Satire Night Live

Saturday Night October 18 "Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!" The set up for this show had been underway since the first appearance of Tina Fey acting as a veritable Doppelgänger for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Apparently the McCain/Palin campaign had also been campaigning for equal time from the NBC Icon of comedy sketches. Tina Fey had also appeared the night before on The Late Show with David Letterman where she had stated that Sarah Palin was never invited onto the SNL program she appeared on but rather had badgered her way onto the show to what will end up being much regretted by her campaign.

Sarah Palin appeared in both the opening sketch and during Weekend Update with Amy Poehler and Seth Meyer. At no time did Sarah get much opportunity to speak. In fact when she replaced Tina Fey on stage during the opening we could have been watching her debate with Joe Biden again except this time she actually was honest enough to say that she wouldn't answer any questions.

From there the show remained not funny; intensely so. My wife and I continued to watch the entire show and it continued to be not funny. The sketches were seemingly designed around inappropriate humor that was not funny. That, I would argue WAS THE POINT. The night's host was Josh Brolin, star of the new Oliver Stone film W. (Mr. Stone made a guest appearance during the opening monologue where he asked the host to mention the name of his film and that it opened this weekend.) Brolin demonstrated his depiction of some of George W. Bush's mannerisms (which were spot on) and I found it hard to look at Mr. Brolin through the rest of the show without seeing "W."

The first sketch was a MacGuyver spoof or reference to a T.V. character commonly known to be able to get out of any difficult circumstance. The mini-sketch was reprised 2 more times in the show becoming more and more surreal in demonstrating the inability of even MacGuyver to get past our current economic crisis.

Mark Wahlberg was incorporated into the show as a celebrity who was "offended" by Andy Samberg's depiction of him in a prior episode's sketch. Mr. Wahlberg found Mr. Samberg backstage and threatened him with reprisal and at one point violence for his caricature of him. During their exchange they were continually interrupted by other cast members and even a donkey at one point which always prompted Mr. Wahlberg to shift his tone to "nice guy who was a friend to all." As each character left Mr. Wahlberg and Mr. Samberg, Mark Wahlberg would remind the exiting character to "say hello to your Mom for me." My friends....

One of the more biting points on the show (and the point at which the purpose of the show became clear) was when the incredibly pregnant Amy Poehler appeared in a bar scene, drinking I might add. Josh Brolin's character was sporting full mullet and was hitting on Ms. Poehler from across the bar. His character was not dismayed by her pregnancy and the sketch ended. We couldn't help but think that the sketch was A) not funny, B) inappropriate behavior and C) irresponsible behavior by the expectant mother. It was in discussing this sketch at commercial break that we realized that it might have been a reference to Sarah Palin's irresponsible behavior when her water broke during her most recent pregnancy.

Sarah Palin was allowed on stage again for the Weekend Update segment. Rather than allow her to perform a rap song (clearly not of her culture, ) she remained seated and quiet while Amy Poehler performed a rap that was quite cutting to Sarah Palin, her family, her background and the Republican party at large. Sarah Palin swayed and moved along with the beat seemingly unaware of the nature of the sarcasm at hand.

Two more sketches later in the show cinched the message that the entire show was indeed a referendum on Sarah Palin, John McCain and the Republicans in this election cycle. One sketch had a businessman calling his coworker fart face. The person being called fart face complained that it wasn't fair and that it should stop. As soon as the "client" played by Josh Brolin entered the sketch the fart face epithet was thrown again. Eventually the two coworkers began calling the "outsider" fart face. They made Mr. Brolin's character cry and he left the office distraught. The two coworkers immediately began making phone calls to everyone telling them that Mr. Brolin's character was a fart face and that he had cried. One need only look at the recent discussions about robo past. Hecalls to understand the gag.

The last and to my mind the most damning sketch of all was the last. Josh Brolin was again the central character and we found him in a business conference room with most of the SNL cast. Mr. Brolin was dressed in Fall colors and was trying to get all of the business people to talk with him about and to look at the fall foliage. None of the business people wanted to discuss the fall foliage let alone look at it. The business persons were obviously trying to get down to business and all responded "NO" when asked about any and all other distractions by Mr. Brolin's character. When Mr. Brolin's character finally left the room we got "full disclosure." It turns out that Mr. Brolin's character hadn't been "with the firm" for a number of years and that one of the characters seated around the table had a bad experience with him in the past. He said: "I went camping with him once and he allowed me to be raped." When asked by whom he replied, "By him." meaning Mr. Brolin's character. A follow up statement to that comment was: " But he seemed to be so nice." to which the reply was, "He did it in a nice way." Truly disturbing, inappropriate and not particularly funny... do the math.

