Getting lots of mileage off of the country's recent election along with the talents of the incomparable Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live has enjoyed some of its best ratings in years over the last couple of months. But now that Amy is gone on maternity leave and Tina is back at 30 Rock, what remains on SNL is bleak, sophomoric, homophobic crap.
Yesterday Scott and I met some friends on the Mall here in DC where we marched through the wind and the rain in protest of the passage of Prop 8. You can see the photos for yourself below. We listened to the stories of gay men and women whose lives and families have been unjustly and adversely affected by Prop 8 and others like it around the country. By time it was over we were tired and soaking wet, but we hoped that maybe, just maybe our efforts along with those of thousands of others across the country might help the cause for equal civil rights for the LGBT community.
When Scott and I climbed into bed after our exhausting day and flipped on SNL for a few laughs, we were assaulted in sketch after sketch with homophobic jokes. First there was a family sketch, based on one joke: that they all kissed each other inappropriately. Of course the biggest "punchlines" (if you can even call them that) were based on the male/male kisses. The audience laughed and groaned at what I suppose was the absurdity of men kissing.
Next was a sketch about juvenile delinquents who were being lectured by an ex-con about the horrors of prison, almost all of which had to do with the threat of gay sex. Isn't that hilarious? What could possibly be worse than gay sex??? There was another sketch with four guys in a car swapping tales of woe and singing Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party", again with almost all of the punchlines revolving around some incongruous gay sex reference. There was a sketch about two men painting each other naked whose art was so repulsive it made an entire room of art lovers vomit en masse. There was an appearance by "gay" cartoon characters Snagglepuss and the Great Gazoo who were supposedly gay-married. And finally the stupidly unfunny Justin Timberlake crashed a skit with Beyonce in which he played a mincing, lisping stereotypic male dancer.
THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is why shit like Prop 8 gets passed. As long as our love and sex lives are the punchline to every joke on late night TV, we will never be taken seriously. Shame on SNL. Of all days...
UPDATE: Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed SNL's offensive "gay minstrel show" the other night. Read about it at After Elton and Defamer. Also, there was one other homophobic sketch involving two male parking lot attendants who like to have sex in the mensroom together which was just as bad, but I switched the show off after the Beyonce sketch.
I've finally made the difficult decision to put my blog in semi-retirement. I've not been able to give it the attention I would like since I've started graduate school. My work load and schedule here get more and more hectic. Despite the fact that I've had several post ideas over the last couple of weeks, I simply don't have time to sit down and write them.
This blog has been been a wonderful outlet for me over the past two years, giving me confidence in my writing abilities, providing a creative focus, and connecting me to lots of new friends and fellow bloggers. I will miss it. But I'm not burying it forever. I'm sure there will be the occasional blog post I just have to get off my chest and will need a place to go with it, so check back from time to time just in case. But for now--thanks for reading!
I was on the Metro tonight on my way to see Henry IV (Part 1) at the Folger. I was reading a copy of Hamlet required for one of my classes when a teenage girl plops down in the seat next to me. She sees my book and asks "Oh, are you reading Romeo & Juliet?" First of all, I still have to remind myself to get over the shock of people actually talking to you on the train here, but that's another story. After I managed to collect myself, I answered, "No, I'm reading Hamlet."
"Oh, cool. So how is it?"
I wanted to reply "It's only one of the greatest plays of the English language." But instead I said. "It's pretty good. Ya know..."
"Oh. Well then, yes. That's right. Hamlet is totally Emo," I confirmed.
Then she wanted to know what had happened in the story so far. I really wanted to get back to my reading but was so taken with her interest I led her through some of the plot points: the ghost, Hamlet revenging his father's death, Gertrude marrying Claudius, the players, Hamlet killing Polonius, Ophelia going nuts over it, etc. "Wow," my new friend replied. "I should read it."
Much to my relief, my absentee ballot finally arrived in the mail the other day. I had been a bit concerned because I sent an application in for my absentee ballot over a month ago but must have checked the "primary election" box instead of the "general election" one because I was sent a primary ballot a few weeks ago. I panicked thinking I may have lost my chance to vote in the general election. So, I sent in another application with a nice note explaining that I thought I made an error on my original application, that I was not trying obtain two absentee ballots (that would be voter fraud!) and that I did not want to miss the opportunity to vote in this, the most important election in years. Luckily the workers at the New York City board of elections are probably used to eccentrics like me and sent me the general election ballot without question. Whew! I can't wait to drop it in the mailbox!
Scott sent me this. Apparently it reminded him of me. Just because I needed a little help hooking up my DVD/VCR to a new television set which, incidentally, he was not able to do either. So that project waits for a visit from my father next week. In the meantime enjoy this PSA. It's adorable.
