NBC continues the dumbing-down of America in earnest with…”A Very Gilly Christmas”

First, David Medsker sent a public memo to “Saturday Night Live,” pleading with them to stop Kristen Wiig from playing the most annoying characters imaginable, and although the show’s producers ignored him, the posting has received 76 comments to date, many of them completely behind Mr. Medsker’s position, so it clearly struck a nerve with readers. Then, two months later, John Paulsen got specific and called out Wiig’s then-new character, Gilly, as the unfunniest returning character ever. No word from the Wiig camp yet, but 65 readers have responded to it thus far, and while many of them are in full-on defense mode, it takes no more than a cursory glance at the comments to see that Mr. Paulsen is onto something with his premise.

* “Gilly should be put in juvenile detention.”

* “OMG, I want to break the TV when I see that stupid skit!”

* “Gilly keeps coming back for more and more and more and more and more. And it gets worse every time.”

* “The Gilly skits – and indeed, pretty much all the characters that Wiig does – are appealing to those lowbrow people who find catch-phrases funny.”

* “I know ‘to each his own’ and everybody’s taste is different, but I’m shocked that people are defending this really, really bad, really, really unfunny recurring character.”

And, of course, there’s my personal favorite:

“Like a fool, I kept watching, hoping the sketch could redeem itself somehow, that a punchline or a line delivery would come in making it somewhat funny. I mean, this is a comedy show, right? Right? But, alas, it was just painful. I have no idea what the audience was laughing at or why. Maybe SNL installed a live laugh track, or maybe they do pump in laughing gas. But what I saw no one could honestly find funny. NO ONE. Stock footage of starving children has equal comedic value as the Gilly sketch.”

To these discerning individuals, NBC is offering up the comedic equivalent of a lump of coal in their stocking on December 17th from 8 – 10 PM EST, when “Saturday Night Live” presents…wait for it…“A Very Gilly Christmas”!

The good news is that the two-hour special will include brand-new material with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, along with favorite holiday-themed sketches from the 35-year history of “SNL,” including “NPR’s Delicious Dish and the Schweddy Balls,” Martin’ famous “Holiday Wish,” and Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s “D**k in a Box.”

The bad news: it will also include new Gilly material.