A wicked tribute!
A preface to my review:
A tribute to Saturday Night Live is not another episode of Saturday Night Live. A tribute is an artist (or artists) providing their own style to a model of the original, creating an entirely new production, with just a little flavor of the inspiration. In that sense, this has succeeded as a tribute, if not one that's polarizing.
The most common complaint is that people don't "understand" the humor. Consider that statement; what is there about humor to be understood? Either you laugh, or you don't-- you're not writing a Doctoral Thesis on the efficiency of the laugh-producing characteristics of the asdf style. Seriously, if the joke doesn't hit, look at the production; look at the art; listen to the voices. If you have an issue with that (which, for this animation, I didn't), talk about that.
The review:
There's always a room in comedy for stupid. Stupid violence, stupid characters, stupid sounds, stupid writing. Like puns, its an easily recognized comedic device, considered by many to be low. That being said, with so much exposure, you're going to find some negativity.
Stupid, however, works for me. I value the ridiculous, the impossible, the absurd; animation removes the viewer from the world, engulfing them in a universe where it's possible to have a fish for a hand, where it's possible to have an incompetent (but sexy sounding) doctor tell you you have to urinate when your urethra is blocked. It's funny, plain and simple, to have something presented to you that violates everything the laws of the universe and society have told you to obey.
asdfcollab nails it. There's so much bizarre, "WTF!" kind of humor that abounds in the shorts that it's easy to get overloaded. Some of the skits are hit-or-miss, but I kept a smile throughout the entire movie. The comics also suit the style, and were very funny, often breathing new life into tired cliches, something that shows incredible skill on the side of the respective authors.
Now, the aesthetics. The art for the most part was very clean. Some of the stuff that wasn't based off of lines looked rough, but it didn't detract from the presentation due to the fast pacing of the toons. asdf is very minimalist, and in staying true to the style, the artists have succeeded in the tribute.
I'm biased in most parts for this movie, especially toward the voice actors, so I'm not going to go into great detail there. All around decent-- not too much to rant about.
I think that what we can all agree on is that there's so humor to be seen here. Not everybody will react to it, and some will react negatively, but it goes without saying that it has been enjoyed by others. Art's primary purpose is to elicit emotion, and it's fairly obvious that asdfcollab's specific purpose was to make people laugh. As long as it succeeded for some (as it did for me) it's a triumph in my opinion.