Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ashlee Simpson Screws Up on SNL

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-24-2004, 04:29 AM:

I happened to be watching SNL (yes I know, I suck ass) when Ashlee Simpson came on for her second "performance". She started doing a jiggy move or something and that's when I muted the TV and walked away, figuring I couldn't care less about Ashlee freakin' Simpson. But what happened in my absence was the following:

Download this video
WMV - 2.89MB

Not only did she do a Milli Vanilli, she completely walked off stage. As the show ended, she came up on stage and blamed her band for "playing the wrong song", which explains why she looked so confused. At that time I wished I had stayed so I could have been entertained by her misfortune. I also walked away during the SuperBowl halftime show earlier this year when Janet exposed her mutilated boobie. Why does all the unintended hilarity happen when it's supposed to be mediocre?

All I know is that if I was Ashlee Simpson, I'd have a hell of a time living this down and probably wouldn't be able to sleep for hours! Maybe days!

Also, it should be noted that I did not make this video because:
#1) I do not make a habit of recording Saturday Night Live
#2) I am a Quicktime guy, cuz Quicktime kicks ass.

Enjoy.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-24-2004, 05:05 AM:

I went out to see a midnight show of Edward Scizorhands tonight. I set my VCR to tape SNL, as I have in weeks past, and the dang power goes out while i'm gone!

That little "dance" she keeps doing is hysterical!

Now that I've watched it twice, I noticed her vocal track coming in and out, proving that she lip-syncs!

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 10-24-2004, 02:15 PM:

Who the heck's Ashlee Simpson? Homer's kid? Never heard of her.

[EDIT]: I watched the video... I guess that's what you get when you let a kid do an adult's job. She said the band played the wrong song? So? She doesn't know her own songs enough to recover and go with it!? Little flitty, self-centered kids, who have not the wherewithal to be in show business!

Geez, they'll put a camera in front of anybody these days! (Long as they show their ass, I guess.) [bs]

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 10-24-2004, 02:33 PM:

The band played the wrong song, eh? well lets look at this Ashlee (with 2 e's): They played A song. THey didnt care. they got the chance to play for millions of people on SNL and looked like they knew what they were doing. I have respect for those guys for putting up with Ashleeeeeee and god knows what else she blames them for. Nice seeing pop getting blown to bits.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 10-24-2004, 04:06 PM:

Not a huge fan of Ashlee Simpson (or her sister for that matter) but I like that song! The one they were "supposed" to play. [Wink]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-24-2004, 04:21 PM:

I agree with Mike, sounds like they put a vocal track in there. Lip syncing if you ask me. Whichever song she was going to "sing" that style of dancing would not go with any of her songs.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 10-24-2004, 04:45 PM:

I've never watched Saturday Night Live since it's tape-delayed here on the West Coast, but the East Coast people get to see it live. I think that's discrimination. There was one time when someone got away with saying a naughty word on the live broadcast, but it was cut out by the time the tape-delayed show aired over here.
I don't get why a comedy show keeps having people on who aren't funny- Ashleeey Simpson is just one example. I caught the show several years ago (only because I was rewinding a tape at the time) when they had Vanilla Ice on as a "musical guest"- I think that speaks for itself.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 10-24-2004, 04:46 PM:

Okay, I watched it again and read the press story. To be fair, the playback was evidently the same song she'd done earlier in the show. So I imagine she was probably waiting to see if the mistake would be fixed, and didn't know what to do with herself when it wasn't.

