Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NEWS ANCHORS
Ted Koppel (DAH), Tom Brokaw (CHP), Bernard Shaw (TIM) hate Bush vs. Gore
— A good laugh from Parnell’s Tom Brokaw and Darrell’s Ted Koppel greeting each other with the then-popular phrase “Wazzuuuuuup!”, which is really bringing me back.
— A lot of good lines from the news anchors about how boring and mundane an election between George W. Bush and Al Gore would be. But, boy, how wrong SNL ended up being with that prediction.
— I love Tim playing Bernard Shaw all laid-back and badass.
— Molly Shannon playing herself as Bernard Shaw’s ho? How random.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host assures older generations that the show will be a good one
— Joshua Jackson’s message to little league coaches who send him creepy letters is pretty funny.
— I like the whole part with Joshua listing off hypothetical teen heartthrob host/musical guest lineups for other SNL eras: Jason Priestley/Color Me Badd for the early 90s, Kirk Cameron/Frankie Goes To Hollywood for the mid 80s, and John Travolta/ABBA for the 70s.
— Very funny part with us being shown the opening montage of a (non-existent) 70s SNL episode with Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter as the host and Foghat as the musical guest. Nice seeing the season 4 opening montage again as well (though they’re using the season 19 theme music, for some reason).
— Overall, a solid straightforward monologue that was short and sweet. Joshua handled himself surprisingly well here for what was a solo monologue by a teen heartthrob.
STARS: ***½
HAMBURGER HELPER ANTIBACTERIAL
Rerun from 1/8/00
REGIS AUDITIONS
Regis Philbin (DAH) interviews potential Kathie Lee Gifford replacements
— Darrell’s Regis Philbin, regarding Kathie Lee Gifford’s departure from the show: “Satan is quitting the show!”
— You can already tell this is going to be a fun sketch. The enthusiastic audience is also helping.
— It feels a little odd seeing a Janeane Garofalo impression on SNL, but Rachel is nailing Janeane’s demeanor.
— Joshua’s Donny Osmond is freakin’ UNCANNY. He’s a dead ringer for him here.
— Kattan’s laid-back Gelman is making me laugh. I prefer this to the stereotypical flamboyantly gay Gelman SNL would later have Kattan regularly play.
— A good topical bit with Ana as Darva Conger from FOX’s Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire. However, the topicality of this portion of the sketch most likely hasn’t aged well with a lot of viewers nowadays.
— Speaking of not aging well, holy fucking shit at Jimmy donning dark makeup to play Chris Rock – in a sketch from the year 2000, no less.
— I will say that Jimmy’s imitation of Chris Rock’s voice here keeps coming and going. At some points, he sounds just like Rock, but at other points, all I hear is Jimmy Fallon.
— 11 years later, SNL would do a successor to this sketch, in which Kathie Lee Gifford’s replacement, Kelly Ripa (played by then-cast member Nasim Pedrad), is the one auditioning celebrity co-hosts, in light of Regis Philbin’s departure from the show. I don’t recall that sketch being as memorable as this one, though.
STARS: ****
WEDDING SINGERS
(WIF) & (HOS) ruin wedding reception by playing “Died In Your Arms”
— Will and Horatio are hilarious in their constant, badly-timed singing of just one part of the song “(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight”.
— All of the back-and-forths between Will/Horatio and Joshua are cracking me up, especially when it gets tense and they’re just yelling at each other.
— Funny ending with Will and Horatio revealing they only know that one part of “(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight”, followed by Joshua angrily lunging at them and having to be held back by others.
STARS: ****
ON THE ROAD WITH THE BOYS
7 Degrees Celsius meets the press & unveils opening act (musical guest)
— The third and final installment of this recurring piece.
— Unlike the previous installments of this sketch, we don’t have the host playing a 7 Degrees Celsius member, instead playing an obsessive male fan of the band.
— The look of Horatio’s character in these 7 Degrees Celsius sketches always instantly cracks me up.
— Good to see Will’s band manager character back, after he was absent in the last installment of this sketch.
— A good laugh from the reveal of the band manager being banned from certain states for going “a little crazy online when I got my scanner”.
— Unlike the dead audience from the last time this sketch appeared in the Freddie Prinze Jr. episode, Ana and Cheri’s parts are getting good audience reactions.
— A fitting use of tonight’s musical guest, ‘N Sync. And with this, we get a young Justin Timberlake making his very first SNL sketch appearance. Ha, and look at him trying to appear all gangsta with one of his pantlegs rolled up (as seen on the right end of the screencap below).
