon left. How's that for a tongue-twister?

The way MadTV borders on impropriety and incoporates so many risqué themes may prove to be a little much for some tastes. Surely it's more rough around the edges than SNL has ever been. If MadTV and SNL were men, MadTV would be the rugged forestry officer with a 3 o'clock shadow and drinking a beer, while SNL would be the clean-cut, clean-shaven, Armani-donning, grey poupon-eating, analyst from Wall Street.

Lately it seems that when I watch SNL I'm always left scratching my head at the end of certain sketches, thinking: who, who could possibly have thought that this would generate laughs? It's quite comparable to watching the downfall of Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan, seeing them spiral out of control.

Except for the political sketches (such as the brilliance that was last night's Sarah Palin portrayal by the amazing Tina Fey), which are about the only decent sketches they're producing these days, I feel a sense of sadness as I watch the incorporation of similar kinds of cheap humor that Ricky Gervais was trying to combat in Extras.

MadTV, on the other hand, remains creative, innovative, intelligently ridiculous and just plain awesome.

It's hard for me to let go of SNL for many of the aforementioned reasons. The truth is, though, it's all about the laughter. If I had a laugh-o-meter (perhaps something resembling the one in Monsters Inc.) there's no question what an experiment of SNL vs. MadTV would show.

So, basically, it's simple:

You want more class ----> watch SNL. You want more laughs ----> watch MadTV.

VS.