Saturday Night LiveToo often propaganda produces satire, and not satire. The show’s overtly liberal bent has shattered a legacy of mocking the powerful, regardless of party affiliation.
For one night, though, the show’s propaganda gave way to something new. It could be called comic therapy. A Feb. 26 sketch featured three couples discussing how the science has suddenly “changed” regarding the pandemic.
Kenan Thompson, one of their friends, is wearing the COVID-19 mask as they sit down to dinner. He sheepishly removes it when his friends tell him that the mask regulations have ended. This leads to awkward confessions that are accompanied by panicked asides and whispers.
Were we wrong…about everything?
The comedic performances are clumsy save for Kate McKinnon’s work. She remains the show’s most reliable comic force.
There’s plenty to examine about the sketch in question.
First, it’s clear the six diners are all liberals who consume the same news day in, day out. That’s efficient comedy writing, for what it’s worth. This information is conveyed in a five minute sketch, but it’s not shared directly.
You can look closer.
The sextet cast aside friends who didn’t perfectly align with their perceived COVID “truths.” Now, they’re having second thoughts as legacy media outlets let the truth trickle out.
It doesn’t help that The New York Times, of all places, just shared how the CDC is hiding critical COVID-19 information lest the public “misinterpret” the data.
Perhaps the comedy show’s writers have some guilt about how they behaved during the pandemic, too. Is this humor or cathartic?
The diners also soothe themselves by reciting the media’s pandemic talking points, almost like a church hymnal that grants them strength.
Secondly, each diner is afraid to share a thought that hasn’t been pre-approved by their peers. It’s played up for comic effect, but it’s a sad reality for too many Americans. Say the “wrong” thing, like former Levi executive Jennifer Sey learned the hard way, and you could lose your job.
Sey observed the irony in social media.
The assembled diners are so afraid of the emerging truth, and realizing they may have bought into a lie for two years, that they’re petrified of even voicing that reality.
It’s a startling depiction of tribal groupthink in 2022.
Finally, as one of Sey’s followers shrewdly noted, this skit could have real-world consequences. Many Americans believed that the “Lab Leak Theory” involving COVID-19 was the stuff of conspiracy web sites, not reality.
You couldn’t fully blame them. Everybody, including the media and Big Tech as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, believed it to be a lie until reality started to sink in.
Jon Stewart was the comedian who challenged that narrative on very liberal grounds Late ShowBefore people started to question its truth.
If the diner sketch goes viral, it could have a similar effect. We’ll have to wait and see.
Here’s the deal: SNLIt offered an opportunity to have fun with sanity, self-awareness and a quick sketch. You never know. Maybe next week they’ll finally realize the president they’ve been protecting for the past year is worth a not so gentle ribbing?
[Cross-posted from Hollywood in Toto]
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