— Overall, better than the last installment of this sketch, as they took this one into a lot of different directions from the previous installments.
STARS: ***
LEZ IT UP
to frat boys’ dismay, magic wish yields real-life lesbians (RAD) & (ANG)
— A laugh early in the sketch from Parnell exclaiming “Ellen DeGeneres was radiant!”
— Very funny turn with the magically-appearing lesbians being unattractive, middle-aged, realistic lesbians, instead of the kind the guys were hoping for.
— When expressing disappointment in the lesbians they’re given, I love Tim asking “Where’s the Asian one?!?”
— Lesbian stereotypes galore here, but this sketch is hilarious.
— Another fantastic line from Tim: “This thing is giving me a hard-OFF!”
— I love Horatio coming to the realization of “Dude, you forgot to say ‘hot’!”
— Heh, how many times during this sketch has Tim angrily thrown that same towel onto the floor?
— Funny detail with Parnell being the only one who’s into it throughout this sketch.
— I love Tim’s goofy dancing at the end.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Kevin Brennan [real] compares elites Al Gore & George W. Bush
— A lot of tepid election-related jokes from Colin to start off this Update, and even tonight’s energetic audience agrees with me.
— Hmm, Colin’s jokes have started getting better all of a sudden, especially the great one about Calista Flockhart in a boat with Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp.
— Well… this is new. SNL writer Kevin Brennan doing a political Update commentary as himself. Is SNL going for an A. Whitney Brown-type of thing here? If so, I like that.
— Kevin Brennan’s overall commentary tonight had quite a lot of funny comments. His delivery and demeanor are quite monotone and lethargic, but strangely, that kinda works in his favor. I’m interested in seeing his second (and final) Update commentary from later this season.
— Wow, an overall short Update tonight. Actually, I feel like I’ve been saying that quite a lot lately. Considering the typical quality of Colin’s Updates, maybe shorter Updates are a good thing. I’m also wondering if it’s a sign that SNL is already planning big changes for Update in the following season and have begun slowly phasing out Colin.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bye Bye Bye”
LET’S TALK BOOKS
experts consider works with naughty title-author combos
— A lot of good immature laughs from the many dirty book title-author combos, such as The Yellow River by I.P. Freely, Through A Brown Darkly by Eileen Dover, and Stain On The Great Wall by Hu Flung Poo. For such a sophomoric concept, it’s being executed very well in a mature package.
— Tim, regarding author duo Harrison Butts and Randall Dixon: “We all love Dixon-Butts.”
— Will, regarding author Henri de Balsac: “I can think of nothing I’d rather do on a cold wintry night than curl up with a leathery, musty old Balsac.”
STARS: ****
PARENTS DAY
Colette Reardon shows up at nephew’s (host) school’s Parents Day
— A good setting for Collette Reardon, who’s making what ends up being her final appearance.
— Hmm, Joey Fatone playing an obviously-gay character. I wonder how the then-closeted Lance Bass felt about that.
— Collette Reardon’s lines to the students are providing good laughs.
— Will, to Collette Reardon: “I will not sit here and listen to your bus driving/medication/pooping tales.”
— Overall, one of the better Collette Reardon appearances.
STARS: ***½
NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE OHIO YEARS
by Adam McKay- Neil Armstrong rests on laurels
— This film is already starting off very weird, right down to the child-sung song about Neil Armstrong.
— I like Armstrong scoffing at Tang drinks he sees at the supermarket.
— Horatio (the first recognizable performer in this whole film) is funny as the store clerk, especially his opening line about a Rocky marathon on TV.
— Armstrong’s various inner thoughts bragging about landing on the moon are very funny.
— Interesting progression to this film.
— An overall well-done film. In addition to being funny and entertaining, I liked the various interesting filming choices used by Adam McKay throughout this, giving this a very different feel for this SNL era.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Thought She Knew”
THREE-WAY
Warren’s attempt to draw lawnboy (host) into a menage-a-trois upsets Fran
— Good to see this slice-of-life sketch from this season’s Heather Graham episode become recurring, though this ends up being the final installment.
— A big laugh from Joshua responding to Parnell’s three-way proposition by initially just staring at him with a frozen deadpan expression (the second above screencap for this sketch), and then bolting out of the house (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— Nice continuity with there being a passing mention of Heather Graham’s character from the previous installment of this sketch.
