Another weekend, another newsworthy event.
Well, that’s if you define dropping the F-bomb on network television (read: NBC) as “newsworthy”. Which I do. God, I love pop culture.
During SNL’s season premiere on Saturday, new Featured Player Jenny Slate injected a whole lot of badass into a mediocre-at-best sketch with Kristen Wiig by uttering the dreaded F-word in the midst of delivering her lines.
Fucking hilarious. But her ”Oh, shit!” expression afterwards? Fucking amazing. (See what I’m doing? With the swearing in my article about swearing? Ha. Brilliant.)
Now, let’s not lie. Though SNL made a huge comeback following last year’s banner season, boundaries need to continue being pushed to keep the show relevant (oh, the joys of television) which – regardless of the fact that it was unscripted - Slate succeeded in doing. I think she just earned her season’s paycheque.
Think about it. It’s first thing on Monday morning, and instead of re-hashing Megan Fox’s hosting abilities and U2′s ability to rock it live, bloggers have taken to their laptops in droves to dissect the infamous slip-up. The clip’s already received tens of thousands of hits across the web. Frankly, Lorne Michaels couldn’t have bought better publicity if he tried. (Well, that’s probably not true. I’m sure he could buy whatever he likes – but regardless, this is pretty decent publicity.)
One episode down, a whole season to go. Here’s to SNL keeping season 34 fresh. Fuck yeah.
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October 2, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I really shouldn’t be replying to this, having missed watching the whole episode of the show and have yet to catch up on it via the internet, but I did hear about the incident, and thus, must comment.
Swearing ain’t fresh. In today’s television world, where South Park does it weekly, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. On network TV, yes it is still a taboo, but when used effectively and appropriately (unlike in this sketch) it can absolutely work. Swearing at an appropriate time, where it would make an overall sketch funnier and even that more extreme, is definitely fresh. If this was a sketch in which swearing would have taken it over the edge and made it funnier, then more power to this new girl.
But from simply seeing this clip, it didn’t do that. It barely got any sort of laugh. At all. This Jenny Slate, as unfortunate for her as it is, should really be gone from the show. Maybe not permanently, but certainly for a few episodes. She is new, therefore she doesn’t have the credibility to be offered up a chance to redeem herself. She really should be put back down to the minors and wait until she’s ready for the call-up to the big leagues.
If you look at the history of the f-bomb on SNL, it should be a no-brainer that this girl simply has a long road ahead of her. The first time it happened, it was a respected and vital cast member of the show who did it. David Letterman’s Paul Shaffer, who was the show’s musical coordinator, was helping in a sketch in the late 70′s and dropped a “fuckin’” during a sketch in which the whole joke was that everyone was saying “flogging”, but meaning “fucking”. He at least had the credentials to get away with it and it helped that it played with the overall joke of the sketch.
Slate should really be compared to that of Charles Rocket, former Weekend Update anchor who uttered the phrase during a “Who Shot JR?” parody. He was new to the show, and pretty much got the axe immediately after it happened. It was a case of you’re not showing us that you get what we do here, and that’s that.
Then there was Norm McDonald who, on a Weekend Update segment, flubbed a line and questioned “…the fuck was that?”. Again though, Norm proved his worth on the show, and was a prominent member of the cast at this point. Slate?? Not so much.
On a show like this, you really have to play by the rules or people get hurt. Kristen Wiig in this sketch demonstrates the pro that she is by continuing, but I’m sure for the rest of the sketch, no one else could think about anything except the “fuck” that slipped out of the newbies mouth!! That is an awful thing to have happen, and it takes away from everyone else involved in the show.
Now, that isn’t to say this incident is as extreme as the Damon Wayans situation of the late 80′s/early 90′s in which he felt he was being underused in the cast and decided to sabotage a police sketch by playing his two lines he had extremely homosexually. He was gone after that debacle, but he bounced back with “In Living Color”.
Slate’s offense isn’t of that level, but she still doesn’t deserve a shot next week. If anything, she should be benched for at least a few episodes. She might prove herself again in a Wayans type of way, but for now, take a seat sister!!
Then again, my anger might come from Michaela Watkins hitting the chopping block to make way for this new meat. From the little I’ve seen, I hope they are kicking themselves about THAT decision. Bitch pleeeze.