Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr was right. He coined the phrase plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose—the more things change, the more they stay the same—and watching Saturday Night Live’s new parody ad for “woke jeans” proves it. The ad features various SNL cast members along with Ryan Gosling making fun of the whole idea … Continued
In excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s upcoming book, What Happened, she recounts the second presidential debate of 2016. On the stage, Donald Trump and Clinton were both provided with chairs, but Trump strangely never sat down. So while Clinton was answering questions, Trump meandered through the background, performing the most memorable photo-bomb in American history. Trump’s … Continued
When a young girl deliberately mocks and demeans another young girl, she’s seen as bullying and jealous—a mean girl. If an adult woman does the same, she’s considered unkind and insecure. But when actress Scarlett Johansson deliberately mocks and demeans Ivanka Trump, she’s called hilarious and ingenious, instantly praised as a “wickedly funny” feminist. It’s … Continued
When does satire go too far? When does it not go far enough? A good satire can make you laugh and make you a little uncomfortable at the same time. Merriam-Webster defines satire as, “trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.” Whether we’re talking about the fifth-century Greek playwright … Continued
As a boy, one phrase meant more to me than anything else in my pop culture world: “Live from New York. . . it’s Saturday Night!” Today, that phrase has an entirely new meaning—the corruption of a once-beloved franchise. That’s how far the increasingly partisan Saturday Night Live has fallen for this lifelong fan. And, … Continued
The Women’s March last weekend, which included over 400,000 people marching on Washington and many more around the globe, has prompted some interesting debates about what it means to be a feminist. When the Women’s March initially accepted the pro-life group New Wave Feminists among its listed online partners, the Atlantic published an article praising … Continued
Take a deep breath, celebrities. When oxygen returns to your brains, you’ll realize a few things. You want to sell tickets to the 52 percent of Americans who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. You want your shows to be watched by people who live between the coasts. Maybe (and this is going out on a … Continued
The comedy trio known affectionately as “The Lonely Island”—Bay Area natives Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone—burst onto the pop-culture scene ten years ago when the three childhood friends were hired by Saturday Night Live at the same time. Their popular “Digital Shorts” video segments, mostly musical in nature, began dropping on a weekly … Continued
Celebrity memes are the workhorses of the Internet. As Us magazine noted a few years ago, “one bad or funny photo of a star can launch a thousand different memes.” For example, 2013 was undoubtedly the year of Miley Cyrus memes, with images of her twerking on famous paintings making the rounds, as well as … Continued
Drop those feminist theory textbooks! If you want to understand the ever-shifting tides of contemporary feminism, you could do worse than watch this: This Saturday Night Live parody commercial for “President Barbie,” which aired over the weekend, featured a Hillary Clinton doppelgänger in the form of a Barbie doll, complete with blue pantsuit and stiff … Continued