Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

I have watched the majority of the new NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and have enjoyed it for the most part. This new “dramedy” focuses on the production of a sketch comedy show of the same name. I do find it ironic that this show is on NBC. The show’s premise is that they had to bring in two new guys to run the show after their predecessor flipped out and went on a tirade about the pathetic nature of Studio 60. Hopefully the irony is obvious to you: Saturday Night Live is just as bad as the tirade about Studio 60 suggested.

One of the things that I found somewhat interesting was their dealings with Christianity. One of the lead characters is a “devout” Christian (although that doesn’t necessarily mean she is orthodox by any means). They also portray her has a pretty normal, level-headed person. Go figure. One of the plot lines throughout is the Christian reaction to certain sketches (one being “Crazy Christians”) where there is outcry and petition (and even boycotting) against the show by Christians who are against some of those sketches. Well Sally made the astute observation that that doesn’t really happen in reality (well of course there will always be some really conservative Christians getting upset about everything). Christians are constantly being made fun of or belittled for their faith in numerous shows (definitely including SNL) but, by and large, Christians take the blows (and sometimes even think the comments are spot on and funny). What if one of the show’s lead characters was Muslim? What if the sketches made fun of Islam and its followers instead of Christians? That show would NEVER make it on the air and there really would be protests and boycots (and I would love to see how the ACLU would respond!). Any thoughts on this point?

As I implied before, I have not be very impressed with the quality of SNL‘s comedy. I really haven’t been since the early 90s. I caught the season premiere with Dane Cook hosting and all hopes of the new season bringing better sketches was squashed. It just seemed to be the same old stuff, appealing to the lowest common denominator. That being said, I found one bright moment in a largely un-funny sketch. The sketch started out as usual, making fun of George Bush. The premise was that a few of our “friendly” world leaders (Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hugo Chavez) were in a round table discussion debating “important” questions such as “Is Bush the Devil?” and the like. Yada yada yada. The real funny moment came with the last question (which I suppose is when it is supposed to come): “If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?” They all responded, with enthusiasm, that America was their destination of choice. They actually managed to make the comment that as much as other nations and peoples bash the US, it is still where people want to come. (Gee, it is like we are actually a good place to be!) Who knew SNL could actually notice that.