Last year's Jack Black (w/ "Lazy Sunday") xmas SNL show was re-aired this week. I'm a sucker for JB, so I left it on. There was a skit (and yes, i know the word "skit" is offensive to "sketch comedy" writers, and that's exactly why I'm using it) that centered around a family sitting at a pizza place next to the door.

Ok, here's the joke: it's windy and cold, and when the door opens, the wind blows. Get it? You sure you don't need me to repeat it 6 times? B/c SNL didn't trust their audience to get it right away, so they had to keep running the same joke until they got to the punchline.

Sadly, this is what I think happened in the writing meeting. Someone came up with the idea, which is moderately clever (or, at the very least, has a "yeah, I can relate to that, it's cold when you sit by the door) and probably even had the climax (the wind blows so hard that the old grandmother gets blown in the air and then comes crashing down) thought out. But, that's a 30 second skit, not a 3 minute one. So they had to add filler. And the filler is what ruined the bit.

Door opens once to set up the bit.

Door opens a second time with nothing funny added.

JB tries to switch seats, but gets outraced to the open table by a homeless guy. completely irrelevant.

Door opens a third time, nothing funny added.

Pizza comes, but door opens a fourth time, and the pizza gets blown in the waiters face. This wasn't funny at all, but at least it was an attempt to add to the joke.

Door opens a 5th time, and the grandmother flies away, only to have a dummy come crashing down. Sort of funny, in a non funny kind of way. I mean, at least i could tell that was the punchline of the skit.

The middle part has to go. I don't care if SNL needs to have 100 writers on its staff and 50 sets ready to go in the studio. It HAS to stop stretching 1 joke skits into 3 minutes. It's too painful. Just plow through non stop small gags. Hit or miss, but then move on.