After a tongue-in-cheek Facebook campaign to promote Betty White as a host for Saturday Night Live actually led to her hosting on the show, Facebookers quickly launched another campaign--this one pushing SNL to invite another grand dame of TV, comedienne Carol Burnett, to host.
As an article in Entertainment Weekly points out, there's a certain irony to the latter effort: When SNL debuted in 1975, its creators envisioned the show's irreverent, topical brand of sketch comedy as a contrast to the humor on The Carol Burnett Show, which they viewed as too tame and corny. (On the other hand, anyone who saw 77-year-old Burnett's performance as a Norma Desmond-like villain in a particularly creepy episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last season knows she's eminently capable of edginess.)
Who would have ever thought that SNL, that hipper-than-thou snarkfest, would ever turn into the ensemble humor version of MTV's now-defunct Total Request Live and arguably, a better-functioning popular democracy these days than, say, Thailand? Moreover, since we midlife social-networking junkies clearly seem to have some clout with SNL's producers, what other venerable second-act luminaries should we nominate to host the show?
Here's the deal. You come up with the candidates, and I'll create a Facebook group promoting the one who gets the most votes.
1) It has to be somebody who's at least semi-famous. Resist the urge to propose your cousin Wade, even if he does bear an uncanny resemblance to MacGruber, Mr. Peepers or even Gumby.
2) It has to be somebody who hasn't hosted SNL before. Ergo, Mr. T, Rudy Giuliani, and Chris Evert don't qualify. Here's a semi-comprehensive list of past SNL hosts as a guide.
3) Certain performers from yesteryear--such as Raymond J. "You can call me Ray" Johnson, the Unknown Comic and Robert Walter "Bo" Donaldson, who sang the lead vocal on "Billy Don't Be a Hero"--are excluded, for aesthetic reasons.
Post your nominees in the comments section, and we'll have a go at it.