Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Steve Buscemi Edition

You make me sad, SNL.

Long story short, there was a sketch 'lampooning' the whole college football child rape scandal. As if there was much to laugh about. Their angle was that this would lead to crazy witch hunts, in which anyone even slightly creepy and pathetic would be suspected of being a child molester.

Harmful messages in this sketch include: All molestation is adult man on male child, investigations into child molestation are over the top and a waste of time, false accusations are a common occurrence, only 'creepy' guys molest children.

I'm not going to say that this isn't a subject that it's possible to make jokes about, I'm just suggesting that the writers at SNL hold off until they actually manage to find one.

You make me sad, SNL.

I'm going to try to sleep now.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Jason Segel Edition!

Jason Segel hosted this past week, plugging his upcoming Muppet movie. I have certain misgivings about that particular project, not the least of which being that it appears to feature Rowlf, who had been retired after the death of Jim Henson as a way of honoring him. Rowlf being the first, or 'alpha', Muppet. I've got to say, appearing as a backup singer in an opening monologue song is a rather ignominious reintroduction for an historic character who's been gone for two decades.

But hey, let's move on to the objectionable! No rape jokes this week (thank Odin), and just two sketches including homophobic punchlines! This first was the kissing family, which got its biggest laugh when surprise guest Paul Rudd appeared just in time to make out with the host. The other was in a digital short, which featured a transvestite prostitute for no reason other than the cheap laugh it pried from the dark souls of the audience.

So, the numbers!

Rape - 0
Homophobia - 2

You know, I'm really happy that SNL is cleaning up its act, and hope to see this trend continue off into the future. That doesn't mean I won't continue keeping an eye on it, however. I'm watching you, SNL.

Next week - Nothing! Because it's Thanksgiving! The week after that, Steve Buscemi - which should be interesting, to say the least.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Emma Stone Edition

So, let's consider tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by one 'Emma Stone'. The host, unusually willing to go all-in for massively unflattering comedic characters, and thereby embiggening otherwise lacklustre scripts. The millionth appearance of Wiig's moronic game show contestant character would have been a complete disaster had Stone not rescued the sketch by shamelessly making out with her ventriloquist's dummy.

It was an odd week.

But a tasteful one! Perhaps cowed by the news out of Pen State, there were absolutely no rape jokes this week - and Seth Meyers even managed to cover the story tastefully! We are truly living in an age of miracles and wonderment.

The numbers:

Rape Jokes: 0
Homophobia-based jokes: 1

Congratulations, SNL! Another decent week! Hopefully when Jason Segel hosts next week you can keep this streak going!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Charlie Day Edition

Another week, another episode from the newly clean and perpetually mediocre Saturday Night Live. This week's host was Charlie Day, of film and television fame! Yes, I just didn't want to type out the super-long title of his show. Sue me. He was an excellent host, however, both getting laughs from his standard gag of gradually increasing the volume of his yells, and displaying a heretofore unknown ability to ape Dane Cook's voice and mannerisms. Kudos to you, Chalie Day!

It was a homophobia-light week, with no instances thereof, and just one rape joke, which I'm going to give them a pass on. Why? Because it was used as a background line in a sketch about how the Greek gods are reacting to the financial crisis. It's true, a lot of their mythology revolves around gods turning into animals and raping women that turn out to be their relatives. What I can't give them a pass on is the terrible history - many jokes are made about the fact that the Greek Pantheon seems to have a god for everything except the economy. But they did have a god of that - Hermes. As god of trade (and commerce?) I'm fairly sure the economy is within his wheelhouse. It's an easy enough fix as well - just mention that since Hermes was overworked (he's the god of A LOT of things), he handed responsibility over to Dionysus (or is it Bacchus? Those are the two I can never keep straight), and they get to the ending the sketch required.

Now, the numbers!

Rape: 0
Homophobia: 0

Bravo, SNL! Unless I missed something. Full disclosure, I may have fallen asleep during part of the episode.

