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As the opening credits of “Saturday Night Live” begin and the fresh new faces of the late night sketch comedy cast are introduced, I can’t help feel that it all seemed a bit forced. This season’s opener premiered Sept. 28, and starred the ever-talented Tina Fey, one of the shows long-time veterans. But this time around, even Tina seemed to be a bit bored, and if we are being honest, who wasn’t?

I have long been a follower of SNL and have always held the men and women of the cast in high regard. Lately, I can’t help but feel that the show has become a bit dry. After 39 seasons, it feels as though the writers have all but given up on any shred of intelligent humor they had left. Rather than the witty sketches that used to leave the audience in stitches, I feel as though I’m watching bad “I Love Lucy” reruns.

What happened to the spunk that this enlightening show once brought, and what caused it to turn into such a mess? Are we as Americans at fault for our increasing stupidity and inability to understand adult humor as we used to? Has our modern comedic illiteracy lead this once shining beacon of a program to the ultimate misfortune? Maybe the show has run its course and simply not realized it must make way for a new trailblazer in the entertainment biz. With the loss of comedic genius, and the inability to cater to the widespread crowd it used to, it seems like SNL has not made a single tactical advance in years, rendering it unable to keep up with the needs of modern television.

I like to reminisce on when the show didn’t make me want to gag. When the legends like Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and many more graced the screen and brought delight to the viewers. Has SNL turned into nothing more than a mediocre springboard for the legends to launch their careers? Each time a cast member leaves, a key piece of the show leaves and cannot be replaced. It has been reduced down to a mere shadow of what it used to be, and I fear that it cannot be helped.

With few more than 15 A+ sketches in the past four or five years, I think the time has come. It is with a heavy heart that I dismiss SNL as an ultimate favorite and push it into the same compartment as “Two and a Half Men” and “Desperate Housewives” – sad, and without an ounce of hope left. I will not watch this titanic-sized travesty unfold, and have decided to jump ship. I send my most fond farewell to the legend and anxiously await the next big thing.

Contact CU Independent staff writer Sophie Junak at Sophie.junak@gmail.com.