When I watch a recent clip from “Saturday Night Live,” I usually scroll to the comments to look for the first comment in which the writer shares their belief that “SNL” used to be funny.

It turns out there are a lot of openminded people willing to meekly share how, in their humble opinion, “SNL,” now early into its 49th season as NBC’s seminal late-night sketch comedy, doesn’t seem quite as good as it was when they first watched.

Just kidding. The armchair comedy experts declare their judgments as universal truths, knocking aside 40-some-odd seasons as inferior to their favorite. They’re never going to take a breath and a step or two back and reflect on the fact that they are recalling a time when they were definitely younger, got most of the cultural references and presumably had fewer problems and responsibilities (and those they did have very likely included homework and mowing the lawn).

Nor do they mention how much viewing of “SNL” they’ve done in subsequent years to keep their research up to date other than maybe watch the clip of whatever sketch they’re deriding.

The inevitability of such comments is fascinating on a few levels, and a reliable way to make certain there are no glitches in the matrix.

It seems obvious that there are peaks and valleys to “SNL.” After the departures of some of its bigger breakout stars in the past year or two, including Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, the show is maybe in a bit of a rebuilding year this season, but there have still been some great moments.

For instance, Nate Bargatze’s October visit, which netted a “Make SNL great again” comment on one Instagram clip. And Jason Momoa’s Nov. 18 hosting stint, which had some good sketches, even if The Atlantic dinged its reliance on “simplistic gender categories,” which by the way, sounds a whole lot like “SNL” in its first 25 or so years.

Kudos to the person who commented “Is this considered funny nowadays?” on Momoa’s cab-driver clip for presumably watching it before rendering their verdict. I mean, if someone thinks “SNL” peaked around 2000, when Fallon, Fey and Ferrell were in the cast, have they really watched enough to be sure it was not as good or better when Wiig, Hader and Armisen were regulars a few years later? Because I watched, and man, recurring sketches like “The Californians” still make me laugh. Davidson was polarizing during his years, but lord did his Chad character make me laugh.

From season one in 1975, I was a little kid allowed to stay up late to watch. My Silent Generation parents’ younger hippie friends would come over and they would all hang out drinking beer beneath the cigarette haze, a weekly occurrence that had my older sisters and I stoked for Saturdays. I vaguely remember discussion at the start of season two whether it would still be as good without Chevy Chase, and the doubts about when John Belushi left. I’d fall asleep during the show, but some of the sketches were straight-up silly, one-note jokes about land sharks and Pepsi and cheeseburgers.

There were some tumultuous years with cast turnovers a couple of times in the ’80s, though from it emerged Eddie Murphy. The marvelous sketches of Martin Short and Billy Crystal in the ’84-’85 season were the stuff of schoolyard comedy, as were the Hans and Franz years with Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey by the late ’80s.

Each decade had its breakout stars. The ’00s also gave us Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island cohorts’ digital shorts, and if you don’t know “Lazy Sunday” or “I’m on a Boat,” it’s nobody’s loss but your own. These days, I know I can count on laughs from Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, and the regular shorts from Please Don’t Destroy trio of Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy.

Though “SNL” may not always strike comedy gold, it’s been a throughline of comedy and social commentary for nearly 50 years — even if some of its viewers no longer get the culture that’s being sent-up and satirized.

At the very least, if you’re prone to making declarations about how the show was funnier in your day, stop and ponder whether you have ever been entertaining or funny for a year, much less 49 of them consecutively.

Probably some years were better for you than others, right?

My wife thinks “SNL” should be paid attention to at the level of a class clown: They just toss their unvarnished stuff out there. Some miss, some land and some get them sent to the principal’s office. You may not be quoting their material years later, but maybe it made you smile or forget your problems for a minute.

When’s the last time an embittered former “SNL” viewer did that?