Viewers Left Wondering 'Where Are the Jokes?' After Embarrassing SNL Skit: 'None of This' Was Funny
“Saturday Night Live” is an American pop culture institution. That’s not to say it’s any good, that’s just to say it’s there.
In fact, there are plenty of American pop culture institutions we could do without. The Fourth of July Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest on Coney Island, for instance, is an American pop culture institution. It’s also devolved from a quaint, quirky way to celebrate the holiday’s semi-official food to a vomit-inducing spectacle in which one marvels in horror at the creative ways professional eaters can stuff 70-plus hot dogs down their gaping maws.
Madonna is a pop culture institution; as this year’s Grammy’s proved, she’s also had so much cosmetic surgery she’s unrecognizable and hasn’t had a hit in 20 years. “The Simpsons” is a pop culture institution, but people mainly watch it to comment on how bad the jokes have gotten.
However, I’ll give “The Simpsons” this: At least it still tries to make jokes. This past weekend, “Saturday Night Live” proved they’re not even going to try to do that any longer. It’s officially devolved into a political preachfest.
As you may have heard, “SNL” got its first “nonbinary” cast member this year — Molly Kearney, who goes by they/them pronouns but otherwise presents as female, her actual gender.
As you also have doubtlessly heard, transgender individuals are very much in the news these past weeks since 1) a transgender-identifying 28-year-old woman shot up a Nashville Christian school, killing six people in the process and 2) several states passed laws limiting what the left likes to refer to as “gender-affirming care” — be it hormone therapies, surgeries, or use of preferred pronouns.
“SNL” decided to address the matter on the “Weekend Update” skit, which I’m of the belief is only around because someone with sense at NBC (a rare commodity) wants to remind us how funny Norm Macdonald was in comparison to every other person who’s anchored the skit after he got canned.
This time, there was barely an attempt to be funny as Kearney’s nonbinary identity was leaned upon to make her a stand-in for the trans community. The humor seemed to come from Kearney entering from above like a professional wrestler entering the ring via a harness.
“As you know, I’ve been wanting to come to ‘Update’ and talk about trans people. But I have for a much longer time than that wanted to fly down from the ceiling,” Kearney said.
After that, picture the opening monologue to Joy Reid’s MSNBC show if Reid was nonbinary.
“I’m not gonna lie, this harness is pretty tight, and my groin area is beefed. I’ve been hung up by my genitals for far too long, and I’m starting to feel like a frickin’ Republican lawmaker,” Kearney said.
Then, she started lecturing: “Restricting health care for kids. For some reason, there’s something about the word ‘trans’ that makes people forget the word ‘kids.’ If you don’t care about trans kids’ lives, it means you don’t care about frickin’ kids’ lives,” she continued.
“Our job is to protect you, and your job is to focus on being a kid.”
This #SNL gaslighting/projection segment was embarrassingly bizarre/stupid.
See at start, & then see 1:45ish in.“If u don’t care abt trans kids’ lives, it means u don’t care abt frickin’ kids’ lives.”
“Our job is 2 protect you & ur job is 2 focus on being a kid.” <Ya think?🙄 pic.twitter.com/fI6Njw9qwD
— Remember Rush 🎙 (@JBC808182) April 16, 2023
Here’s the full clip, which is only especially remarkable because co-anchor Michael Che can’t stop laughing as he introduces Kearney. This leads me to two possible conclusions: 1) At least he found it funny? 2) He thinks it’s hilarious this is being presented as funny. You be the judge:
This didn’t go over well when it got in the hands of the general public. As Fox News host Laura Ingraham pointed out, not only was this not humorous, it was “aggressively unfunny and poorly performed.”
Congrats, to SNL. You’ve managed to green light a sketch that was both aggressively unfunny and poorly performed. https://t.co/h9ZX4Pp7iP
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 16, 2023
Or, as one user noted: “None of this is funny. Where are the jokes?”
None of this funny
Where are the jokes?
— CanadaHasFallen (@canada_fallen) April 16, 2023
What — you were expecting jokes?
How dare you, America? How dare you question “gender-affirming care,” however the libs define it? Especially since this is coming from a person who identifies as “nonbinary.”
How. Dare. You.
Right. Pretty much everyone with common sense turned this off seconds into the sermon — and if you made it through the full message, good for you. But did you laugh?
Because that’s what “SNL” is about now. Not laughs. Virtue signaling. And harnesses — because those are cool. And funny. I guess.
Rest in peace, Norm. I assure you, up there in the empyrean, that at this rate, nobody’s going to ever be funnier than you at the “Weekend Update” desk. Heck, they’re not even trying anymore, so why worry?
“SNL” and “Weekend Update” can be as woke as they want. However, viewers are going to have trouble making it 30 seconds into the clip. Even Michael Che apparently can’t stop laughing at the effrontery presented by the lack of laughs. Good work, “SNL.” You’re yet another pop culture institution that needs to be euthanized for its own good.
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