Did "Saturday Night Live" Go Too Far With Palin Incest Joke?
Does the question even have to be asked? Sadly, it does, because I know there are going to be people who thought it was funny.
Over the weekend, that tired old chestnut formerly known as Saturday Night Live, in an attempt to be funny and topical, decided to poke fun at Sarah Palin, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, and her husband. Okay, that's nothing new, and frankly it's probably to be expected. But it isn't the decision to lampoon them that has people in an uproar, but the subject matter:
In Saturday Night Live’s second attempt to mock this year’s vice presidential race, a sketch lampooning The New York Times as out of touch has instead touched off a firestorm by casually throwing out a much more insidious inference — incest — between Todd Palin and his pregnant, teenage daughter, Bristol.While SNL fans had widely anticipated the return of Tina Fey in an edgy yet endearing role as Sarah Palin, Saturday’s sketch has managed to reignite the furor sparked by claims early this month that the Republican vice presidential candidate is not the mother of her 5-month-old son, Trig.
The sketch, say supporters, was supposed to accentuate how disconnected The New York Times is from anything west of the Hudson River, particularly Alaska. But critics say that the sketch backfired by suggesting that Todd Palin committed incest.
In the sketch, New York Times reporters are sitting around an assignment meeting discussing what about Palin to investigate next.
One reporter asks: “What about the husband? You know he’s doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It’s Alaska.”
Guest host James Franco, who played the assignment editor, sets up the joke of proving a negative, saying, “He very well could be. Admittedly, there is no evidence of that, but on the other hand, there is no convincing evidence to the contrary. And these are just some of the lingering questions about Governor Palin.”
After three of the reporters agree to go to Alaska, one sues for sexual discrimination after being called “sweetie” by a school board member, one is killed by a polar bear and a final reporter wins a Pulitzer for “unproven, yet un-disproven incest in the Palin family” and then is killed by a polar bear driving a “snow machine.”
The final shot in the rambling joke is an image of a New York Times page, featuring headlines: “While No Direct Evidence of Incest in Palin Family Emerges, Counter Evidence Remains Agonizingly Elusive” and “In a Small Alaska Town, Doubts Still Linger.”
Oh yeah, super funny stuff, that. I'll be surprised if this one doesn't win an Emmy next year. Continued on the next page
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