Next Week: I have no idea! Remember when I said I may have fallen asleep? Yeah, well apparently I missed the 'next time on' during that lapse which may or may not have happened.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Anna Faris Edition

Another largely clean night of SNL, and a funnier one than usual at that - did having Anna Faris as the host somehow loosen them up? Is she less worried about her image than most celebrities?

Anyhoo, let's talk about the sketches. In addition to the standard political sketches, including both a jab at a largely unattacked (in network comedy, anyhow) target - western kids who mistake Anime for the sum totality of Japanese culture, and a fresh take on a a well-covered subject, hyper-melodramatic Lifetime movies. Both sketches got huge laughs from the audience and actual chuckles from me, which has become something of a rarity. So great work, SNL!

The only bits of objectionable content were in a Mexican talk show sketch that went homophobic to no great effect right at the end, and the Lifetime sketch, which brought up child molestation, and then, in order to make it more shocking, they made both the victim and abuser male, to add that hilarious frisson of taboo to the joke.

So, the totals:

Homophobia: 2
Rape: 1

I don't like to see any positive totals, but at least they're shrinking!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Alec Baldwin Addition

Saturday Night Live was off to a decent start this year, largely avoiding unpleasantness while providing a perfect platform for Alec Baldwin's suburb comic timing and decent impressions.

Other than a nod to Michele Bachmann's extremely closeted husband - which I gave a pass to - the show largely avoided both homophovia and rape-themed humour, despite the fact that during their hiatus gay marriage became legal in New York and Don't Ask Dont' Tell was repealed. Maybe they'll get to all of that next week?

The only questionable sketches were one of their 'audition reels', this time for Top Gun, featuring Harvey Fierstien making a series of inaccurate observations about the script, and a game show about determining who would be the dominant one in a sexual relationship between two random men. This later sketch, which also delved into a rape reference, is interesting, since it's a perfect example of comedy writers trying to get out of actually working by not creating plots, stories, or characters, and instead simply transcribing the conversations they have among themselves while procrastinating. Other examples of this include the Cavemen vs. Astronauts conversation from Angel, and literally everything that Seth Macfarlane has ever produced.

Now, the numbers!

Rape references - 1
Homophobia references - 2

See you back here next week for Melissa McCarthy!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Justin Timberlake Edition

For a Timberlake season-ender, this was a relatively weak episode, relying on rehashed sketches, and rarely giving its host any decent material to work with. If it weren't for the fun novelty of having Lady Gaga essentially co-host, appearing in a number of sketches, it would have been utterly forgettable.

Of course, I'm not here to talk about the show proper, but rather track its inexcusably objectionable content. Things started out terribly with a sketch about Strauss-Kahn being jailed and finding himself in a cell with two black men who are surprisingly well-informed about the goings-on at the World Bank. Naturally, it ended with a rape joke, because SNL writers couldn't think of anything other than the most obvious possible out. That was, thankfully, the sum total of the rape jokes last night - but not the end of the homophobia, which reared its ugly head again in an appearance by Stefan, and a return to the tunnel of love, which this time ended with a gay proposition, as opposed to a murder. Odd that they would consider that 'raising the stakes' in the second appearance of the sketch.

Anyhoo, here's the tally-

Rape: 1

Homophobia: 3

That's it for the season, folks! See you back here next year, for more hyper-aware overcriticism!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Ed Helms Edition

It's the second-last episode of the year, and it offered us both the highest highs and lowest lows to which the show can reach! What do I mean by this? Robert Smigel was back, as was one of the two sketches that led to the creation of Saturday Night Live RapeWatch in the first place!

First, the objectionable - it's the 'guys singing to a song' sketch, where a song plays in the background where men reminisce about horrible things, then sing the chorus together. As always, the stories began awful, then drifted into reprehensible territory as one of them men bragged about being a doctor who molests his patients. I thought we'd seen the back of this sketch. Sadly, I was wrong.

