As an avid watcher of Saturday Night Live, I've noticed an odd trend lately. That trend? Using rape as the punchline to jokes. It's too soon to be making any judgments about what all this means, so for the time being I'm just going to be keeping track of every instance, along with a popular, long-running objectionable punchline: Homophobia.
Tonight's episode featured Paul Rudd, with musical guest Beyonce (maybe it's possible to add accents to letters in this thing - I don't care enough to find out).
Rape as Punchilne: 1 - A sketch about kids being scared straight in which a prisoner uses the plots of films as euphemisms for ways they'll be raped in prison. There were three discrete jokes, but it's only counted once because.
Homophobia as Punchline: 4 (5*) - A sketch where the punchline was men making out, a sketch where the joke was that two "New Yawk" men were getting married to each other, a sketch about having sex in a cab, where the joke is that the sex was with the male cabbie, a weekend update piece about Snagglepuss and the Great Gazoo getting gay married. (*Since the rape threatened in the 'scared straight' was male prison rape, they can also be counted as a homophobia joke)
Right now it looks like Homophobia is massively outstripping Rape, but that's not a surprise, homophobia has been the basis of Saturday Night Live sketches for decades, whereas rape has only recently made it onto their playlist.
Who knows what the future will hold?
16.11.08
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