Saturday Night Live: the Unequal Opportunity Offender
Everyone by now has heard about Saturday Night Live's recent unfunny skit where the out-of-touch reporters are discussing story angles on Gov. Sarah Palin. One reporter acuses Todd Palin of incest, then proceeds to infer that everyone in the state of Alaska practices incest too. "It is Alaska you know."
If you happened to catch the skit either live or replayed, did you notice that there was no laughter when the bomb was dropped? The skit fell flat. SNL has not posted the video on their website like they normally do. Also, it was reported today that the skit was pulled off of youtube. Obviously the bit succeeded in accomplishing some cheap pr for SNL, but the negative consequences for the show are still unfolding and will continue for awhile.
We know that the skit was obviously appalling in its character defamation of the Palin family.
What makes this even more galling is the blatant bias of SNL. The show has always prided itself on being an "equal opportunity offender." But their satirical targets have become heavily one sided. On that particular show, they also did a skit that was at least partly written by Al Franken, the former SNL writer who is now running for a U.S. Senate position in Minnesota. This second bit portrayed John McCain as willingly going along with misleading ads. The previous week, they did a bit where Tina Fey portrayed Gov. Sarah Palin as an airhead.
When was the last time SNL has done a satirical piece on Obama that was truly satirical? No one is expecting SNL to defame the Obama family in the same equally disgusting manner as they did to the Palin family. But could they at least balance out their satircal subjects? They did do the bit where the reporters fawned all over Obama in a debate, satirizing the establishment media's love affair with Barack. But when has SNL done any sort of portrayal of Obama in a funny manner. I mean, come on, this is SNL, right? They used to portray Gerald Ford as a clutz. They made fun of Carter, Reagan, both Bushes, even Clinton at times. But we have yet to see any writing or acting on Obama that even comes close to being funny or actually portrays him in a negative light. Every bit so far that's had someone playing Obama turned out to be a total softball skit that only Larry King could write. Saturday Night Live has become an unequal opportunity offender.
But they can redeem themselves. Here's a little challenge to throw out to the cast of Saturday Night Live: There are 6 Saturday nights left before the presidential election on November 4th. 6 shows. Will SNL actually do a skit that somehow portrays Obama in a negative light? Will they do this before the election? Will SNL prove to be an unbiased satirical show that pokes fun at both sides? Or will they continue the reflect the NBC left wing bias that has taken over that once proud and successful network?
Only time will tell.
First, I will admit that I'm a McCain supporter, though not a hard-core Republican. I'm not a party-liner. Nevertheless, I don't see this as part of the overall left-wing conspiracy. In fact, I feel this kind of reaction adds to the divisiveness of modern American politics. If a Republican says something, Democrats immediately jump up and cry foul. If a Democrat says something, the Republicans jump up.
What it really gets down to is that modern American politics is a well-orchestrated character assassination machine. There is little civility left. SNL gives you something to write about in your blog, but it's Saturday Night Live. I think you would be hard pressed to prove that SNL viewers decide how to vote based on character representations on the air. So what does it really matter? Why give them any validity? Whether they lampoon fairly or not doesn't matter. It's not like Lorne Michaels stands center stage and tells people to hunt down every Republican and stomp on their heads.
I just don't see that it's "destroying the moral fabric" or anything like that. They have their own forum and get to say what they want. You've said what you want here. I've said what I want through your forum (and I think it's an exercise in futility).
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Whoo-hoo!!! Tell it like it is, Brother Nexus!!! I've been a fan of SNL since it first aired in the '70's; and concur that the past several seasons have been nothing but poorly writen left-wing diatripe. Nothing can compare to the first five years with Belushi, Akroid and Chase. The only time it came remotely close was during the time of Mike Myers, Dana Carvey and the late Phil Hartman. You're right, too, that during theses two eras, SNL paradied Ford, Carter, Regan, Bush, Clinton and W. Bush. What's the deal with SNL's pandering to the Left, eh? What's up with that? Although, I'm not saying that Lorne Michaels is responsable. Neither is the cast. I believe that it's the network. It's been proven time and again that the media (not just NBC) is biased towars the Left. I, myself, am a registered Independant, and am personally tired of the cocophany of mudslinging from both sides (weather it be in negative ads, speeches, or third party outlets such as SNL). I do believe that the media needs to be more fair and balanced, but in the meantime, we, as a nation, need to think for ourselves and serch out ALL the facts so we can make an INFORMED descision. I am "Manic Mike" Marcotte, and I aproved this message. Keep on keepin' on, my friend! Tell it like it needs to be told!
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