On the good side of things, however, you had the Ambiguously Gay Duo go live-action, which was amazing for a lot of reasons, but the most important of them was the fact that it demonstrated that you can do an entire sketch about two men in tights doing apparently gay things, while a group of other men ponder their sexuality, without it being in the least bit homophobic. The jokes in the sketches are always borne from the absurd poses the AGD find themselves in, and the reactions of Big Head and his crew to them. We, the audience, are never meant to laugh from discomfort or judgement, so it doesn't count as homophobia - this is how you do it, SNL!

So, the counts are:

Rape: 1

Homophobia: 0

Great episode all around - let's see what they get up to on the Timberlake-hosted finale next week!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Tina Fey Edition

This week's SNL went by relatively painlessly. While many have high expectations for Tiny Fey's reappearances on the show, I was never particular fan of her delivery on the show (or tenure as head writer), so this episode wasn't a disappointment or anything like that, merely another mediocre outing for the modern SNL. I do have to wonder what it's like for Tina Fey to come back and host, though - I think she'd be welcomed, given that her show 30 Rock is largely about how the compromises of working in a corporate structure turn all art into garbage, thereby explaining the terribleness of SNL. Of course, at the same time, it openly admits that SNL is garbage, so that could create some tensions. Guess I'll have to wait until she writes a book to find out.

What's that? She has a book? Oh, I mean a real book, not the de rigeur collection of humourous essays that comedians put out during the brief window in which they're relevant to the mainstream. No, I'm waiting for the bitter tell-all.

The show's two Bin Laden sketches were quite weak, and set a bad tone for the show overall. More successful - and surprisingly, at that, was the 'Republican Pirmary' sketch, which posited the existence of a parallel dimension where Republican politicians weren't afraid to announce that they were running for president. I knew Fey's Palin would show up at some point, and I wondered how they'd make fun of a now completely-irrelevant figure. Her complete superfluousness as a public figure was the joke, though, so it worked out nicely!

Which brings me to Stefan, Bill Hader's recurring crowd-favorite character. I don't want to go too much about this, since the Homophobiawatch part of these posts is just supposed to act as a baseline, but it irks me the way every sketch featuring the character tries to work in a little gay panic to cap things off. The character is gay - that's not a problem - but the joke of the character is the disturbing things he's into, not the fact of his homosexuality. While some could argue that he's a regressive stereotype, I don't think it counts as homophobic until he starts coming on to Seth, at which point, in every sketch, the joke becomes the gay panic "Oh my god, a man is attracted to a man!" shocker.

Kind of the thing I wish they'd just get over.

Okay, that's over with, so let's just move on to the numbers.

Rape-Themed Jokes: 0

Homophobia-Themed Jokes: 1

Super-clean, guys! Good luck for next week!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Helen Mirren Edition

After last week's Elton John festival of gay jokes, this week's appearance by Helen Mirren was relatively sedate. In fact, the only gay joke at all was an offhanded comment by Mirren about just how gay last week's episode had been. I can't count that in any good conscience, so let's move on to general comments!

After one of the direst openings in recent memory the show scraped the bottom of the barrel with a return to the 'Accountant to the Stars' sketch, which is nothing but an excuse for the cast to do their universally terrible celebrity impressions. A few bright spots followed, as the show cheekily acknowledged Mirren's famous (in England) habit of going topless in nearly every film, moved through a sketch that acknowledged the idiocy of Fox and Friends without really making any specific jokes, finally ending a decent first third of the show with a sketch suggesting that the novel 'Frankenstein' was based on Mary Shelley's landlord, who looked exactly like the '30s Boris Karloff version of the character.

Weekend Update then stopped the show dead and went on far too long, which seems to be its role in the show at this point, and the sketches never managed to regain any kind of momentum after it. Another attempt to skewer Juggalo culture fails miserably, as the show still can't figure out how to improve on the real-life comedy that the Gathering of the Juggalos offers.

