It's probably because I'm a little bit high, but I just had a spiritual experience. I'm watching Season 20 of SNL, which is arguably the worst season after the Weird Year. Right off the bat, you can feel the tension: sketches don't seem to work between the new players and the veterans, including the "Bad Boys of SNL.;" the vibe is off. The writing is weaker than usual. There's a lot going on, and it shows. SNL is at its best when the ensemble flows as well as the crew has to be in order to put on a live 90-minute show every week. Apparently, there was a lot of drama backstage, as you can read in this 1995 New York Magazine article.
One of the few bright spots is Norm MacDonald who I could watch eating a cheese sandwich and find it entertaining. Also? Can we talk about just how HOT the young Norm actually is? Woof. Anyway. I will say that for a long time, I was decidedly not a fan of his humor. I loved his voice acting since I'm a fan of Seth MacFarlane, a frequent collaborator with MacDonald. But whenever Soren would try to get me to watch his standup, I never found it funny. But he was obsessed. There was a period of time after he died where Soren would listen to hour-long marathons of Norm MacDonald to fall asleep. I couldn't get into it. I thought it was too mean. There was definitely a gap in generations there, but my aversion ran deeper than that. And, as you can probably guess from my outburst of affection above, it was misaligned. I have obviously been won over to his charm.
A piece of "fake news" that Norm reported on was the Shroud of Turin, another mystery that has alluded me for years. My father-in-law was obsessed. He had a six-foot framed replica above the door to his office. He would give lectures at the parish and in the community. I have a healthy skepticism of most empirical studies "supporting" mystical phenomena. I could never really see Jesus' face the way some of my more devout brothers and sisters do. Until now. As I was "getting it," I could also see it.
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