Chris Kattan stinks.

Did you see SNL this week?!

That was an inevitable question you'd hear or be faced with every Monday through my 4 years of high school, and it's something that I would expect is still said in many high schools today. While the show may struggle creatively and in ratings -- and on personal levels with many of its viewers -- it still remains a cultural icon for every generation at any specific time.

There was a connection I had with the show, and on Saturday nights I'd inevitably be sprawled on my floor or curled up on the couch at my girlfriend's making sure to watch it, not just because it was funny, but because it was so incredibly lame to miss it and it's not like there was anything else to do. It was part of my growing up process, but that was it. As I started college, other things were more important, and the show wasn't as funny as it used to be.

But, in reality, it's the same premise as someone saying "their new stuff sucks" about a band's new CD -- do you expect them to record the same stuff over and over again? No. They're growing and changing and adapting. And that's why SNL is never as good as it "used to be."

See, here's what you need to understand about SNL: They don't care about you (and by you I mean any viewer over the age of 20). That's right. They're happy if you watch, but they want to connect with and sell their product (and their sponsors' products) to the high school/early college generation before that generation grows up and grows out of that product -- another inevitability.

I hate the fact that at 26 I'm getting annoyingly nostalgic about anything, much less Saturday Night Live. But Sunday's retrospective of SNL in the 90s was entertaining for a number of reasons: It included that block of time between '94 and '98 as well as the four years before that, which by '94 were already classics (that I'd watch happily in marathon form on Comedy Central). It included bits of some great musical performances and some of the most memorable sketches from the 90s. And seriously interesting interviews with most of the cast, writers and crew of the era. It also looked briefly at the Norm MacDonald issue -- maybe the funniest guy on the show during that time.

More important is the great look at the network's disapproval of the '94/'95 season and Lorne Michaels's do-over that led to the ouster of Chris Farley, David Spade and Adam Sandler brought in the successful cast of Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon (and more entertaining background players like Jim Breuer and Colin Quinn) and the like. It's a really well done doc for sweeps, and if you missed it I'm sure it'll be on DVD next Tuesday.

And the Chris Kattan thing? That was just because I saw his snarky face. He annoys me. He's not funny, he never was and he never will be. That's not even considering all the stories about him stealing material. I just wanted to put it in writing somewhere.