— Parnell, to Ana on how often they have sex: “Twice a month. Take those away, we’re practically brother and sister.”
— Very funny line from Ana about a fishnet body stocking Parnell gave her as a Mother’s Day gift.
— I love the line from Parnell about how during sex, Ana laughs at him so hard that he slips out of her.
— Overall, another very solid installment of this sketch. A shame that they don’t continue any further with these sketches. These represent a realistic, smarter, more mature direction that this SNL era needed to go further towards.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— One of the best episodes of the season. A very strong effort tonight, with lots of great, standout sketches, and no real flops. Who would’ve guessed back in 2000 that an episode with such a teenybopper-centric host/musical guest line-up would turn out to be so good?
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ben Affleck)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Dwayne Johnson makes his hosting debut, back when he was known as The Rock
Not gonna lie…it took me YEARS to realize that was Fallon playing Chris Rock, I legitimately thought it was an extra they hired for the occasion (Bearing in mind, I was the enlightened age of 15 when this aired).
Fallon’s Chris Rock impression isn’t that far off, especially his facial expressions. When I first saw it back then, I had a feeling it was Jimmy, but I wasn’t sure.
I found it very ironic when SNL did that “Blackface is never ok” sketch in the wake of VA Gov. Northam scandal last year. It was a good sketch, but my word, SNL has a long history of doing blackface, and it’s not in the distant past, as evidenced here.
But, yes, this is a great ep. Will and Horatio as the wedding singers always makes me laugh. ?
Darrell was still doing Jesse Jackson as late as ‘08!!
SNL was still doing blackface up to 2013. I wish they’d addressed this in the VA sketch, the way they did in that bizarre, muddled Thanksgiving sketch Will Ferrell did a few months ago, but maybe they didn’t want to go too meta on a real life controversy.
What was the 2013 sketch with blackface?
Next episode is pretty surreal in retrospect. Lorne basically lets Vince McMahon and the then WWF take over the show. Something you would never ever see today. 20 years later
I remember at the time fan speculation seemed to be that Brennan was possibly being groomed to replace Colin the next season and I believe was actually also one of the people they auditioned that summer for replacements- the Jimmy and Tina announcement kinda came out of nowhere as one nobody expected. Not sure if most people are aware, but he’s the brother of Neal Brennan of Chappelle’s Show, who’s also guest written on SNL a bit in recent years. Kevin’s become kinda known as one of comedy’s biggest shit-stirrers on twitter in recent years (though I think Ari Shaffir may have surpassed him this past week) just heard him on Artie Lange’s podcast and it doesnt sound like he gets along with his brother Neal at all, and oddly enough Kevin also mentions Chris Redd among the numerous comedians he has a beef with, sounds like the kind of guy who doesn’t get along with most people.
Always loved that McKay short, was one of the first things I went back to try and find online when Neil Armstrong died.
I remember at the time people were actually anticipating Jimmy’s Chris Rock impression to make it on the air, there kept being mutterings of all these great impressions of former SNL alumni he had yet to debut and there was all this talk about him doing a dead-on Chris Rock. I think I remember being kinda let down by it after all the hype, especially compared to some of his funnier early debuts like Sandler and Gilbert.
You mentioned Joey Fatone’s gay character in the Colette sketch but didn’t mention the best part, when he says “We like The Backstreet Boys”!
The movie the guys are referencing in the lesbian sketch is If These Walls Could Talk 2, which had a sex scene between Ellen Degeneres and Sharon Stone. Watching this sketch I realized that both episodes this season which had teen idol hosts (the other being Freddie Prinze Jr) had sketches devoted to men being repulsed by unattractive women. I wonder if Tina or Lorne thought the audience tuning in would get a kick out of the concept.
Was that really the Statler Brothers? What a random cameo. I couldn’t tell if they were on the stage at the end. This was a good way for Colette to go – a big change of approach and an oddly sweet (unintended presumably) sendoff.
Interesting how James Van Der Beek got on because another host fell through, whereas Joshua Jackson was presumably invited outright. When Dawson’s Creek began, James was the main lead while Jackson’s character was second lead. The fans quickly grew to love him, and Jackson became a star. He’s pretty good here, although I don’t think the material suits him that well – he’s too young for a number of the earlier sketches and impressions and just sort of in generic roles in others. I’d say his best is the book talk sketch, which is just a whole lot of fun, and he more than holds his own with a great group of performers.
