I’m still reading Judd Apatow’s massive collection of interviews with comedians, and really liked this back and forth with Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che:
MICHAEL: It’s so passionate on Twitter. But if someone recognizes you on the street, it’s like, “I’m your biggest fan.” Everybody I’ve ever met is my biggest fan and everybody on Twitter thinks I suck and shouldn’t have a job. It’s a strange thing that people do.
JUDD: Twitter’s just this place where the twenty percent who hate what you do will just let you know, and then it feels like eighty percent hate it. I don’t love Spanish rock and roll, but I’m not on the Internet trashing it all day long. People love to debate what works on SNL. In every era of the show, people love to trash it while loving it and watching it. But the audience never seems to understand that the whole show is written in a week and the fun of it is trying to see how many good ones they can uncork.
MICHAEL: I always say that too, when people compare the show to other sketch shows. If we were a taped show that was condensed to a half hour, if we were able to get every perfect shot that we needed with directors, with great comic actors, it would be the best comedy show on TV. But we can’t do that. If our host each week wasn’t a person who has never done comedy before and we didn’t have to write every sketch about them and their ability and skill set, it would be amazing. But that’s not the way the show works – and that what makes it so special.