The overall effect was clear and powerful: there are serious issues going on in our world and the behavior of the RNC and it's candidates especially Sarah Palin's are inappropriate, irresponsible and moreover just NOT FUNNY. It was a gutsy move on the part of SNL to go this far with it's satire on Saturday. The point will have been lost on many who felt that the sketches weren't funny enough to overcome tiredness and keep them in front of the full barrage which was launched. I got it and I will not forget the courage shown by SNL in forging ahead with this most pointed of statements to those who would wield power in the United States of America: you aren't fooling us this time around. While we have all been watching the world Markets plummet was nice to see something on the rise: Saturday Night Lives' stock went way up last night and I'm buying it.

-Bradley C. Roberson
October 19, 2008

Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs

Anecdote time!

A good person I know laid some old school wisdom on me a few years back and I think of it from time to time more as an intellectual plaything than as worldview, but I find a certain truth to be present.

He told me that he thinks of the world of people as being divided up into 3 categories: there are sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. The sheep he said are most of the people out there in our world. They are content for the most part with themselves and their lives; happy. They go through life for the most part moving from one thing to the next living their lives, raising a few children perhaps but not really looking to take over or control the world. This doesn't mean they are stupid but perhaps not ambitious.

Next you have wolves. They may have started out as part of the flock of sheep but moved on to predatory behaviors against the sheep because they can. Whether for reasons benign or malignant they have chosen to not just go along with the herd. In their change from sheep to wolf they no longer care for the greater herd of sheep they were once part of. These are cunning folk who take every advantage to themselves even though it is to the detriment of the sheep.

Finally you have sheepdogs. These are few. They are the ones who started as sheep, progressed beyond the herd, perhaps dabbled a while as wolves but then changed again. The sheepdogs are wolves too but they made the decision to hunt the wolves among us. They are equal in their individual powers to any one wolf but can become outnumbered when the wolves are left too long unchecked.

As a Bright I find it to be a duty to myself and humanity to take upon myself the mantle of sheepdog. This means that I changed a long time ago from being content with the way I find things. I look out in the world and I primarily see sheep. The sheep are good people, caring people, thoughtful people, they are for the most part content. I see wolves too. The wolves are vicious, and full of contempt for the sheep they are surrounded by. They are mean and take great pride in their ability to aggrandize themselves even at great cost to the sheep of the world.

What I see too little of are sheepdogs. I am asking you to be a sheepdog. You've shown enough wit and intelligence to search the world for a better answer on "how best to live in the world." You also made it this far through this post. We need more sheepdogs; people who will stand up for what they believe and fight the wolves of the world to protect the sheep.

Won't you join me?

May your future be Bright
-Bradley C. Roberson

More Derisive Laughter

Readers may have already read my earlier post titled: Howls of Derisive Laughter

If so (or not) you might enjoy this particular stunt done in the same vein.

clowns-kicked-kkk-asses

I can only imagine how effective this might be on a grand scale.... Don't shout down the politician who lies, laugh at them.

May your future be Bright!
-Bradley C. Roberson
Alaskan Brights Constituency

ASk: You Shall Receive

Hello again everyone. This post is to announce that the ASk (Alaska Skeptics) Blog is up.

http://askeptics.blogspot.com/

I would ask that anyone with interest in the Brights seriously consider following the link to ASk and consider posting a response to my welcome. A Skeptical group in Alaska something that is long overdue.

Thank you all!

May your future be Bright
-Bradley C. Roberson
Alaskan Brights Constituency

Coming right up.

Announcement!

Peter and I will be meeting in the very near future to work out the details of launching a skeptics group here in Alaska. We are discussing how to present ourselves and the group to the public at large and what the scope of the group will be. Some of the topics which will be discussed: media presence, educational outreach, critical thinking projects and the sponsoring of skeptical events.

When ready we will post here and announce to the group first. The tentative name for the group would be: "ASk"; Alaska Skeptics.

May your future be Bright!
-Bradley C. Roberson
Alaskan Brights Constituency

Act of God?!

I have just recently heard that the RNC might need to postpone the convention in St. Paul, MN due to the possibility of poor weather conditions projected for the dates of the convention.

It seems to me that perhaps "god" has decided to send a message that he doesn't like the idea of so many Republican politicians traveling to St. Paul where they might "need/want" to spend some time in the airport restrooms. Thank you Larry Craig (R) Idaho.

May your future be Bright!
-Bradley C. Roberson
Alaskan Brights Constituency

Just a thought

I suppose that I do accept a certain type of homeopathy. I would accept a homeopathic use of prayer or god; the less used the better. The most potent dose of course would be none.

May your future be Bright
-Bradley C. Roberson