It's been awhile since I've watched Saturday Night Live but even those who are not long time fans of the show shouldn't be completely shocked that the Not Ready for Prime Time players would take a shot at the Tiger Woods scandal.
The skit featuring Tiger(Keenan Thompson)and his wife Elin(special guest host Blake Lively),along with Wolf Blitzer(Jason Sudeikis)mocked the increasing press coverage of the story as well as the wrath of Elin about her husband's apparently numerous affairs. A lot of folks thought it was in poor taste,making fun of spousal abuse,not to mention that the musical guest that evening was Rihanna,who understandably might not find that skit quite so funny:
While I do hope that Rihanna wasn't upset about this,I don't really think this bit was trying to gloss over the realities of relationship violence. The point of the piece seemed to be more about how overblown the attention from the media has been about this whole thing,plus the time honored comedy trope about a woman scorned.
It's also a typical SNL tact to mock celebrity scandals or even scandals that give celebrity to those who don't deserve it. The show's opening bit had a send-up of the Salahis,those White House party crashers who have yet to be charged with anything for that serious breach of security stunt,and no one's talking about that as much,even tho one might wonder just how funny a couple of dubious folks getting that close to the President is:
The fine line between up to the minute social satire and inappropriate humor has always been an unsteady one. There are those who may feel that it's best to strike while the iron is a hot button issue and some who would rather wait until the subject is not as sore to poke fun at before making it a punchline. Just how long a wait can be debatable,since there are some things that certain folks will never feel right about laughing at(along with plenty that do without any hesitation):
In the end,these things are really personal judgment calls for the most part. If comedy plays it safe all the time,there won't be much to laugh at. That doesn't mean that you can't get giggles only by playing nice but you do have to be a little discriminating about who you throw your poison darts of wit at.Sometimes,it's best to back off a celebrity in crisis while others are truly in need of a reality check,no matter where it's from:
I think this was probably a bit in poor taste but I guess they thought they needed to drag them further through the mud... I think the Salahis people should definitely be prosecuted though.
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