Is Lorne Michaels the Vince McMahon of Comedy?
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Lorne Michaels and Vince McMahon. Two emperors of mighty entertainment industries. Lucas Wesley Snipes looks at the career parallels of these industry giants.
It takes a very specific type of genius to become the gatekeeper to an entire industry, especially if those geniuses themselves completely deny even operating within the industry they control. Some say an ego is a requirement to become any kind of success in the entertainment business, but to corner a market and refuse to even acknowledge you’re a part of it takes a next level megalomania that few have been able to achieve. At least two men have achieved that level of confused self-interest, though, and despite their similarities, they couldn’t be working in more ostensibly different mediums.
Professional wrestling actually has a lot in common with sketch comedy in terms of the basic structure a standard show should follow, but the point is the men we’re talking about don’t work in professional wrestling or sketch shows. No, the men I’m are talking about are Vince McMahon and Lorne Michaels, and if you asked them, they would tell you they are respectively in the sports entertainment and variety show industries. Sure, if you’re a fan of those men, it’s either because you’re a wrestling fan or a comedy fan, but for whatever reason if asked, they would deny being in the wrestling and comedy businesses. This is just the beginning of their shared mania, but it has to be brought up first, as it’s arguably the most important piece of the puzzle.
Lorne Michaels is the creator of Saturday Night Live. The NBC sketch comedy show debuted in 1975, and Lorne has been the main creative force in charge of the enterprise with the exception of five years that are more or less ignored from the canon (with one giant superstar of an exception). Since its inception, SNL has been one of the most important first stops on the pathway to some of the biggest comedy film and television careers in history. It’s true SNL also has its famous musical guests every episode, but fans come and stay for the biting comedy. In Michaels’ mind, however, he isn’t creating a comedy show—he’s using comedy as only one piece of his program, and adding his interests in music, politics, films, and other mediums to create a full 90-minute variety show. While that’s not exactly a lie, SNL uses that variety to create a comedy show, whether Michaels is willing to admit it or not.
Vince McMahon is the CEO and primary creative force behind World Wrestling Entertainment. He started working for his father’s World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1969, and gradually took over that company and turned it into what is today known as WWE. Vince’s father’s company was successful and its history is important to what his son’s company would become, but it was after Vince took over that WWE became the most important stop on the biggest wrestling careers in history. It’s true WWE has plenty of short films, musical moments, vignettes, and non-wrestling segments on their programming, but by and large the fans come and stay for the in-ring wrestling action. In McMahon’s mind, however, he isn’t even in the wrestling business—he’s in the sports entertainment business, and wrestling is only a small part of a show, to which he adds his interests in music, politics, films, and comedy to create hours of programming each week. While that’s not exactly a lie, WWE uses all of those forms of entertainment to create a wrestling show, whether McMahon is willing to admit it or not.
It’s hard to say exactly what it is about these two men that makes them so summarily deny the very field that they control. McMahon has a well-known reputation for mistreating and possibly even hating the general wrestling audience, but he’s also clearly a huge wrestling fan, or he wouldn’t be a part-time wrestler into his 70’s. Michaels might deny he makes a comedy show, but the only time he actually appears on television himself, he always makes sure he’s written to get the biggest, funniest, and most important punch lines his show is able to contrive. And more importantly than their personal contributions to their mediums, they are more responsible than anyone else for a young talent breaking into those industries and becoming a superstar.
Vince McMahon’s dominance over wrestling is so absolute, I barely even feel the need to explain it even to an audience that might not be wrestling fans. Vince runs WWE, and WWE is the biggest wrestling company in history. If Vince likes a wrestler, that wrestler becomes a huge star, even if the majority of the wrestling fan base is reacting so vehemently that WWE has been getting record low ratings for the past couple years. Lorne’s control over the comedy world might not be as all-encompassing, since there are far more ways for a young comedian to break through than a wrestler, but Lorne’s early approval can turn a nobody into a superstar in seconds. It can even turn a talentless hack into one of the most watched entertainers in America, every night on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The fact that Lorne is unquestionably the person who turned someone like Jimmy Fallon into a superstar brings up one interesting area in where he and Vince differ, and might actually prove Lorne is right about the variety thing—Lorne has succeeded outside of his main business venture.
Vince McMahon has made a few serious efforts at proving he’s more than a wrestling promoter and a true sports entertainment magnate, but most of those ventures haven’t worked out too well. The World Bodybuilding Federation failed so quickly there’s barely any information left on the Internet about it, and the only reason people remember the XFL is the fact it was a spectacular failure. WWE has produced several films starring their wrestlers, but none have yet to be huge box office successes, and it’s unlikely they will. All of this because, as I stated up front: Vince is in the wrestling business. Whatever he tries to tell you, the industry he dominates is the world his superstars dare not say.
Lorne Michaels has plenty of successes outside of Saturday Night Live. First, there was the beloved Canadian sketch show The Kids In The Hall, and now he executive produces The Tonight Show and Late Night, both starring former SNL cast members he handpicked from obscurity. Strangely enough, it’s with his late night shows that Lorne is actually proving himself as a variety host and not a comedy host, and we’ve already written at length at how that is a detriment to the future of the comedy community. Michaels has also produced dozens of films, but only a handful have been successful, perhaps because of his inability to commit to the idea he’s in the comedy business and not merely making a pastiche of what a film with comedy, music, and often dated politics mishmashed together would end up as.
A curious further category in which Michaels and McMahon relate is that many fans believe the show can’t possibly continue once its creative head retires, or as it might seem to be the case, die. It seems unlikely either plans to retire nor do they really have any need to, but if you excuse how morbid it is and think about it just for a few seconds, it becomes immediately apparent that yes, absolutely, WWE or SNL could continue pretty much just the same as it has been if their leaders were to step away or become unable to continue for whatever reason. They might be the most important creative force, but they’ve created an industry, whether they admit it or not, and they created those industries so completely that they can pretty much run on their own now. SNL might be canceled or decide to end its run out of respect should something happen to Lorne, but WWE will probably remain the most successful wrestling company on the planet so long as such a thing is viable, whether Vince is the McMahon at the helm or not.
The connection continues with how the two are hiring their writers these days. WWE and SNL have both been accused of having bloated writers’ rooms desperate to get ideas out and focus on appeasing the top stars in lieu of actual good writing, and though opinions of Lorne often call him strange and enigmatic, Vince is almost inviting this feeling to his company. He doesn’t keep up with popular culture very well himself, so he needs a giant staff to write for him and tell his wrestlers, who often would rather come up with their own stories, what to do. Michaels also surely has had no shortage of comedians on his show who wished they’d just get to go out and do their bits, but his big writers’ room and NBC executive interferences leave people writing memoirs about how they were gasping for airtime.
Maybe I’m not even the first ones to see this connection. SNL has always aired on NBC, and one of the few things to preempt its run was Saturday Night’s Main Event, produced by WWE. Lorne probably didn’t mind the preemptions, and Vince was probably thrilled to find himself in SNL’s company. Vince proved rather definitively he wasn’t just stuck in some late night wrestling time slot on cable, he was on the network TV variety show hour, for all types of sports and entertainment. For Lorne, he got to prove his time slot was valuable for more than just comedy. There was music, fireworks, body slams, bizarre politics, and just a few laughs along the way when we were lucky. They can call it whatever they want, because both men built themselves up to a position where they’ll always be the main event.
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