"SNL Fanatic" is a short film from the year 2000, live action and it runs for under 4 minutes only luckily and this is a little movie that has the young Ben Affleck (already an Oscar winner though) and the young Jimmy Fallon in it playing a nothing part really. Director is Paul Thomas Anderson, who I adore a lot and who has another 2 Oscar nominations this year making him the most overdue man in Hollywood perhaps for the win by now. Of course, he has virtually no chance to take home any of these this time again sadly. Anyway, lets talk a bit more about this Saturday Night Live sketch here. I found it really boring to be honest. It is a spoof of an old MTV show and nothing about it feels funny, witty or creative, especially not the three actors in here going shamelessly over the top from start to finish. Yes it is a parody, but still sometimes less is more really. The one thing I cannot criticize them for though is that it is also a bit tasteless as what happened to Anna Nicole Smith and her son could of course not be predicted in 2000. Still, it's a failure all in all, a definite contender for PTA's worst and 2 stars out of 5 is still pretty generous. Only watch it if you are both a huge Affleck and Fallon fanboy/fangirl. Otherwise it is definitely impossible to deal with all the cringe in here. May wanna keep your distance to this one.
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Horst_In_Translation30 January 2018
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Chip_douglas13 November 2005If it were not for the fact that the guy behind "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" wrote and directed this SNL 'short film' (really just a pre recorded skit), this spoof would never have gotten it's own IMDb page. It was broadcast as part of the February 19th 2000 episode hosted by Ben Affleck and featured on "The Best of Molly Shannon" (which by the way, received it's own place on the IMDb years after this page). As a parody this is neither original nor funny. MTV FANatic is a pretty pathetic show anyway, so to make fun of it was really redundant from the start.
Merely copying the MTV format and having Ben Affleck and Molly Shannon scream and pull faces does not cut it. Jimmy Fallon adds little, playing it cool as usual. At least Ben Affleck went to the trouble of making himself look unappealing and nerdy. Molly Shannon plays Anna Nicole Smith the same way she does Courtney Love and most of her other impressions: loud and annoying. They even fire off a few shots at Smith's disastrous movie effort "Skyscraper" which was so bad it's basically spoof proof. So they took two of the lamest bits and copied them. Nothing added or changed. It might have been funnier had they shown the actual clips, or presented a sequel called 'Booby-trap' or anything.
This skit is all set up and no pay off , it just sort of ends without a final twist or a punchline. I can't even figure out if Paul Thomas Anderson was picking on MTV's Fanatic because he found it annoying or if he was strangely fascinated by it. The TV Funhouse Smurf version of the Anna Nicole show turned out so much funnier (and more original). Perhaps they should have let the actual Anna Nicole play herself. She seems willing to do any stupid thing in front of the camera anyway.
2 out of 10