Just for the record, here are the numbers:

Rape: 0

Homophobia: 0

In addition to being cleaner than usual, Helen Mirren was a winning presence! There's literally nothing else good for me to say about it.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Elton John Edition

The mandate of this series of articles is to review episodes of Saturday Night Live in two simple steps: 1 - Count the number of rape jokes. 2 - Compare that to the number of (more socially-acceptable) homophobia-themed jokes. As a consequence, I was left without much of a critical leg to stand on with this week's episode. It was absolutely filled with gay-themed humour, but since Elton John's flamboyant homosexuality is central to his whole persona, can any of those jokes be considered 'attacking' him specifically, or gays in general. And since there were no rape jokes that required a baseline for comparison, is there any real value in reviewing the episode at all?

If it weren't for one sketch, I'd give the whole episode a pass, saying only that I appreciated the reappearance of Laser Cats, Tom Hanks was an excellent choice to co-host with Elton, and the lower-class Queen of England was surprisingly fun in her second appearance.

The one sketch that killed the episode for me, however, was the reappearance of a little something that I hate so much I almost considered doing a 'MisogynyWatch' addendum to cover it. It's the ESPN classic segment, where two men in tuxedos watch women's sporting events while making crude jokes about feminine hygiene. It's an unpleasant little sketch, which reminds me of nothing more than this segment from 'Knowing Me, Knowing You'.

I'd hoped that Will Forte's departure from the cast had put the nail in this particular sketch's coffin, but apparently they were able to lure him back with the promise of more unpleasant disgusting comedy!

So thanks for that, SNL.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Zach Galfinakis Edition

This week Zack Galfinakis returned to host for a second time, and while I'm not familiar with the man's comedy, I've always found him a distractingly unpleasant presence in the few film appearances that I've seen. He was similarly off-putting on SNL last week, but that's not my main point of contention with the episode. No, my distaste for last week's SNL revolves entirely around the fact that it offered the return of Scared Straight, the rape-themed sketch that inspired this series of articles in the first place.

In addition to that abomination the episode featured a spike in gay jokes over the year's average. In addition to the threats of gay rape that permeate Scared Straight, there was some cruel stereotyping in the opening monologue, as well as a sketch about the show 'The Talk', a third of the jokes revolved around the fact that co-host Sara Gilbert is gay. Well, I say 'jokes', but in reality there wasn't anything that could be called a joke in the sketch, just endless restatements of the fact that she is, in fact, gay, possibly hoping that some comedy could be gleaned from the repetition.

It wasn't.

The tally follows:

Rape - 1

Homophobia - 3

See you back here at the beginning of April, when Elton John hosts and is the musical guest! Man, I'm really going to have to rethink my definitions of homophobia-based humour for that episode...

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Miley Cyrus Edition!

Is Saturday Night Live the cleanest show on television these days?

Quite possibly. I mean, I'm regularly reviewing episodes of Criminal Minds that involve gouged-out eyes and beheadings, Family Guy can't go a week without joking about paedophilia or incestuous rape - now that Saturday Night Live has largely dropped the rape and murder-themed humour, it's back down to a level appropriate for the 11-year-olds-up-past-their-bedtime that make up its core audience demographic.

And I say good for it - because if there's one thing Bill Cosby has proved over the years, it's that you don't have to be dirty to be funny. Not that SNL is Cosby-level funny. Not even the same league, but it's nice to see them try.

So anyhow, on to Miley Cyrus' episode!

Only a few recurring characters this week (none of them Wiig's!), so that was nice - Miley's monologue was a sarcastic apology for all of her public misdeeds that came across as far more bitter than it should have. Add that to her sullen, begrudging appearance as Justin Bieber on 'The Miley Cyrus Show' and her weirdly snippy closing Thank Yous, and she may well go down as the most reluctant host in recent SNL history. Who knows if it was personal stuff or a genuine distaste for the program, but Miley really seemed like she didn't want to be there. And you know what? More power to her. At least it shook things up a little!

