As I’ve said many times before, I don’t even watch Saturday Night Live these days. I haven’t stayed up to watch it in years. Some Sundays, I’ll look at summaries of the previous night’s SNL episode to see if there’s anything interesting or noteworthy, and you’d be surprised at how little actual news/gossip comes out of SNL these days (or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised). Still, I wanted to see how Dakota Johnson did as host of SNL this weekend. Dakota got the best reviews out of anyone for Fifty Shades of Grey, and for the most part, she’s riding high these days. She’s our new Kristen Stewart, only not as twitchy and awkward. So how did Dakota do? Eh. Here’s her Opening Monologue, also featuring her parents Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.
You know what’s weird? The more she talks, the less distracting I find her bangs. She was cute here. She has a nice dry delivery for punchlines.
But the biggest headline out of this episode of SNL was this commercial. It was a parody of those tear-jerker commercials for cars or letting your kid join the armed forces. The SPOILER is that the dad is actually dropping off his daughter (Dakota) so she can join ISIS.
Is this too much? I groaned-laughed at it because I actually wasn’t expecting it to be ISIS as the punchline. But it does feel like “too far, dude!” because in the past week, a bunch of people were captured as they were about to go and join ISIS. It’s actually pretty disturbing.
People seemed to like this one too – it’s what would happen if we said what was really on our minds.
Photos courtesy of Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC, Fame/Flynet.
Nope it is too insensitive and insulting towards parents who are losing their sons and daughters to IS.
Especially here in UK – 3 more teenage girls have left the country to join the terrorist group.
It’s an important issue that needs to be talked and not mocked about.
+1
Saw that (re the three teenage girls) on the news this a.m., and it’s so disturbing.
+1000
Humour and satire are very effective tools in destroying these sorts things.
The 3 young ladies you mention left AFTER manifestos about the treatment of women under ISIL had been made public. Not the treatment of the captured women, but rules that ISIL women live by. Any sensible person would have thought twice about joining such an organisation after reading it, even if the beheadings and murders weren’t a deterrent.
Talking to those young ladies clearly wasn’t going to do it. Humour has a way of showing the absurd truth of ideologies. Not saying it’s a 100% success rate, but sometimes, it goes further in removing support for any sort of ideology.
Let’s not forget that ISIL lures these people with the promise of a better life. We know it’s unlikely to be true, but do they? Telling them to think about it in a serious way isn’t doing it, perhaps humour can make them do it.
@Lak +1000 if we can’t talk about it, it won’t magically go away
++ a billion LAK to what u said.
@Lak +1000 don’t see why it can’t be talked about and mocked.
Exactly!!!
Totally agree. I think they did the skit precisely because of cases like that. It’s like, you live a comfortable life in the West and you up an decide to join such a detestable group? It’s not like poor child soldiers, conscripts or women forced to act as sex slaves. You are willingly joining up for this slaughter. It’s so bizarre. and then there’s ISIS propaganda–as slick as any commercial. ‘Hey come join us!’ They’re actively recruiting this age group.
Thank you, LAK.
LAK … Agreed. I’ve had several discussions this week trying to understand why young women would choose the horror of life with ISIS, a group that has brought untold misery onto countless unwilling girls and women. Using little miss S & M to parody that was brilliant. Subtle but it got people talking.
Agreed. I remember when The Onion did their first post-9/11 issue. It was brilliant, hilarious and thought-provoking and poignant. Humor can definitely start conversations that are difficult.
@LAK. You hit the mail on the head. People, particularly young people, enjoy the cache of being a rebel. Ridicule and mockery is an effective tool in undermining the cool of rebellion.
You so correct, please broadcast your opinions to all the people throwing a fit over this SNL skit!
Yes! Thank you! Thank you to everything you said, LAK.
I’m trying to recall the quote (or who made this wise observation)… to paraphrase: a foe and a bully can take on your anger – and often needs it – but can almost never abide being made an object of your mockery.
As for comedy itself, good taste and sensitivity are not always present in the room. By necessity, often, as they are a sure-fire censor for the sort of round-table improv & exchange of ideas model that’s inherent in the structure of the show (and in The Harold background of so many of the performers).
Y-y-y-y-yup!
Yes LAK! Great comments.
I may be in the minority, but my husband and I laughed out loud at the skit. Perhaps my sense of humor is too twisted. Maybe. I thought it was executed very well. It was a total shock and surprise moment and we cracked up. I was as shocked at this skit as I was when I heard about the two Austrian girls who left home last year.