Yes, it is lip sync, as most of these shows are... you can hear them potting her voice track down when she didn't jump in. Then, they just let it play minus vocals, until they decided to go to finally go to a break.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 10-24-2004, 05:39 PM:

Who would be really at fault here, doesn't the SNL audio crew control the mixing board? Perhaps one of them forgot to put the tape of the new song in?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-24-2004, 06:39 PM:

That's what I'm starting to think, especially after hearing it was the same song as earlier in the broadcast (I wouldn't know). I honestly doubt that too many people perform "live" in the truest sense of the word on TV, especially SNL. Any "performer" like Britney Spears or Janet Jackson who wear headset mics and the entire song is composed of them gyrating around "seductively" (I love quotation marks) are obviously lip syncing the entire time. They get their voices "down, smooth, and dirty" or whatnot all the while jumping around like a madman. I think you'd be able to hear that in their voices.

Lip Syncing is the mark of a truly crappy artist, in my awesome opinion.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-24-2004, 06:50 PM:

I'm not too surprised by this occurence. Granted, it is extremely lame.

But much of the music industry these days is extremely lame. The corporations only care how the "artists" look, not the quality of their songs. Bravo to that NY attorney for launching a criminal probe into the music industry and its current method of payola: paying "consultants" who then pay radio stations to play certain songs.

Also, I was told Ashlee Simpson's sister, Jessica, thought Chicken of the Sea canned tuna actually had chicken in it. I would expect any blood relative of someone that stupid to lip sync.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-24-2004, 09:39 PM:

It took me a few moments to figure that out too. When I came to the US last year, I had never heard of "Chicken of the Sea". At first it confused me when I encountered it at Vons ("Vons!!Giving our best..."). Is it some kind of weird seafood-and-chicken mix? Are there sea chicken? But then I used my reading skills and deciphered the message on the can. In the end, I decided against it, even though I could have saved 50c if I had taken two.
If tuna is the chicken of the sea, do they also have spicy tuna wings?

Another mystery of the US food industry I haven't solved yet: why do they call these hot dog places "WienerSchnitzel"? Because a Wiener Schnitzel is a Vienna-style pork chop in batter, not a hot dog.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 10-24-2004, 10:15 PM:

quote: Michael Schaffer
why do they call these hot dog places "WienerSchnitzel"? Because a Wiener Schnitzel is a Vienna-style pork chop in batter, not a hot dog.

Because we stupid Americans don't know any better... [Big Grin]

Plus it *is* kind of a catchy name [Smile]

I prefer Jagerschnitzel myself.. yummy [Smile]

What Michel is referring to, for those who were curious...

-Aaron

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-24-2004, 10:34 PM:

At least the Wiener part makes some kind of sense, because a pork sausage is indeed called "Wiener Würstchen" (Viennese small sausage) but in some places also "Frankfurter". One bit of interesting trivia is that in Vienna, they don't cut the bun open and put the sausage in the middle, they take a long tubular bun, cut one end off, then impale the bun on a metal spike to make it hollow, insert the sausage and condiments and put the end piece back on like a lid.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-26-2004, 02:39 AM:

Am I surprised she was lip synching? No.
What troubles me are the following
1) She blames the band. Bitch. Maybe she should have used a Milli Vanilli title and blame it on the rain.
2) She has gone on record in the past as being this "rock" singer who is anti lip synching.
3) Acid Reflux disease my ass. I think an onset of diarrhea is more credible explanation for her dance than acid reflux for her throat. How convenient.
4) The thing that outrages me is how Lorne Michaels and his henchmen also played a part in covering up for her. They should have let the cameras linger more and give us some live drama for a live show. THey edited out the vocal track or toned it down supposedly on the west coast.
Tina Fey snarks on everyone. BUt she hugs Ashley like what happened was perfectly acceptable. Is she willing to do a mean joke about her own show next week?
Lorne Michaels likes to portray his show as this edgy thing when in reality he is a control freak who likes to have everything go as planned. Lorne didn't show Sinead any support and her act of tearing the pope picture was great live drama and didn't detract from her vocal talent.

5) Even now, Lorne Michaels was using the bogus backing track excuse. I believe she was lip synching all the way. They might have left her mike on for a few seconds.

