SNL: Bad Writing or Acting?

So I’m sitting here watching Saturday Night Live right now, and while I’m chuckling at the segment on right now (John McCain: Old), the past couple of skits have been pretty awful. Now I can’t put my finger on it, is it the acting that’s bad or is it the writing. Here’s what I know: the previous skit was a Target skit and the main character, a bizarre cashier, could not stop staring at the teleprompter, it’s offsetting, throwing off the pace. This is not to mention it feels like the tempo (the back and forth between characters) is stuck at an amazingly high speed—like they’re trying to get as many bad jokes as they can in. This might be due to acting or it might be that the writing is bad. With no good writers like Will Ferrell or Tina Fey left in the writing staff has certainly gone down hill but is it the sole cause of SNL’s deterioration. I would still say that some of the writing is good, the opener this week (a musical ‘classy’ number), the SNL digital short, and the aforementioned John McCain sketch have been pretty good. If I had to say SNL’s waning quality is due in large part to bad actors (Kenan), and small part to the writers and another small part to NBC’s failing support for the long term show. Now to one of the consistently good parts of the show, the musical act.