There was a time when "Saturday Night Live" was the heartbeat of the pop culture of this country.
Sure, time wins every debate. Father Time is unbeaten and is a 6-point favorite over Nick Saban, for Pete's sake.
But fighting time and fighting to be timely are not the same thing.
The show's Saturday night season premiere - its 44th, believe it or not - was embarrassing and quite telling for the half of Americans that will go to their deathbed cursing the left-leaning state of today's entertainment industry.
There was the booing of Kanye West for voicing a different opinion. There was the backstage bullying to try to prevent West from wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. His speech at the end of the episode was booed by the crowd and caused cast members to walk off the stage.
What, controversial political commentary is not allowed at SNL? Hmmmmm.
That was a clear double-standard, as was the treatment of two highly publicized cases involving one man accused of sexual assault and another convicted of sexual violence.
Michael Che's bits on "Weekend Update" featured a measured speech on Brett Kavanaugh being unfit for the Supreme Court because of the accusations made against him. His speech on Bill Cosby, the disgraced former comedy superstar who was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison last week, included a "Fat Albert" reference and wondering why The Cosby Show was about a character named Cliff Huxtable.
What?
But that's the double standard that has galvanized each side and made the narratives preached-to-the-choir talk shows on Fox and CNN so popular.
Worse yet, amid all those things, the SNL season premiere was not funny. Plain and simple. The long-running comedy skit show had enjoyed - like a lot of TV commentary shows since Donald Trump's election - a bounce in the ratings over the last couple of years, especially with Alec Baldwin's impersonations of the president and the president's Twitter responses.
That makes sense. SNL has always tried to be controversial and anti-power structure. The one thing that has allowed it to escape what I have always viewed as the rules of balance was that, sooner or later, everyone was going to be a target. Left or right. R or D. Man or woman. Black or white.
The comedy spectrum was going to land on everyone.
That was clearly not the case Saturday. Whether it was the multiple attempts to silence West or the vitriol with which the show launched itself at Kavanaugh.
Sure, it's the hot topic of the moment, and getting an A-lister like Matt Damon to make a cameo is smart casting. But even for an tightrope-walking enterprise like SNL, there really are no parts of this entire scenario that should be comedy fodder.
Are there?
Forget the angst and the loud noises coming from each side. Consider the situation: There's an accusation of a serious sexual assault that includes someone being nominated for one of arguably the nine most powerful jobs in this country. Either he did it or he didn't, and there's not really any truly good ripple either way, is there?
And maybe a more important question: What screams funny from that scenario?
A lot of folks have sent me emails wondering why I have not written about this before now. My answer is simple: I have no idea what happened those many years ago and would like more information.
Yes, I'm in the wait-and-see camp.
As for the next SNL? Well, let's just say I'll wait and not see it.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.