The other day, I woke up to a question on the morning news that has been nibbling at my mind for a few years now: is Saturday Night Live still funny?

SNL was my favorite show from the early 2000s until about 2008, post-Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's "Dick In a Box" skit. After the 2007 season, the comedic level started going downhill and it hasn't stopped rolling.

I miss "Will Ferrell Jeopardy." I miss not being able to "have the Mango" with Chris Kattan. Most of all, I miss my Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey "Weekend Updates."

Of course, this is just one decade of the nearly four Saturday Night Live has had.

Chris Stigall, radio host of the "KMOC Morning Show" in Kansas City and blogger for the Big Hollywood website, ripped into SNL last year, saying that the show's parodies of political figures like Sarah Palin and Barack Obama contribute to "comedic irresponsibility" in America.

"It is that lack of honest information and intolerance for substance that empowers variety and comedy shows to shape national opinion," he said.

Stigall went on to criticize the Daily Show, and came to the conclusion that this era of comedy itself is devoid of truth.

"Comedy without that grain of truth just isn't funny," he said.

While I don't want to agree or disagree with Stigall, I don't doubt there are countless other politically-minded Americans who would agree, and probably hate SNL for it.

It seems that SNL has a tendency to go through these phases of comedic dry-spells in the eyes of different SNL fan generations.

Gary Pollitt, a Cal State Fullerton English professor, was 14 years old when SNL premiered in 1975.

"It was a phenomenon," Pollitt said. "They really pushed the limits for what comedy was. And the charisma of the actors was what drew me in, and the writing was good."

Pollitt cites Chevy Chase and John Belushi as his favorites for that era.

Once the 1980s hit, however, Pollitt began to loose interest in the show.

"I got kind of bored with it," he said. "The writing got less funny, and they stuck to the same formulas of comedy, and that tends to get old."

Yet, Pollitt was also able to see it from the writers' points of views, noting the difficulty in comedic writing.

"I think people forget that making something funny is really hard," Pollitt said. "When something's good, that's when the magic is happening."

Alex Walters, 19, a history major, began watching the show at age 10. He too misses Will Ferrell.

"My dad had all of the SNL DVDs from the ‘70s," Walters said. "I watched some of the more current SNL episodes, but once Will Ferrell left, I felt the show really declined."

Walters also brought up an interesting point about our generation of comedy consumers.

"With sites like Youtube and Funny or Die, we want comedy that's instant," he said. "We don't have to wait around for Saturday night anymore."

SNL appeals to certain people at points of their lives, particularly when they're no longer rolling around laughing at Rocko's Modern Life and are ready for the more adult-geared comedy that SNL offers.

"I guess I'm turning into an old guy or something," Pollitt said. "But now, I get up early, and I don't like to stay up late. So I don't watch."