The thing about it is to remember that it’s generally one of 5 skits they have had to write and rehearse as much as possible in the course of 6 days at most.

SNL is more about having a good reason to workshop their skills than it is about how good the show is. But innthe context of what they are actually accomplishing, it’s generally a pretty good live show. But of course, it will never be as funny on average as a pre-written and pre-recorded show that can be edited and fixed up.

Sort of the same thing as going to any live theater shows. They are not as good as recorded and edited stuff, but you have to appreciate the effort given the context. And adjust your expectations of the quality of the results. They might occasionally still make something that happens to compete fqvourably with other media, but it shouldn’t be expected.