Tag Archives: former SNL

The Tragedy of the Never-Was — Another SNL Player is an Embarrassment

Victoria Jackson, a novelty act whose main talent was headstands, has become a full on “birther” and right-wing activist, trying to push her “conservative version of The View” featuring anti-Islamic rants and song, in which she and her cohorts bitch and moan on Youtube about how they are being repressed by the “govment”, as evidenced by their inability to land a prime time network gig.

Dennis Miller another of the more limited alum, turned his nonsensical rants right and became a Fox news blowhard who somewhere along the way, lost the little funny he may have once possessed.

Now, it seems Jon Lovitz, primarily known as the “liar guy” has started ranting about his “50%” tax rate. Poor sap, maybe he needs a better accountant, or maybe he wants us to think he’s doing well enough to have a 50% tax rate, even though such a thing doesn’t exist. He’s also calling the President a “fucking asshole,” having apparently mistaken him for his agent.

A recent article described him as a “former SNL star,” but that’s just wrong.  There is no such a thing as a “former SNL star.” There are stars who were once on SNL and then went on to do brilliant work, these include most (but not all) of the original “not-ready-for-prime-time players,” and many from the following seasons, including Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Robert Downey Jr., Will Farrell, Tina Fay, and dozens more. A few may not have received that level of fame, but have gone on to respectable careers as character actors or theater stars (I’m talking about you, Miss Christine Ebersole).

Then there are all those other not-ready-for-prime-time players who never became ready for prime time, never grew as performers, and for whom SNL represented the pinnacle of their success. The one-notes. Some may have squandered their talents with drugs and alcohol. Others never had much to begin with. While many of them have disappeared gracefully, a few will do anything to get attention. They rant, they whine and they blame others for their failure, including the “govment,” the President, and a public that has ceased to care.