So we get our first glimpse of Timberlake’s 15-year SNL dominance. Eh…
I agree with you about the threesome couple. I wonder who wrote those. The concept is basic but the scripts and performances make them worth watching. Ana and Chris have a nice vibe in these too – I’m not sure anybody played ‘suburban dad with an edge’ (everywhere in the American Beauty era) as well as he did, and Ana always knows how to put in that bite for ordinary characters.
Interesting to see an otherwise unremarkable cold open break into some meta commentary by addressing that the show would be hurt by a dull election. The show really does keep pushing the whole “Bush and Gore are just alike” narrative. Little did they know that Bush would be huge for them…
McKay’s movie is another quality piece – I do wonder who the actors were.
Welp…
https://news.avclub.com/jimmy-fallon-apologizes-for-doing-blackface-after-snl-c-1843688167
Billy Crystal says, “Hold my beer.”
Jeez, so I guess both Joe Piscopo and Darrell Hammond should also apologize for playing Jesse Jackson…
And Mary Gross for playing Lena Horne, Leslie Uggams and Stevie Wonder’s mother.
And Jan Hooks, if she was still alive, for playing Oprah Winfrey and Diana Ross.
Not to mention Victoria Jackson for playing LaToya Jackson, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for playing Diana Ross.
And Terry Sweeney for playing Diana Ross and Patti LaBelle.
Ms. Louis-Dreyfus also played a pre-teen black girl next to Lily Tomlin’s Edith Ann…
Aside from people who want to condemn SNL as a whole (or Lorne Michaels, given how controversial or problematic he is to various people who write about the show/comedy/etc.), the main time something like blackface or other “cancel” material will get attention is if the cast member is famous. Jimmy is famous. When Bill Hader had a big moment last year thanks to the near-universal acclaim for Barry and his work in It 2, people found his blackface sketch and this was treated as something brand new, even though it had been on Youtube for 6 years. Jimmy is also very polarizing, which gets more traction. I noticed that someone claiming to be a Seth Meyers stan was telling people to support him instead, which is another example of how silly and fake much of this Twitter posturing is, as if anyone actually knew Seth’s career, they would know he had his share of questionable material at SNL, as both cast member and headwriter (and I doubt he would disagree with that view). The part that really got me is when I would see people say to “stan” Jimmy Kimmel instead (since Jimmy is more broadly liked) only to be told that he too has done blackface. Another example of how empty so much of this posturing is.
There are valid criticisms of SNL’s history with yellowface, blackface, stereotypes, treatement of drag roles, what have you, but most of the criticism ends up being to get attention and to seem “woke” on a social media platform that is more about seeming socially aware than actually doing anything to make positive change.
The whole “is over” stuff is also generally used as a reason to promote fancams and get attention, diluting the power of criticism more and more.
https://www.cracked.com/article_27825_dont-abuse-isoverparty-twitter-trend-we-need-it.html
Fallon seems to be very contrite about it. Lorne should have never even let it make it to air.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jimmy-fallon-talks-blackface-controversy-don-lemon-naacps-derrick-johnson-1296778
I watched some of that. He did seem very contrite, even when he probably could have kept quiet (that controversy feels very ancient even though it’s only been a week). It was also interesting to hear him talk about how he’d been advised to stay quiet but chose not to do so. I think it’s another sign of some of the proteges of old at SNL who have been so guided by Lorne and others trying to find their own voices for a new era.
And now there’s this…
https://pagesix.com/2020/06/04/gabrielle-union-files-complaint-calling-nbc-a-snake-pit-of-racial-offenses/
Not only is Jimmy mentioned, but Fred Armisen’s name is dropped in as well.
What that article reveals is the shakedowns that are really at the heart of all of these new complains. There is an extreme level of absurdity in which these chains of guilt and responsibility with respect to racism are strung together across decades in this lawsuit in order to try to build a case for someone to get money. This is right in the textbook with how some of the absurd sexual harassment lawsuits against big corporations have been put together. Unrelated incidents of relative insignificance that took place years apart are piled on top of each other in order to make a claim that the company is “systemically” discriminating. The lawsuit claims Jay Leno, Ted Danson, Howie Mandel and Al Roker are racist. It claims that Simon Cowell’s smoking is racist. It claims someone not liking her hairstyle is racist. And somehow she deserves money now based on a mistake that Danson made almost thirty years ago. This is a highly laughable, embarrassing and frivolous lawsuit. These claims have to be seen as what they are, abusive, absurd, greedy and an attack on the freedom of the American people to run a business without unjust interference. And, worse, if these kinds of lawsuits keep going on. it will scare businesses off from hiring women or non-whites. Because as soon as they fire an employee for not performing well, there are people like Gabrielle Union who will slap them with a lawsuit and accuse them of being racist and sexist.
