| By Kay Steiger - Feb 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am EST |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Probably as a testiment to the fact that I no longer watch Saturday Night Live, I just read about this controversy today. It seems SNL used Fred Armisen, an actor of Asian and Hispaic decent, to depict presidential candidate Barack Obama in a debate skit.
Armisen has played Prince in a skit as well, with no controversey response. To me it is a bit reminicent of the old blackface comedy skits, but in "post-racial" America maybe people aren't up in a fury about actors playing characters of another race for comedic purposes.
For me the larger issue has more to do with SNL's casting generally. Perhaps they didn't have a black actor that resembeld Obama closely enough. It might be equally problematic to have one black actor who was a stand-in for every black male they choose to satarize. In my experience, SNL's cast is overwhelmingly white. The subtext could be interpreted as only white people are funny. (Obviously not true, if you've ever seen Dave Chappelle.) But why is it so hard to find black actors for Saturday Night Live's cast? If they did have a more diverse cast, it would probably change the dynamic, the humor, and the audience of the show. And that might not be a bad thing.
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SNL has done a lot for comedians of all colors. As you noted yourself, the guy playing Barack isn't white, either. The show hasn't been good for years, sure, but I don't think that's a racial issue, it's the quality of their writing staff.
One of the most poisonous attitudes in otherwise productive discussions of race is the notion that if, in any given case, color-blind hiring doesn't give you a magic ratio, that must be the result of some ill will or neglect. In the real world, it varies.
For instance -- gasp of gasps -- for socio-economic and cultural reasons, there might be disproportionately fewer African Americans involved in the upper echelons of sketch comedy in general? Especially the sort of relatively 'safe' sketch comedy lampooning middle-class life that SNL has as its bread and butter?
To use your example: Dave Chappelle is incredible, but I'm not sure he'd fit the vibe of SNL as a regular cast-member.
This reminds me of a discussion in the film 'The Aristocrats', about why black comedians tend not to care about the 'Aristocrat joke'. Statistically, they've tended to come from a different comedy tradition where the joke loses its subversive power and isn't all that funny.
SNL has proven, time and again, that it'll put people of all ethnicities in starring roles when they think they're the right fit for the show.