oh and in other awesome news

[spatch]

My good friend from high school, Noah Smith, has been submitting Weekend Update jokes on spec to SNL for a year-plus now. Last week was the first time he actually got a joke on the air, which means he has now won the SNL game. I admit I haven't been watching Saturday Night Live for quite some time now save for the clips that make their way to YouTube, so I didn't see the Weekend Update in question. But in case you did, this joke was his:

New research shows that women think men with square jaws are good short-term partners, while men with softer, rounder faces are perceived as better long-term mates. In other words, you date Bert, but you marry Ernie.

Good on ya, Noah, and here's to more of your jokes and fewer awkward moments when Colin Quinn berates the audience for not laughing.

(Colin Quinn's still doing Weekend Update, right?)

Comments

[ron_newman]

What fine prizes does Noah win for accomplishing this?

[spatch]

Some financial compensation for one, plus the satisfaction of knowing that a national audience has enjoyed one of his jokes (he already discovered, while ego-surfing for his punchline, that someone on MySpace had already begun using it as a quote in her profile.)

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

Bert had a chin?

[samethreechords.livejournal.com]

I think it's Amy Poehler and Seth Myers. They're not bad. Better than Quinn, anyway.

[luckimunki.livejournal.com]

Anything's better than Quinn, but I miss Tina Fey.

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

Hey, I actually remember seeing that joke! It made me snicker because the first thing I thought of was the Bert/Ernie Brokeback Mountain poster.

Er... maybe I shouldn't've admitted that.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Yay for Noah! Was he also one of the original creators of No Homework Man? I can't remember...

[spatch]

No Homework Man was my creation, but Noah and I collaborated on the Western Mass. Avengers comic book, which featured good ol' NHM and a bunch of other hero pals and copyright infringements, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Republicans and Bratman.

He's now in Southern California with his wife, and he's been writing spec scripts and plays for a while now. He's written a few children's theatre musicals with David Nield (formerly of The Nields) as composer, and a lot of other nifty stuff.

[pecosy.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched SNL in at least 3 years, but yesterday I decided to watch one (thanks tivo) so I saw this joke in action. And here I thought the purpose of my SNL viewing was merely to remind me why I stopped watching altogether. But it turns out it was FATE! Had I not viewed that episode, I wouldn't be posting a comment here right now. Imagine how different the world would be without this comment.

...

Getting a joke on SNL is a very cool accomplishment. Your friend's a PROFESSIONAL COMEDY MAN now!

Thanks everybody

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks to Rob for the mention, and everyone else for the recognition. Now I expect to see you all in your "Date Bert/Marry Ernie" t-shirts, watching "Bert in a Box" and "Lazy Ernie" videos on YouTube.

Now, for a truly shameless plug, if you wanna see some of my jokes that didn't make air, they're at noahsmith.blogspot.com -- I haven't updated in a while because my workplace blocked Blogger, but that should change soon.

Hmm, yeah, I think I came up with some jokes and story ideas for some of Rob's other characters (Captain Ireland, Bratman, etc.) but not much for No Homework Man, though I also suffered through class with the same evil teacher ... though perhaps now it seems like our 9th grade science teacher might have been a better villain.

Oh, wait, I did have NHM standing in as Spider-Man in our planned-but-never-exectued blow-for-blow "Secret Wars" parody. He was going to get a black suit which would eventually merge with a villain and become Mo' Homework Nan, a Venom-esque evil twin.

Hmm ... I'm a lot funnier now than I was in high school.

Noah

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

I saw it air, too -- it went over pretty well!