In what may be the last word on the whole subject (unless Chris mentions it in his upcoming monologue), Chris and Lorne each give their thoughts (and Lorne speaks a bit more about now-dated/offensive comedy of past years).
https://ew.com/tv/chris-rock-responds-jimmy-fallon-blackface/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/arts/television/lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-chris-rock.html
Lorne in that interview is in no way calling comedy from the show’s past “dated” or “offensive.” He is calling into question the very idea of these witch hunts by saying, if people were not allowed to play characters who were different from themselves, it would have eliminated a large number of classic, popular characters and sketches from the show.
I will say that 9 times outta 10, anyone who screams about getting “cancelled” are kinda narcissistic. They wanna complain how “everything has to be censored” now and how they can “do no wrong, it’s comedy, who cares if people are hurt?” All the while they’re making bank off of stand-up specials, podcasts, youtube, etc, all the while complaining that everyone hates them and that they’ve been silenced.
Still, whose idea was it to let Jimmy Fallon portray Chris Rock when you had TWO BLACK CAST MEMBERS. It wasn’t even that good of an impression, which is a shame cause it made what would’ve been the best sketch of the night to drop the ball at the 5 yard line.
and Yeah, Saturday Night Live does have a notorious reputation when it comes to blackface, and yellowface, and just stereotyping in general. And, I guess you can justify it in the past for Joe Piscopo, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Julia Louis-Dryfus, and Mary Gross cause there weren’t any Black Cast Members of their gender on the cast at the time they did their blackface roles. (Yes I know Piscopo started doing his Jesse Jackson impression in Season 9 when Murphy was still technically in the cast although all his bits were pre-taped.) But, you really, really shouldn’t, they really should’ve had a Cast Member of Color.
And yeah Darrel Hammond and that god-awful Terry Sweeny sketch from the finale of Season 11 (you know the one) aren’t justifiable, at least in my eyes. So, there’s that. I will say that people of my generation are more about burning bridges than trying to link up with the antiquated past, of which I tend to follow. I think we’re just looking for any excuse to change and remake society in the way we seek fit, y’know no billionaires, more diversity, mutual aid, etc. Yet, there are some things that we like, and I think Saturday Night Live is looking towards the future by not repeating the mistakes of the past. We have a more diverse cast than ever nowadays and it’s only going to get more diverse from there. So, yes, Saturday Night Live does have a real bad past, however, unlike many things, it is certainly not doomed to repeat it.
Why is it now offensive if someone does an imitation of somebody else who has a different skin color than they do? Does it only apply to white people doing imitations? No one seems to think the Eddie Murphy sketch where he played a generic white guy is offensive. Ellen Cleghorne played a Puerto Rican and we don’t hear any complaints about that. Are other combinations like that okay? Is it okay if an Indian plays a black person? How about if an Asian plays a Latino? Is it ever NOT offensive when a white person imitates someone of a different race now? When were these rules made up? It is a criticism I never heard before the last 5 or so years.
One thing that we know is that the most frequent intent of any actor on SNL when they imitate someone is to parody a specific individual or to create a unique, individualized character. There are no sketches I can think of where they try to suggest that an entire race of people has certain qualities in common. “Blackface” was a historical type of comedy that used a stereotype of blacks which has been virtually extinct for decades, and has never been done on SNL. Wearing any kind of REALISTIC makeup by definition cannot be “blackface.” “Blackface” by definition is unrealistic, exaggerated makeup (e.g. it uses color contrast to exaggerate lip size and things like that). Anyone can claim that Jimmy Fallon dressed as Chris Rock is “blackface” all they want, but it simply isn’t. You can’t just declare that the historical definition of a word has been changed.
Makeup is often a part of any SNL imitation, be it hair, nose, weight, etc. Why is skin color the only attribute that you’re suddenly not allowed to imitate with makeup now? What makes it so different from any other physical trait? Somebody could potentially be offended by someone putting on a big false nose or a fatsuit. Why aren’t those also becoming taboo now?
How is it that the rules don’t apply to people imitating an ethnic accent, if the accent doesn’t also happen to correspond to a skin color difference? So far, I haven’t heard of anyone being offended by a non-Scottish person doing a Scottish accent, a British actor faking an American accent, or a person from the northern U.S. imitating a southern U.S. accent. On the contrary, we have always heard great praise for an actor whenever they can accurately imitate an accent from a different culture than their own.
