http://www.buzzfeed.com/jaimieetkin/that-isis-skit-on-snl-offended-a-lot-of-people#.otL4o99XK
SNL spoofs the car commercial shown during the Super Bowl. I have to admit that I am torn. This kind of satire is what SNL does best but it did make me uncomfortable.
I thought it was stupid. Satire frequently walks the line of being offensive, so don’t see that as a criteria. It just was not funny. it was dumb.
Offensive
funny - I guess now I’m trying to work myself into being offended?
Her movie character was young woman gets into a thing with older guy who leads he astray. This guy will REALLY lead her astray. I thought the “sincere” father/daughter part hit just the right tone to be funny. There have been young woman who have or have tried to “runaway away” and joint ISIS out of some romantic notion rather than a jihadist viewpoint. I have often wondered what in the heck they think is going to happen. The ISIS character isn’t supposed to look sympathetic. They look a bit like buffoons which is how they look on TV when not doing the most evil things that they do. In the back of my mind I have always wondered if they had a stylist or some kind of design consultant for the flag and outfits.
To get it out there a lot of SNL skits fall flat for me, even the ones that most other people find funny. I am not known as a person who laughs at everything.
I think it’s funny. SNL has always been edgy and not terribly afraid of offending. But in the end, what does it matter if it’s offensive or not? It’s on late at night so no need to edit content as if it were on earlier.
What really offends me is censorship. And people who are offended by every little thing that isn’t milk toast.
Watched it again and still think it’s funny.
The sincere “death to America” cracked me up as well ducking I get that ISIS is B-A-D bad and E-V-I-L and whatnot and they do horrible things. Does that mean one can’t mock them and the people who think that they will “be someone” and maybe see the world if they join? ISIS recruiters have facebook followers for gosh sakes! They are reaching out to young people and trying to seem normal.
funny on the third watch as well . . .
I have wondered many times if the facebook followers who run away to join ISIS haven’t heard about the rampages of rape, torture and murder or just choose to ignore it. This captures that for me.
I think that is part of the power of satire, Saintfan. Comedy can make powerful social statements as we know. It isn’t glorifying ISIS to parody them. It is the opposite. It exposes them to ridicule and takes away some of their “Awe potential” for lack of a better phrase.
I have no problem with the skit but again, art in all of it’s forms will offend some and not others. In fact, ISIS would like us to live in a world where creative expression is controlled, censored and squelched.
Oh my! This got me thinking about those “Al Qaida training camp videos” and since my mind is now thinking that way and we have just passed through a week of NFL combine obsession I thought it would be funny to have an ISIS training camp video but run them through combine drills in their black pantaloons and face masks. Maybe add black Under Armour compressions shirts with numbers to make it even funnier. Oh my . . . #-o
That’s hilarious.
For some reason, I’m not able to watch it online, but hopefully we recorded it on DVR. From the sounds of it, I think it’s going to be exceptionally funny. And maybe it will make a greater statement than some of those recruiting tools that ISIS likes to use. Then again, I’m not easily offended, and why would I possibly be offended by something that makes fun of vicious, sick killers? Should we be showing them proper respect? Tell, you what, we can direct that proper respect at the tip of a couple thousand rockets pointed their way.
I think what made me most uncomfortable was that I found it funny and it seems that everyone on the "twitersphere " said it was over the line and offensive. Glad to have found some company here on CC.
People who thought it was funny don’t tweet about it they just laugh and move on (I didn’t know about it until this thread so glad to be in on the joke)
We’ve shown ISIS plenty of respect-- we’ve already dropped five thousand properly respectful bombs on them.
I’ve watched the video several times. Still funny. I don’t even see what there is to be offended about.
I found it on youtube, and I thought it was very funny and very well-done. The guy who played the father was great. I didn’t see the original Army commercial but I take it it was over-the-top sappy. I think it mocks ISIS, as well as the first world young people who run off to join them.
Amusing, not hilarious. Certainly not offensive.
Military families, especially those who have sent daughters into harms way are not likely to find it amusing. But I have to admit it’s the original commercial that made me more uncomfortable. I think the spoof is based on the feelings of people who are not anxious to romanticize or profit on the emotions of those sending a child off to war.
I haven’t seen the original ad, but I just watched the SNL version on Hulu.
I’ve certainly seen much more offensive (& funny) shorts on SNL.
It’s satire, it doesn’t appeal to everyone.
Reading the comments, I now see that more people are offended at ISIS being the subject of jokes at all right now. I get it, especially since their reign of terror is so current and evil beyond description. SNL has done skits mocking Bin Laden that didn’t arouse this kind of reaction, but I think this commercial is seen by some as mocking our efforts, and the sacrifice of those making them. So I think some people don’t just see the commercial as mocking ISIS, or mocking the profit made by a car company off of the emotions of sending a D to war.
I loved it. People generate outrage so quickly these days. Remember the classic spoof where they had a mohel circumcise a baby in the back of a car to parody the soft, comfortable ride being advertised? Religiously offensive, would involve death threats and demonstrations if that were a Muslim circumcision, but funny as heck.
What makes it is the guy picking her up saying “Death to America”.
I thought it was funny when I saw it last night. To me it was mocking all the upper middle class girls trying to run off and join terrorist groups, which (to me) is such a bizarre idea.