Showcasing some of America’s top comedians, Saturday Night Live has been running across mainstream TV in America since the mid-70s and, as of May 2010, had racked up an impressive 680 shows. Mixing up sketch comedy with live material, Saturday Night Live has helped kickstart the careers of the likes of Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock with these four DVDs picking the best of the bunch.


WILL FERRELL LIVE

Famous for hit Hollywood movies like Wedding Crashers and The Anchorman, The Best Of Will Farrell showcases Ferrell’s natural ability to adapt to fit any role and, even live, deliver a top class performance. From deranged dog trainer Dale Sturtevant to the outrageous TV presenter Harry Caray, Ferrell proves why he is one of the top character-based comedy actors on the circuit and why his movie appearances rarely fail to hit the spot. With guest appearances from the likes of Jeff Goldblum and the animated Jim Carey, The Best Of Will Ferrell, like other sketch based comedy, will have you laughing, crying and grimacing behind your cushion.

CHRIS ROCK LIVE

One of America’s hardest hitting black American comedians, Rock came to Saturday Night Live viewers attention in 1990 when he first appeared on the show. Now a worldwide name, the Chris Rock live show is a fast, furious, relentless view of the world through the eyes of Chris Rock while his sketch-based material is equally as biting. In particular his piss-take of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air actor Will Smith is particularly cutting while the foul-mouthed performance in Russell Simmon’s Def Comedy Jam has the audience on his feet as he snarls “you wanna see a muthafuckin’ rabbit?”. While some of the material on this DVD set does look a little dated now, especially his twist on the American rap scene, there is no doubting why Rock is still one of the biggest names on the American Comedy circuit.

ADAM SANDLER LIVE

Another top Hollywood name, Adam Sandler has been responsible for some great films (Happy Gilmore, Anger Management) and some poor ones (50 First Dates). It comes as no surprise then that his sketch-based comedy on Saturday Night Live is equally as hit and miss. Thankfully though the quality of his sketches lean more towards the positive side with Sandler playing a 27 year old boy scout making up for the cringeworthy Opera singer which has you skipping for the fast forward on the remote control. Even the guest appearances from fellow celebrities like Courtney Cox don’t really add anything to this compilation of sketches which, when all said and done, is a bit of a dissappointment.


EDDIE MURPHY LIVE

Eddie Murphy, the man who gave us the legendary Axel Foley from the equally legendary Beverly Hills Cop movie. I say movie because, like the rest of his film career, the subsequent follow-ups saw the quality dipping dramatically. Live though, Murphy is a whole different kettle of fish as anyone who has seen his legendary Raw live video will testify to. Now, as you will find with most of these Saturday Night Live series, the humour does tend to suffer from being a little dated and while those of us who were there first time around will remember Murphy’s roles with a smile, in 2010 it’s hard to see who this will appeal to as, let’s face it, Murphy isn’t the biggest name in Hollywood these days.

Overall then, four DVDs from four of Hollywoods biggest and best known comedy names. As with all sketch comedy, and you can include Monty Python in that, the humour is hit and miss and, due to the age of some of the material, it does come across a little dated but, having said all of that, there are some fine comedy moments if you dig deep enough.);