But now, in addition to the makeup issue, we are being told there’s a new rule where a white person can’t do a voice in a cartoon for a black person, an Indian, or I guess any character who is non-white. I’m not sure if this applies to non-white characters who have a British, Scottish or Southern accent. So, if this new rule isn’t just about skin color or historical “blackface” performers, what is its purpose again?
Sometimes people say the issue is that a black, Asian, Latino, etc. should’ve been hired for that part, rather than having the job given to a white person. But then why doesn’t that apply to other different types of people? There are young actors who do the voices of senior citizens. There are adult women who do the voices of male children. Mike Myers does a Scottish accent in Shrek. Why wasn’t a true Scotsman hired to do that part? Why should anyone imitate a Southern accent or a New York accent when a Southerner or New Yorker could be hired? What about gay playing straight, straight playing gay, Christian playing Jewish, Buddhist playing Scientologist, and so on? What are these new rules about acting and when and how broadly do they apply? The idea of being offended by something in comedy is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from believing that a show has unfair hiring practices. You can feel that one, the other, or both are true, but they’re still totally different concepts. People need to clarify exactly which of the two things they’re objecting to and why if they want to be understood.
If the issue is about hiring practices, then is everything okay if the show has a completely diverse cast? Could any actor then go ahead and imitate any person of any race, because it isn’t having any effect on anyone’s job? And, when it comes to hiring voices, isn’t it just as harmful to the acting job market when one voice actor does multiple parts in the same show? Every actor on The Simpsons is preventing dozens of actors from behind hired because they voice multiple characters. How about when Eddie Murphy plays a dozen different characters in one movie? Was he preventing actors from getting hired, or was he creating comedy that had to be based on the art of imitation to work at all? How much harder will it get to be funny with a new panel of morally superior censors judging every decision you make by a brand new set of rules?
There are endless ways of categorizing people beyond just racial categories. When the rules start to say that you can’t imitate people different from yourself, then a new taboo is being created around the whole art of imitation itself. And it’s one that attacks the very foundation of the artform. Before recently, everyone could always enjoy whenever someone achieved a realistic imitation of another person. Sometimes people might think the imitation was too negative, but the art of achieving the imitation through makeup and impersonation was never questioned. Now we’re being told there are fuzzily defined instances where some imitations are no longer acceptable to do. Does that mean it’s also not acceptable to enjoy said imitation? If I find Billy Crystal’s imitation of Sammy Davis, Jr. funny, am I being a bad person now? How about if the person being imitated, like Chris Rock in Jimmy Fallon’s case, approves of the imitation. Is it still wrong for Jimmy to do it or for me to laugh at it? But can I still assume that if Donald Trump disapproves of Alec Baldwin’s imitation, that’s not required to have any effect on how that imitation is perceived?
What it all sadly comes down to is that we’re on the way to institutionalizing new systems of censorship on the arts. It doesn’t help foster creativity when there is a new board of censors hovering over you, developing new types of judgments on what kind of comedy is allowed on the air or not. SNL, as well as a lot of other great comedy, has thrived on breaking taboos and being willing to risk offending people. I feel as bad for the person who was offended by “penis” being said on the air, or by seeing a same-sex kiss on TV, as I do for the person who is offended by seeing Jimmy Fallon portray Chris Rock. In every case, we have a person who is being uptight and close-minded about something that most people don’t believe is doing any harm to anybody.
Let me close with Rock’s and Lorne Michaels’ comments about the Fallon issue, both from September 2020:
Rock: I’m friends with Jimmy. Jimmy’s a great guy. And he didn’t mean anything. A lot of people want to say intention doesn’t matter, but it does. And I don’t think Jimmy Fallon intended to hurt me. And he didn’t.
Michaels: If you go back over the history of the show, you’re going to find lots of examples of things — I don’t think Gilda Radner could do Roseanne Roseannadanna and John [Belushi] could definitely not do the Samurai. Garrett Morris could not do News for the Hard of Hearing. I could go on and on. Steve [Martin] and Danny [Aykroyd] could not be Czech brothers because they’re not Czech. That criteria is not the greatest soil for comedy to thrive on. I’m not saying comedy should be the dominant thing in our lives. I’m just saying it’s important it exists because, in addition to everything, it’s a safety valve.
Paula Pell talks a bit about the 7 Degrees Celsius sketch.