'Saturday Night Live' actually offended me this weekend

The season premiere of 'Saturday Night Live' was this past weekend and I checked it out for a few minutes.

Normally SNL is about as cutting edge and offensive as my mother after a sip of vodka but one sketch REALLY disgusted me.

It was a parody of those 'Girls Gone Wild' videos, which in and of itself is pretty easy and predictable material but this particular sketch was Girls Gone Wild: Katrina'. Yup, there they were, in New Orleans on a boat, flood survivors lifting up their shirts, FEMA workers doing the same, etc. Just imagine everything you've seen in those trashy 'Girls Gone Wild' TV commercials but replace the ****ty women with flood survivors.

I am not one who gets offended at humor but this was in bad taste in the worst way. I've never been offended to where I'm actually writing a letter to the network to complain. What kind of drunken frat boy morons does SNL hire these days? How the hell could Lorne Michaels let this go on the air, what were NBC executives thinking???

What, they couldn't wait six months before they insulted thousands and thousands of people who lost everything? I stood there watching this with my mouth slack jawed.

Again, I don't even remember the last time *any* comedy bit offended me. Typically I'll laugh or just think that took some balls to do it but this? This was way out of line.

I see your point. That sketch made me squirm, too. Maybe the SNL braintrust thought they could get away with it now that several weeks had passed since any of those people were in harm's way?

Overall, I thought the show had more rough edges than usual. They have to be missing head writer Tina Fey, since she's out on maternity leave. That Weekend Update with Horatio Sanz was painful to watch. The grueling work hours at SNL probably aren't compatible with family life, so I hope Lorne Michaels has a successor ready if his head writer decides not to return to the sweatshop.

SNL hasn't been good for a long time now. Perhaps it's time to ride off into the sunset.

Still picking up bodies down there.

That might be funny in 10 years, not 1 month later.

That is very bad and very tasteless. But it does not shock me in this modern TV world of Punk'd type TV. Just like all the Girls Gone Wild TV commercials that seem to be on the TV (real nice). Times see lots of changes. TV in the last 30 years has changed immensely. Some of it for the good (like 6-10 sports channels!). But there has been many changes for the bad IMO. Too much cussing, too much raunchy stuff (Howard Stern's nude guests, need I say more?), too much of the Jerry Springer thing, etc..

Do not get me wrong... I cuss sometimes and I do not mind a fine looking lady with nothin' on but her birthday suit. However, there is a time and a place for these things.

Good taste and TV only seems to be on The Food Network.

Somehow I see a connection to this and the fact that they are making folks go through the pain of Ashlee Simpson again. When it rains it pours.

As offensive as the "Parody" was (because it wasn't even worthy of being called that -- it was a cheap attempt a laugh), I think what's even more telling is how we really don't even bat an eyelash any more at the fact that we're being peddled outright smut in 30 second spots on television.

Girls, 18-19 years old, getting liquored up, signing a consent form, and then basically prostituting themselves for a free t-shirt and some attention being paid to them.

It's sad. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't attractive, but it's still sad nevertheless...

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Originally Posted by savafan

SNL hasn't been good for a long time now. Perhaps it's time to ride off into the sunset.

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SNL is a cyclical show. Every five or six years you hear the "Saturday Night Dead" crowd come out and say it's time to move on and end the show. The book "Live From New York" looks at this in some depth if anyone is interested. A great read.

However, as low as it seems to get, it eventually rebounds. They'll get more talent and the show will be funny again and the question of "is this the best cast ever?" will surface again and the cycle will go on. Give it time, the show is too good at finding/making stars to be down for too long.

Yeah, but unfortunately the show made Jimmy Fallon a star.

Only if that's your meager definition of a 'star'. :p:

Rem

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Originally Posted by savafan

Yeah, but unfortunately the show made Jimmy Fallon a star.

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Water seeks its own level. If there's one thing I've learned by watching pro wrestling is that no matter how much you build a guy up into the next big thing, if he doesn't have the skills to get over with the fans, he's going to be a mid-carder.

Same way with these SNL people. Lorne gets one of the cast that is semi-popular and puts them in star vehicles produced by him and sometimes it works (Mike Myers, Will Farrell, Adam Sandler) and sometimes it doesn't (Jimmy Fallon, Rob Schneider). With the former three, they were all talented enough to make people want to watch them. Not so with the latter two. Fallon's good at doing impressions of singers and such but he was always too into himself to be a big star.

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Originally Posted by Sabo Fan

SNL is a cyclical show. Every five or six years you hear the "Saturday Night Dead" crowd come out and say it's time to move on and end the show. The book "Live From New York" looks at this in some depth if anyone is interested. A great read.

However, as low as it seems to get, it eventually rebounds. They'll get more talent and the show will be funny again and the question of "is this the best cast ever?" will surface again and the cycle will go on. Give it time, the show is too good at finding/making stars to be down for too long.

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That's exactly what I was going to say. The SNL brand name is too valuable to just kill off. It always seems to bounce back eventually.