Saturday Night News with Brad Hall

Underwhelming (and comparatively long) news segment this week; Hall's best joke didn't get much response (a photo-based gag, yes, but I liked the twist that he failed the test), and most of his other jokes were forgettable, aside from him dismissing Reagan's speech about how the economy was better as a fairy tale. Julia Louis-Dreyfus debuts her complaining teenager character Patti-Lynn Hunnsacker to comment on the new "squeal law" (where Title X-supported family planning clinics would be required to notify parents of minors who seek their services; this was withdrawn after two federal courts struck it down). Aside from the cheers she got from declaring she was sexually active, the character is mostly a vehicle for weak jokes (and one about Roman Polanski), and it seems like an example of the writers not knowing what to do with Louis-Dreyfus. Mary Gross is spittin' mad again, this time about the federal budget, and thinks a lot of cuts need to be made to federal departments; this was weaker than usual. Her list actually sounds like something that austerity-happy Tea Partiers would try to implement. Dr. Jack Badofsky (Tim Kazurinsky) explains different types of suicide; he seems to embrace the awfulness of some of the puns and starting to break character as the audience groans at one line. Best one: Cock-a-doodle-doo-icide (when impotent roosters kill themselves). The little anti-suicide bit at the beginning felt tacked on.

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