Sunday, February 21, 2021

SNL and the Non Hilarity of Wokeness

     Saturday Night Live, a former comedy show, decided to lampoon Texas Senator Ted Cruz last night because… He’s one of “them”.... I find it odd that there were no sketches of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo even though he has been in the news lately for some very serious charges. After all Saturday Night Live is produced "Live from New York". But, he's one of "us" and therefore not worthy of mockery or ridicule by the writers at SNL. He must be protected no matter how bad the crime, misjudgment or stupidity.

     A great opportunity for some hilarious sketches was wasted, but you know. They could have done a serial killer spoof and called it "The Nursing Home Killer" or "Silence of the Grams". They could have done some mob humor. (Cuomo has a stereotypical name, accent and arrogance of a mob boss) with a sketch of the governor attempting to hide evidence from the feds while threatening state assemblymen. That would have been funny. You could throw in some horse head jokes and jokes about his dumb brother Chris "Fredo" Cuomo. It could be titled "The Post-Modern Father" or "Covid Fellas" Maybe they thought that it might offend Italians, but then, isn't the left removing statues of the Italian White European Christopher Columbus from public squares across this nation? Hell, Philadelphia even changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day and the Mayor repeatedly mocks the Italian American community is South Philly.

     Where were the jokes on the current administration? From what I understand, as I no longer watch the show and haven't for years, the previous administration was repeatedly mocked and ridiculed on every week's broadcast. Biden himself is a rich source for humor; His senility (SNL used that for years during the Reagan administration), his waffling on promises, stupid comments, the old man wanting to fight shtick. Come on man!!! I could see a sketch of Biden at the White House shaking his fist and yelling at visitors and tourists to “Get off my lawn”. That would be hilarious. You could do sketches of him just showing up at awkward times in rooms where things are happening such as a dinner party, a board meeting, a drug deal, a Chinese war room, A jihadi cave, etc. because he doesn't know where he is. The line would always be: “Joe Biden? What are you doing here?” and he would just say “Come on man!”, and then shuffle off muttering something inaudibly.

     Kamala Harris Too can be easily lampooned. That ridiculous fake laugh, the annoying whiny nasal voice and haughty speech affect. The "woman of color" thing. Hey, I'm as black as Kamala Harris and you might be too. SNL has done fake game shows in the past, why not something like "Black as Kamala Harris" You could have contestants guessing which people; Jackie Chan, Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau, etc. are as black as Kamala Harris and of course they all would be. But you’ll never see anything like that on SNL.

     SNL has become partisan, lazy, predictable and unfunny. They've circled out areas and topics that they will not touch and that is not humor. Humor requires courage. Telling jokes and writing sketches that only conform to the current cultural and political climate may be safe, but that's not the trail that people like Carlin and Bruce blazed. But I think I've figured out why SNL and other late-night shows have stuck with the "woke" mob. Over the past two decades they've chosen to pick a side in the cultural and political realms and have alienated such a large section of American society, that stepping on the toes of the audience that remains would be catastrophic because we all know how easily their "woke" audience is offended, don't we? You can’t make jokes about the left because the left can’t take a joke.

Greg

Thursday, November 13, 2014

The Parable of the Fishermen

  A man decided he was going to fish, so the next day he went down to the sporting goods store and bought a book on fishing. After returning home he read the book and learned about all kinds of fish and the methods for catching them. The next week he went back to the sporting goods store and purchased a rod and reel. After returning home he practiced casting the line on the rod and reel and became very good at it. The next week he went back to the sporting goods store and purchased hooks and bait. After returning home he taught himself how to put the bait on the hooks. The next week he went to the sporting goods store and bought special clothing for fishermen and then went home. The next week he went to the sporting goods store and found people talking about fishing and spent the entire day there discussing the pros and cons of various theories on fishing. On his way home he met his neighbor who had a cooler full of fish. He said to his neighbor; I've never seen you at the sporting goods store nor have we ever talked about fishing. How is it that you have a cooler full of fish. His neighbor replied; I went fishing.