I loved the look her bandmates gave each other when she walked off. A mixtures of smirks and sheepish embarassment.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-26-2004, 03:59 AM:

You mean that you think the band was actually playing?

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 10-26-2004, 08:25 AM:

You can easily tell the band was actually playing.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 10-26-2004, 08:37 AM:

Yeah, I think they were, especially after the backing track was faded out. The left hand guitarist looks like having a full panic moment prior to grabbing the volume knob, and (given the limited resolution) it looks like everyone is playing what they sound like.

Many artists even when playing live with a live band still have backing tracks with second lead vocals (for decent double tracking of weak vocalists) and backup vocals, extra keyboards or strings etc. Unless you either have a simple sound or a big band, you cant create that "big" pop sound live. Tapes bridge the gap.

It used to be fairly easy to tell - if the drummer was wearing headphones he was syncing to something, and it it probably wasn't a human on the stage. Probably a click track on tape. May be from a sequencer, but then you could argue thats much the same as a tape...

Anyway, syncing live to tape is not a strategy without risk, and I've seen some impressively redundant systems used over the years so that (for example) tape breaking doesnt cause a problem (two syncronised eight track tape decks) or a power cable being kicked out (dual supplies). However, if someone loads the wrong tape (or the modern digital equivalent) then there isnt a lot anyone can do, the show has, as they say, turned to custard.

And that is when you find out what your performer is made of. The band certainly played on, what else would you expect them to do, but without Simpson Jr. Oh dear.

My suspicion is that apart from cueing the wrong song, the second lead vocal was far to high in level, and the sound op didnt spot that Ashleeee was vocal-less as the canned vocal boomed out. If this is indeed the case, then he certainly didnt do her any favours. I would not like to be in his shoes... Actually, I'd be embarassed to be in his shoes, that was a definite suck moment.

Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 10-10-2005, 10:04 PM:

Well, did anyone catch Ashlee's return to SNL last Saturday?

It sounded like someone took two cats and was banging their heads together.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-10-2005, 10:14 PM:

I tried to watch the show, but it was incredibly unfunny. It was required to turn the television off because of this.

Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 10-13-2005, 04:32 PM:

Thanks for posting that clip, Joe. That's the funniest thing I have seen on SNL since the Pope showed up to rip up a picture of Sinead O'Connor!

Posted by Andy Summers (Member # 3207) on 10-14-2005, 10:55 AM:

Not huge fan myself….on the other hand….
[rachel]

Your more attractive than Ashlee Simpson

lip-syncs I hate miming bunch of phoney creeps, where was the trap door leading to the pit full of alligators…. [eyes]

The performance sticks [bs]

get them off…. [puke]

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 10-15-2005, 08:10 PM:

Uh thanks... [Wink]

Too bad I'm not that cute anymore... Although, I don't really look like my current picture anymore either, my hair is longer again.

Posted by Andy Summers (Member # 3207) on 10-15-2005, 08:38 PM:

Rachel’

Hay I’m easy going Rachel’ so your cute cuddly and I’M SINGLE pity I’m on this side of the Atlantic I’d invite you over for dinner and a flick…oh well fresh tactics.

Still pretty looking than "Ashlee Simpson" though she’s way too young for me, LOL. Oh just been playing this virtual cinema game, I like it when I see it available on this side of the world I’ll buy it, though I hope it plays on “Windows Me.”
[Smile]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-15-2005, 10:00 PM:

Lucky you Rachel... such a following you have!

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 10-16-2005, 12:23 AM:

Yup, everyone loves me! [Razz]

All these FT men, I'm so lucky... And Jeeze, everyone thinks I'm so old!!!! Older then Ashlee Simpson, yes, but younger then her sister!

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-16-2005, 07:01 PM:

People your age are ancient! [Wink]

Posted by Andy Summers (Member # 3207) on 10-17-2005, 02:36 PM:

Daryl’

Well that will make you 105 Daryl’ wow just what is your secret?
[thumbsup]