It’s satire, and as others have noted, sometimes laughing at something garners more attention. This is a discussion that needs more awareness so more children aren’t sucked into the sick fantasy world these terrorists are spreading.
agree with this one million percent.
this skit wasn’t about kicking distraught families when they’re down. this was a satire which identifies an incredibly disturbing trend– and holds a mirror up to its ridiculousness. this sketch actually made me want to go and do more reading about the issue of ISIS recruiting in North American and Europe.
so many people b!tch about “Saturday Night Dead”, but when they actually do a timely and sharp witted satirical sketch, everyone turns on them with the ‘too far, too far!’ stick. it got people talking and showed that many folks had no idea that ISIS recruitment was even a thing.
Great post, LAK.
I didn’t find it insensitive. I didn’t find it funny either though.
Sorry but it was just a few months ago we were screaming for this kind if satire to be everywhere following the Charlie Hebdo shootings, why the sensitivity all of a sudden?
mocking ISIS feels peculiarly satisfying.
it’s like say F*CK you to these maniacs.
while i’m sensitive to the horrible pain and suffering for the families of ISIS victims…the brutality makes me ill…
THIS we can do…mock them on a powerful medium…on a popular show that is part of our culture.
speaks volumes…
It’s a comedy sketch! And it’s funny.
Sorry……whether I find it personally funny or not…..there is no such thing as “oh they shouldn’t do that, its insensitive and in bad taste”. Because someone somewhere will always yell foul–and no one should be silenced. Saying everyone should have their say without censor does not mean there aren’t consequences.
Alas if all you have in your quiver is “but its my right to say it” to defend your choice to speak….well that’s a pretty weak argument. You need to be able to articulate why it needs to be said…but even if you can’t….well, still your right to say it, but geez its lame.
But please don’t go all “its insensitive and wrong”….because that just isn’t a strong enough position to silence others.
the skit was mocking isick. nothing wrong or insensitive. i found it funny.
You can mock and talk at the same time. ISIS is overdue for some mocking.
Oh and BTW the Brand of Islam ISIS represents…like the guy who killed Charlie Hebdo…need funny bone implant surgery STAT.
Time for the Medieval minds in Islam to join the twenty-first century.
Mockery is the exposure and criticism of human stupidity using humor. ISIS is soo in need of some mockery. They are human stupidity at its finest.
She lacks of star quality and charism. I’m not surprise that the show had low ratings. People are not interesting in her
Personally, I think the show has low ratings, because it’s NOT FUNNY AT ALL…Every once in a while, I will start to watch it, if I have an interest in the host…and every time, I get about twenty minutes in, and shut it off…this show should have been gone a looooooooong time ago!
That being said, I agree, that DJ has about as much charisma as her mother (none)! At least Don Johnson, had some personality, back in the day!
I didn’t think the ISIS skit was funny, or appropriate…burning people alive, kidnapping women and children, etc. Nothing funny about this group….at all!
You know, I never understood Melanie Griffith until I saw Working Girl. She was AMAZING in it. Perfect combination of sexy, sweet, smart. And God, her legs were their own character. Makes me sad to see her now. Also, everyone should go watch Working Girl!!
i agree.
working girl was a great movie and gave me an appreciation for melanie griffith.
dakota is the perfect combination of her parents…
sweet sexy like mom with her exact body – endless legs and all.
a tiny bit of sassy sexy from dad – god – remember don johnson in miami vice?
i think dakota has talent…big talent still in its infancy.
she’s got the goods.
I stopped watching the show last year, for the reason you mention. I would DVR each new episode and ended up watching 20 minutes total due to the skits being dull, for the most part.
Such a shame, given how funny SNL once was.
I think I have towels that are more charismatic than her, but let’s not act like she’s the bigger problem here. SNL has been painfully unfunny for years. If they don’t want to cancel they must get new writers ASAP.
Bingo. That’s the problem. No matter how funny you are, you’re a lot less funny with bad material.
Forced myself to stay up to watch most of it–thought the ISIS skit was in very bad taste.
SNL just is not funny anymore.
I haven’t seen her in anything (apart from reading about the cringe-worthy 50 Shades press tour) so I was surprised to find her really cute and endearing in SNL! I thought she did well.
I thought she did well too. She surprisingly has good comic timing.
Don is still hot.
WORD.
+1
this has solved a mystery for me…
i’ve got this thing for the trivago guy…
seeing don johnson again…the trivago guy reminds me of him..
i can’t watch those commercials without quivering 😉
OMG, the Trivago guy is so hot! I thought I was the only one.
bettyrose – I KNOW!
isn’t he?
i haven’t had a reaction to a man in person or otherwise like i’ve had for the trivago guy in years!
sad, but true…
he’s got something…
i read up on him…he’s an american guy but moved to germany when he met his now wife.
tirvago is a german company apparently.
he was a struggling actor/musician in the states – appeared in some american shows long ago, but didn’t do much.
he’s reconsidering another try given his popularity as the sexy, gritty, trivago guy.
