As we approach Thanksgiving, the writers strike shows no signs of ending. The Week in Review, which usually features bits from late night monologues, has resorted to using jokes written in on their humor blog, Laugh Line. Dozens of shows have stopped production, and Lost might not resolve until 2009.

But those hams at SNL did not let the writers’ strike stop them from putting on a show. The cast performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater on Saturday night, while NBC resorted to broadcasting a rerun.

Michael Cera hosted the live act; Amy Poehler invited him earlier in the week via text message. We hope emoticons weren’t necessary to get him to perform.

The New York Times, family paper that it is, wouldn’t say how raunchy the show got, but implied that the FCC wouldn’t be so excited if the UCB version ran on NBC.

This story is almost enough to make us like Saturday Night Live again. But the performance will probably appear prominently in the next self-important SNL nostalgia book, and we’ll be reminded why we hate SNL all over again.

[Photo Credit: NYT]