Also, sullen disengagement is key to a decent Bieber impression.

Otherwise the show was a Sheentensive as one would expect it to be, with Hader premiering a serviceable impression of the man, and Smuggy letting a segment on him dominate the news. The modern world is hard on SNL, what with every other nightly comedy show getting to every conceivable joke before they do - but their jokes largely scored, and all in all it was a fair night of Sheen-mocking.

So now, the numbers!

Rape: 0! (Congrats again, SNL!)

Homophobia: 1 (the 'French Kids Dance' sketch involved a man feeling up another man, which was included only to make the audience laugh uncomfortably... which they did!)

A low score again, proving, possibly, that unlike Michael Haneke, head writer Smuggy Smuggerson is mellowing out in his advancing years.

Saturday Night Live Rapewatch: Anne Hathaway Ediiton

I missed reviewing this episode the first time around, but since SNL is re-airing it to coincide with Anne Hathaway hosting the Oscars, this seems like a perfect time to go ahead and check it for rape and homophobia-themed humour, as is my wont.

The episode opened with another Rachel Maddow show sketch in the current events slot - it's not a great impression, but at least they've given up on making gay jokes about her. So that's something. Things moved briskly from there, through another Miley Cyrus sketch to a visit from Penelope (possibly my least-favorite Kristen Wiig character! Ah, who am I kidding. They're all my least favorite Kristen Wiig character. Especially the lady who expects people to be happier about winning a sweepstakes. Ugh.), and then a joke about the TSA groping people over Thanksgiving.

Smuggy Smuggerson brought the one rape joke of the night, devaluing the term by hyperbolicly using it to describe what the dictionary people are doing to the English language by including Sarah Palin's 'refudiate' in a list of the year's best new words. I mean, he's not wrong, but he could have looked for a less horrible choice.

The show's back 30 went by without incident, sketches included a scene about a dropped character from 'The Wizard of Oz' that served only to remind me of a superior sketch from the Dana Carvey Show, and (possibly) the first appearance of Hader's 'old reporter' character. You know, I talk a lot of crap about the Stephan character, but that's mostly because Hader can't get through a sketch without laughing. At least his incredibly varied list of activities keep that one from being the exact same sketch every week, the way Gilly, Target Lady, Old Reporter, Vinnie Vedici and so forth are.

Anyhoo, let's go to the totals!

Homophobia: 0

Rape: 1

This season's trend of being the kinder, gentler SNL has gone on nearly uncontested. We're now halfway through the year without a single visit from the Scared Straight sketch - and there's even a new black guy in the cast, so the producers could theoretically mix it up a little for Kenan if they were so inclined. They've restrained themselves from doing so, and I thank them for it.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Russel Brand Edition!

Russel Brand was hosting this week, and he fronted a surprisingly tame outing, despite his reputation. If it hadn't been for a monologue that focused almost entirely on the tightness of his pants and the two sketches whose content required female cast members to grope his crotch, this could have been the Desmond Tutu episode for all the prurience of the comedy.

That being said, there were still two little incidents worth pointing out, both in the news segment (which was later in the show than I can remember seeing it, from ~12:20 to 12:30AM!). The first came in Armisen's post-ousting Mubarak impression, where he referred to having 'raped the country'. I'm giving them a pass on this one, both because it's a figurative rape, and because, given the size of the supposed civil servant's secret, illegal bank accounts, it's a fair description.

The second questionable joke was homophobia-themed, in that Bill Hader's walking-gay-joke character 'Stefan' made an appearance. As usual he came on to Smuggy and

So tonight's final tally:

Rape: 0

Homophobia: 1

I can only imagine things are going to remain super clean when the show comes back from hiatus in three weeks - Miley Cyrus is hosting, and as I understand it she likes to keep things wholesome for the fans (when not smoking pot on tape).

