What was up with that Palin incest sketch? Raise your hand if you found it appalling

If you haven't seen the offending portions of this weekend's "SNL," I've made a low-res video of the relevant clips below.

KOGO's Chip Franklin and I talked about this "SNL" sketch that used insinuations of incest in the Palin family as a punchline ... twice.

(or download now)

And here's the video. Judge for yourself:

Note that I removed several minutes of lame material between the incest bookends. The full sketch may or may not go online at Hulu.com today. The clip I got off YouTube has already been removed.

Comments

[David]

Neither the Politico link or the AP story about Franken's help mention the NYT sketch, do they? Franken just gave the idea for the cold open, I thought. And I'm sure the NYT sketch was a hit with those who think all the media has its Liberal Agenda.

[Thanks, I took that part out, my bad for reading the story too quickly -- AB]

[John Puzio]

Sorry, I found the Palin incest sketch really funny as I find anything to do with the 4 lamest candidates for high office ever funny.

[Justin]

I guess I don't get what's so appalling about it.

Isn't the point that in the era of cable news and the 24-hour news cycle, unconfirmed rumors, innuendo, and speculation are the mother’s milk of political punditry? (Hence the whole bit about not being able to prove it’s not true.)

I took it as a slam on bottom-feeding talking heads on TV (both left wing and right wing), not an attack on Sarah Palin.

If there's anything that's appalling, it's that such irrelevant ad hominem garbage passes for political discourse when we need to fix health care, the economy, and our role in global diplomacy.

[Ed]

The sketch wasnt about "incest" - it was mocking the weak-kneed media's ridiculous topics of focus (on Palin's personal life instead of her lack of any subsrtantial qualifications) due to their being scared into submission by the phony outrage and bogus claims of "sexism" by the McBush-Palin campaign. The subject of incest was used as an "extreme" item of facetious-ness. Anyone who can't see that is as slow as the "reporter scared of polar bears" in the sketch.

[Brad]

I am neither Democrat nor Republican but I felt it was a cruel attack on a child and father (who incidently aren't the ones running for office) and as a psychiatrist and mental health services coordinator at a major university, an appalling attempt at joking about what is one of worst betrayals of human trust. Not funny and not helpful to the Democrats.

[Pat]

Did anyone watch the whole sketch? The satire wasn't about Palin or any stereotypes linked to Alaskans.

The few here that saw it was about the media at least were on the right track. Specifically, the satire about the NY Times staff. You can either take it at face value that the Times is elitist period, or as satire of what others think of the Times - that regular people think the Times are even more out of touch with America than anyone on the right has ever said before.

They specifically made fun of the perception that the writers never left the island of Manhattan. One reporter was "worldly", because he fell asleep on the train one night and ended up in Queens. Others focused on everyone in Alaska was in constant danger of a polar bear attack. Others decided not to go because there was no Thai food delivery, or didn't have enough psycho-analysts to get by for 6 weeks.

Get over it. Any reference to incest was more playing to the perception of "hicks" or "rednecks" by those in the big city, based on overdone stereotypes. It's like using the movie Deliverance as your travel guide.

[I know full well what it was about. It was about two rewrites from being a humorous sketch. You can stop explaining to us what the sketch was about now. --AB]

[DKC]

Actually this is just more proof that crude is the new clever.

[Ryan]

Stupid, yes. Low-brow, yes. Appalling, no.

I didn't think the jokes were appalling because they weren't barbs aimed at the Palin family itself. The "incest" jokes could be instantly dismissed because they were ludicrous and not based on any sort of reality.

It's almost like being outraged at an SNL commercial. Should SNL be taken to task for mocking the elderly with the "Oops, I cra**ed my pants" disposable diapers?

I know you don't want to hear what the sketch was "about," but the fact that the "elite" New York Times was the butt of these jokes shaped my reaction. Additionally, these two bits were brief throw-away gags in an utterly forgettable sketch.

It would be different if the sketch had referred in some way to the weird blogosphere rumors that prompted the McCain campaign to announce that Bristol Palin is pregnant.

Anyway, it would be more cruel if they had a jokey discussion about possible names for Bristol and Levi's child. I will eat an edible hat if they do that sketch.

[Dean]

I understand the point of the skit, but they could have chosen something other than incest. They have great writers at SNL and they didn't have to go there. There was also something mean spirited about it. I doubt SNL would ever do a skit suggesting incest with Obama and his young girls.

[Gary]

I would like to see "Saturday Night Live" killed off. "Weekend Update" is the only part of it that's consistently funny.

[Mike]

I couldn't believe SNL stooped that low at humor. SNL ceased being funny years ago... Too many look-alikes of Belushi and Farley as well as Jane Curtin. SNL won't find it's way to my TV's and nor will NBC for that matter any time in near future....

Don't even think about saying get over it! I was offended. Needless to say anymore. Should anyone find anything offending, that pushes the limit of free speech and these are private citizen's not running for office nor campainging for her.

Where is all the humor about Obama's wife who does campaign for him?

[jsm1963]

The focus of the skit clearly wasn't incest. If he showed the whole skit (which was very funny) it would have been obvious that they were poking fun at New Yorkers/The New York Times. Even the selected clips showed "big city" reporters making the ludicrous assumption that because they are from Alaska, there must be incest. Barnharts's interpretation of the skit is so off the mark. It's either a blatant attempt to attack the "liberal media" by using any hint of something negative against Palin, regardless of how much out of context it is, or simple incompetence on the part of a media critic. Based on his selective use of clips, I suspect it's the former.