'SNL' Palin 'Incest' Skit Angers Viewers - Viewers, Bloggers Think Skit Went Over Line

WNBC ^

[Sub-Driver]

'SNL' Palin 'Incest' Skit Angers Viewers Viewers, Bloggers Think Skit Went Over Line

POSTED: 11:30 am EDT September 22, 2008 UPDATED: 12:14 pm EDT September 22, 2008 For the second week in a row, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" has taken to lampooning Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- but this time, it has angered conservative viewers over a skit that suggests that the Alaska governor's husband, Todd Palin, was having sex with the couple's daughters.

In the skit, show guest host James Franco plays an assignment editor at the New York Times at the head of an editorial meeting. During a mock assignment meeting where the paper announced that 50 reporters were being sent to look for dirt on Sarah Palin, a Times "reporter" asks, "What about the husband? You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska."

In response, Franco's character said, "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 Gov. Palin."

[Bookwoman]

It may be a rip on the media, but it is putting the idea out there to sink into people’s subconscious minds which accept things at face value. Some (stupid) people will forget that they heard it on SNL and will report it to friends as fact. It is a dirty trick with semi-plausible deniability. “We weren’t ripping on the Palins - we were ripping on the media!” They were ripping on both, but the rip on Palin is harder to defend against.

[Checkers]

Even though Rush said he hadn't seen the sketch, he seemed to intuit there was some parodying of the NYTimes.

Which is more than can be said about some of the bloviators on this thread...

[SwankyC]

hopefully viewers are demanding SNL do a skit ala

[HamiltonJay]

That is an excellent analogy.

[Checkers]

Did you see the skit?

[CharlieOK1]

BINGO!

[Checkers]

You.

Nailed.

It.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Correctamundo...most have not viewed the skit. Yesterday’s FRighteous indignation was courtesy of WorldNutDaily; today (sadly) its Rush (he admits he didn’t see it either!?!?!) who is to blame for today’’s histrionics.

There are alot of things this election cycle to get upset over...and this isn’t it.

[tioga]

Bristol has paid a high price for this VP run. I hope it is making her stronger. Pregnancy usually causes warring hormones with ups and downs. She is under stress for sure. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it all go away. God bless her.

[BobS]

Todd Palin could own NBC if he wants to. Just sue them for $2B. And sell it. He's a private citizen. I know a law firm in Calabasas, CA that only does big cases. But the lawyer that runs the place took my case of an illegal alien that almost killed me by running a red light. Their car stopped at a 45 deg angle up a tree. The car I was a passenger in had it's front end knocked 200 feet down the street. 3:30 PM. After work. I was knocked out.

We had pictures of eveything. Some guy pulled me out and I was walking. My black buddy had a concussion. We got $. And those illegal aliens got deported.

I bought an F-250 SD 4WD soon after. Let some illegal alien hit this 3 tons running a red light. I will not rescue. That's over.

[IYAS9YAS]

There is enough things to truly get upset over, to try to feign outrage due to ones own ignorance however is an exercise in stupidity

The problem I have with it, is out of all the things they could have come up with, why incest? While I think that some jokes are funny, when no one person in particular is skewered (you might be a redneck.. or folks from Arkansas tend to have family trees with no branches), when you direct them at an individual, it changes things, crosses a line.

Not that this hurts SNL in my mind. Haven't watch that bleakness in over 20 years. They just aren't funny.

Will Ferrell is a prime example. Every movie he does is the same thing. I can only think of two movies he's in that I can even stand to watch.

He's just not funny. He thinks he is, but it's he's really just a sad and pathetic person.

[Checkers]

Maybe if enough people call those numbers, SNL will get the message to never make fun of the New York Times again...

...ever.

~sheesh~

[Checkers]

Did you see the skit?

[Checkers]

Your shots at Rush are not helping your point.

Rush was pretty measured about the skit.

[beandog]

You are as usual 100% percent correct. Some people have an odd sense of humor and will defend their odd sense of humor to the death.

[roses of sharon]

"I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5," she said. "So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me."-------

Your right, obviously the evidence is plain...SNL were teasing their buddies at the NYT, to cloak a stereotype smear of white trash AGAIN, upon the Palins.

Good on Rush....he knows these people and their propaganda techniques.

[stripes1776]

Did you see the skit?

Yes, and the reporter made several fallacies of relevance. There was the appeal to ignorance, a red herring. If there is no proof that the allegation is false, then it must be true.

The skit could have been funny if the report hadn't been suggesting Palin committed incest. That crossed the line.

But a person doesn't need this analysis to determine if something is funny. Either you laugh at it or you don't. I don't.

[Texas Federalist]

You yourself are calling people who disagree with you idiots. That is an ad hominem argument against your oppenents as people, not an argument against their ideas.

Whether or not you are offended by the mere suggestion of incest in a joke is one thing. But to suggest that that sketch was an attack on the Palin family is laughable. No thinking human being could see that as anything other than an attack on the NY Times and liberal elites.

People are being counterproductive by expressing outrage at the wrong times. The Hillary/Palin, Alaska Pete, and McCain ad sketches were clearly directed at smearing Republicans. But everyone picks the one skit this year that smears liberals as elitist liers who are out of touch with middle America and THAT'S the sketch they choose to complain about????? No wonder the liberals have such an easy time convincing independants that we are all wackos.

[Badabing Badablonde]

I loved Charlton Heston before this episode of SNL, but after this appearance, he took on almost saintly qualities in my eyes.

http://www.indianaauditions.com/forum/showthread.php?p=76461

The Saturday Night Live Anniversary Show where he came out in a tux and said...

Charlton Heston: Over it's 15-year history, "Saturday Night Live" has offended more than a few of its viewers. In fact, it's probably safe to say that, at one time or another, the show has offended every single one of its viewers. It will therefore come as no surprise that, week after week, the mail brings hundreds of angry, even ugly, letters. Tonight, I've been asked to read one of these letters. This is dated March 19th, 1978:

[ reads letter ]

"Nausea. Violent, gut-churning nausea. That's the only way I can describe the revulsion I felt as I watched last week's episode of the show called "Saturday Night Live". Vulgar, snide, purile. Devoid of either taste or intellectual content, let alone humor. "Saturday Night Live" displays in show after dreadful show, its sniggering contempt for even the appalling standards of network television. What kind of world are we living in, that this is considered entertainment? As I sat stunned by this abomination, quite literally sick to my stomach, it occurred to me that your cast and writers resemble nothing so much as a collection of spoiled children throwing a party the weekend Mommy and Daddy are away. Well, NBC, perhaps its time Mommy and Daddy came home, assumed their parental responsibilities, and removed this weekly affront to the mind and spirit from our television screens. Signed: Charlton Heston."

[Badabing Badablonde]

And that’s back when SNL was GOOD!