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Dana Carvey Edition

Dana Carvey's return to Saturday Night Live was as entertaining as it was mystifying. It's not that I wasn't excited to see a classic cast member back on the show - it's just that I'm still not sure what he was promoting... and if he wasn't promoting anything, what was he doing there? Don't they know what SNL is for?

Anyhoo, we're not here to critique the content of SNL (if you're looking for that, try the rest of the internet), rather I'm planning to examine the lightheartedness with which the show treats the most abhorrent of topics. So, without any further ado... The numbers!

This week was almost unusually clean - it's possible that the presence of Carvey convinced Seth and the boys to tone things down a little, as there were no homophobia jokes to speak of. There was even an extended sketch about a children's beauty pageant that didn't feature even an allusion to paedophilia. The only rape-themed humour of the night came in Carvey's Church Lady sketch, which featured the middle-aged bible-thumper fantasizing about molesting relentlessly self-promoting teen singer Justin Beiber.

Actually, the purported attractiveness of Beiber is one of the most mystifying bits of modern cultural ephemera as far as I'm concerned. I'd never attempt to hazard a guess as to what teenagers find attractive, but I feel like I understand adult women enough to find it implausible that they would get weak in the knees at the sight of a teenage boy who looks like a pre-teen girl.

The final tally this week was-

Homophobia: 0
Rape: 1

All in all a respectable show - but Russel Brand is hosting next week, which is Spanish for 'All Bets Are Off'.

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Jesse Eisenberg Edition

Another week of clean-yet-tedious entertainments here at SNL!

With Jesse Eisenberg hosting the lion's share of the sketches were given over to the depiction of nervous, self-conscious dorks humiliating themselves. Were I some kind of a cruel wag I might note that, of late, the guest hosts haven't been given much to do in the show, possibly because te writers can't relate to the Jeff Bridges and Robert DeNiros of the world, or imagine how they could possibly be involved in a comedic situation. Give them a gangly, pasty, awkward twenty-something however, and the floodgates open! Maybe the only sketch to not revolve around Eisenberg was a likeably silly take on 70s Blaxploitation cinema that featured the "Bride of Blackenstein". There wasn't really a joke beyond her having a large ass and being bossy, but the fact that the musical guest (who portrayed the titular bride) wore the wig in her second musical number raised the bar for the entire show.

Oh, and despite the appearance of John Waters, the digital music video was a damp squid - not catchy, not especially funny, not cameo-packed. Just a mess all around.

Now for the numbers!

Homophobia - 1 (A sketch about drugs for pre-op transsexuals had a single joke: Isn't it gross that men want to turn into women!?)

Rape - 0!

Good work, SNL! If I thought you'd respond to positive reinforcement, I'd send you a cookie bouquet to reward you for your lack of rape-themed humour!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Gwenyth Paltrow Edition!

This week got off to a rocky start, with an opening sketch about Fox News' attempts to tone it down following the Tucson shootings, then quickly spiralling until the hosts were talking about how Health Care was raping America's freedom. Yes, the sketch was about satirizing Fox News' hyperbole, but the SNL writers could have toned it down slightly and still had the same effect.

The rest of the show was far less offensive, with the only other example of rape-themed humour being a joke about Will Smith's inability to express the correct emotions while filming a hypothetical episode of 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' in which Carleton was assaulted by a male teacher.

The only sign of homophobia-based humour was in a sketch that featured a questionable impression of Cher by Bill Hader. The only joke in that sketch? That Cher's daughter recently had a sex-change operation and became Cher's son. Which is apparently icky, and therefore funny.

The lack of truly offensive content gave me a chance to focus on the skteches themselves, which turned out to be something of a mistake, as they were by and large terrible. There were the truly mis-begotten, like a Bar Mitzvah sketch in which the characters sang Jew-themed versions of popular songs. A sketch about Spanish-language SportsCenter only featured half a joke - that the anchors speak flawless Spanish and then sound odd and discordant when using English names and terms. I say 'half a joke' because while the cast member playing the male anchor really sold the premise, Paltrow's accent was so weak that there was no measurable difference in her speaking voice when moving between languages.

