Men like Gallagher, P&T, Carlin, Dennis Miller, even Eddie Murphy (who would have been as funny w/out cursing) were very creative in their jokes and routines. The new crowd just says something, adds a curse word, and calls it a joke. They think its funny, but I don't get it.
I adore Carol Burnett. And Vicki Lawrence, too. How can anyone say they are not funny?
In spite of what I said, I disagree with the premise that no women are funny. SNL in general has gone way downhill. However the current cast features Kate McKinnon, who is consistently funny, and Cecily Strong, who is usually funny. In recent years, SNL has featured Kristen Wiig, who was hysterical, and (before her) Tina Fey, who is one of the funniest people on the planet -male or female.
It is usually fair to say that when comedians (male or female) get political, half the audience is not going to think they are funny, and half the audience is going to agree and clap, and then later remember that they laughed -even though they didn't. This is especially true for conservatives watching young comedians because -being young -they are typically liberal.
However, in the case of McKinnon, her impersonation of Hillary Clinton is spot-on, hilarious, and devastating (other than the time when Mrs. Clinton made a guest appearance and McKinnon was clearly nervous). And whether you like or hate Sarah Palin, you have to admit that Fey's impersonation was very good.
A lot of the other impersonations that the current cast does are terrible, and there's a simple reason for that: The cast of SNL works very hard every week to get a live show done in three days of rehearsals. That doesn't leave a lot of time to study a character for impersonation. And its not like these kids are going to, say, watch a Republican candidate on their own time. Because they're kids. They just don't care.
So you wind up with a Republican debate sketch, where one guy plays Ben Carson as a flaming homosexual, another plays Marco Rubio as a clueless child, and Chris Christie is a fat crazy person.
The only way to impersonate anyone is to study them. So past impersonations on SNL of Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes have been excellent. Darrel Hammond's Donald Trump is excellent, but for some reason they keep bringing out Cecily Strong as Melania. Nobody can do Melania, because we've only heard her speak a couple of times.