I don't envy the writers on SNL for having to write sketches every week. Working in comedy is quietly pretty hard. Creative writing is already a pretty arduous process. The writer's block can be deeply exhausting, to the point where you'll look at your hands in disgust after a while. Then, you add the trick of being clever and funny, not relying on pure spontaneity and faith that the audience will laugh. It's a hell of a tightrope to balance.
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Somehow, SNL has managed to maintain its longevity since 1975. Sure, along the way, there have been tons of duds, particularly in recent memory. Regardless, their format still works in spite of them, a tried and true infrastructure that bred comedic geniuses like Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray. How do they pull it off? Apparently, back in the day, the SNL crew would frequently look at a simple set of guidelines to keep their sketches simple, fresh and funny. Moreover, those guidelines actually stem from old saying in writing country music.
SNL Used to Curb Crucial Country Advice in Writing Their Sketches
Recently, the book Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by author Susan Morrison, chronicling Lorne Micheals' life and career with the show. One section fixates on Jim Downey, a veteran comedy writer, producer, and actor on SNL from 1977-2013. When he was the head of the writing team towards the 80s, he was responsible for helping the show tick. Consequently, other young comics would ask Downey for advice on how to structure their ideas.
The SNL vet had a tried and true method and he centered it around country songwriting legend Harlan Howard's phrase in the '50s. "Failing to get the attention and instruction they craved from Lorne Michaels, the writers looked to Jim Downey, who set the bar high; he always liked to evaluate sketches according to 'degree of difficulty,'" the book reads. "He'd cite the old line about country music - that it was made up of 'three chords and the truth,' and said that a good sketch needed five or six jokes around an interesting and original idea."
In applying that to comedy writing, it's all about your protagonist in the sketch, the arc, and the payoff to the joke. Keeping it to this loose structure allows SNL writers to keep the pace and flow of the show seamless. Clearly, it's worked long enough, in country and comedy alike.