Yet another visit to the set of 'Fake Password' reminded us why that sketch needs so badly to be retired. At least with celebrity Jeopardy there were new categories each week, the fun of seeing real celebrities try to be other real celebrities, and the escalating war of wills between Trebek and Burt Reynolds, then later Sean Connery. All Fake Password has to offer is Kristen Wiig saying she's not going to say the password, and then saying it. Mildly diverting once - majorly infuriating the sixth time. What Up with That (which was mercifully absent this week) understands the need to up the ante with each show - Fake Password is the exact same sketch every time.

When not even a cameo appearance by Pee-Wee Herman can save your show, it's time to rethink your priorities, SNL. Now, on to the numbers!

Rape-Themed Humour: 2
Homophobia-Themed Humour: 2

A fairly inoffensive week, as I mentioned above - while I'm not shocked to see them backing off of rape-themed humour (hopefully this isn't just a statistical aberration, and someone actually thought better of it), the downturn in homophobia-themed humour is heartening. With any luck the less awful SNL will become the new norm!

Oh, and if you're making a sketch about Will Smith's inability to act during the first couple of seasons of Fresh Prince, maybe you could drop in the most famous aspect of it: His habit of mouthing all of the other actors' lines while he was waiting for his turn to speak.

That stuff is gold every time I see it!

Also, what kind of world are we living in when Smuggy Smuggerson has the best line of the night? It's anarchy, people!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Jim Carrey Edition!

If you're wondering where the RapeWatch has been this season, its absence has owed to a combination of my own lack of attentiveness and SNL's complete lack of rape themed humour!

That's right, in what I like to call a victory for the Castle (and human decency), after three long years of rape-themed humour soiling SNL, we've now gone half a season without so much as a visit to 'Scared Straight' territory!

Now that I'm ensconced in the challenging arms of the one a day project, however, I thought this might be the perfect time to resurrect one of my most beloved recurring features. With that in mind, let's take a look at this week's SNL!

Jim Carrey was in poor form tonight, although the level of the material was doubtless responsible for at least part of his lackluster performance. After all, this is a man who used to Ride the Snake - it must be awfully dispiriting to be be in a sketch whose only joke is that people say they don't break down crying in public, right before video evidence proves that they do.

When the high point of the night is Jim Carrey breaking out a (legitimately wonderful) Alan Thicke impression, SNL's certainly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

So now, let's move on to the numbers!

Homophobia-themed humour: 1 - A Black Swan-inspired sketch ended with the lame tag of Carrey being outed as a female impersonator, rather than just an extremely mannish ballerina. Also, Hader's Vincent Cassel leaves something to be desired.

Rape-themed humour: 0 - Wish I could take credit for this, but far more likely S&P finally hired a censor who was able to stay up past 9:30.

Good work, SNL! Hopefully you'll keep this record up in the coming weeks!

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Jennifer Lopez Edition

J. Lo.’s triumphant return to the stage at SNL proved to be one of the cleanest episodes of the year – not only were there no rape jokes of any kind, but even the two gay jokes were largely harmless!

This relative cleanliness gives me a golden opportunity to mention one of the other recurring sketches I have a problem with: ESPN Classic. If you haven’t seen the specific sketch I’m talking about it doesn’t matter, because they’re all exactly the same. Two guys fail at describing women’s sports, and make crude jokes about women’s hygiene.

I find these sketches so unpleasant that I’ve been tempted to add a ‘MisogynyWatch’ to the regular posting – but I haven’t yet because of the overt misogyny of the show is so far restricted to just this one recurring sketch. Like how I wouldn’t have started the RapeWatch if the only time rape came up was the despicable endlessly returning ‘Scared Straight’ sketches.

I am weirdly fascinated by this sketch, though, because of its similarity to a great moment from Alan Partridge, which, thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can see embedded below.