I second that emotion! The Trivago guy is most definitely shag worthy.
SNL hasn’t been funny for years and years. I can’t believe it’s still on. Melanie and Don were unrecognizable from all of their plastic surgery. Sad.
Agree. The skit was unfunny. I spent a few seconds trying to figure out which SNL actors were in makeup and costume “playing” Don and Melanie, and then it finally dawned on me it was really them.
I kept staring at Don Johnson’s face trying to find Don Johnson. I’d seen Melanie more recently, so she was not such a shock, but still sad.
ISIS has been putting out very idealized propaganda pieces to lure impressionable young people over. From their commercials, you would think ISIS is running 5 star hotel. I think this is what SNL was getting at when making this. While I didn’t think it was that funny, looking at it with this in mind, I was not terribly offended.
I should have said that I meant in general. It’s not that I think ISIS is off limits, though I’m very squeamish about certain types of humor. I just don’t think the show is funny anymore.
Am I the only person that finds her voice annoying?
And, no, the joke wasn’t funny. I don’t even know if SNL knows how to be actually funny anymore.
To quote someone else, “Bullies need to be criticized and ridiculed. Otherwise, they become a normal part of society.”
I thought the skit was darkly funny.
This was SNL stock in trade for years- satire that makes you wince a bit. I thought it was spot on. Dakota did fine once they moved on from her parents. Loved seeing Alabama Shakes!
+100 agreed. Honestly, if you are easily offended, you probably shouldn’t watch a satire show?
Love Alabama Shakes! Glad I’m not alone, so few people know their music.
Being able to poke fun at ISIS (called IS for a few months now btw) is exactly the freedom this terror group tries to destroy. Satire has been a tool to show artistic freedom. It is important to show these animals that we have freedom of speech and that we will continue to ridicule them, because we have the liberty to do so!
Yes, I want to see more. Hit them in their pride, show them to be the cowardly idiots that they are. And then get the drones and start bombing.
Well, they’ve been bombing them for months.
But I agree with using mockery, satire, humor, etc., against them. As brutal as they are, they need to be mocked.
@Birdie, they’re not animals. They’re very, very human, Which makes it more frightening to people, I think. More reason to mock them.
Agreed, Birdie.
@ cr: To me, people who burn others alive and kill a person and feed him to his mother… are animals. And that’s still too nice. They are humans, but don’t act with humanity, which makes them monsters.
What? There are animals that burn others alive or feed victims to their mothers?
Animals fight, but they don’t typically kill their own. To call that a human peculiarity would be closer to the truth…
what kind of monsterosity is she wearing at the last pictures…? holy hell that is one ugly denim …
THANK YOU. I came here just to discuss those overalls -slash- street sweepers.
i think she pulls off this edgy, 70s throwback, bohemian outfit…
From the waist up she actually looks really good. Thought she was Rachel McAdams for a second.
SNL skits hav been boring for decades ,but i like Dakota ,she is humorous in her own way
I don’t watch SNL anymore and don’t care about her but that sketch? Well I get what they were going for but I’m not sure they got there.
A good majority of teenage girls are naive, stubborn and stupid (I was!) but this is next level. This is a level of ignorance, weakness, and disregard for humanity that is terrifying. Muslim parents needs to be given the tools and support they need to combat this. It’s just awful!
SNL is know for pushing the envelope. I thought it was kinda funny but not really.
I’m a strong fan of dark humor, I think nothing should be off-limits, blah blah blah. You’ve all heard this before. The thing is, for dark humour to be effective it has to be… well, humorous, and that’s something SNL hasn’t been for more than a few years. Is a joke still a joke if no one is laughing?
I thought it was pretty funny, it’s just a joke, come on. On the other hand I find it strange that the US has commercials where kids join the army etc, we would never have those where I live.
I live in South Africa and we don’t have that either.
SNL is way past it’s prime and simply isn’t worth the time to watch. Cringe worthy skits have been part of their show since it began, but I’m sorry this isn’t funny. The barbarism coming out of ISIS is beyond words, and I doubt the families of those being beheaded, burned alive, raped, crucified and tortured would find the humor in this. Dark humor is one thing, but there are things that are so horrific they are way beyond being able to laugh at. ISIS is not a joke, it’s a serious threat that should be taken as such by the world. I get that this was fueled by the story of the three British girls traveling to join this blood thirsty entity, and that is disturbing in it’s own right. What on earth would make three girls want to be a part of that? I can only assume they have no clue as to how women are treated by them either. Having just read a headline on another site that the mother of a prisoner was allegedly fed a meal of meat and rice and told afterward that the ‘meat’ was her son, there just are no words. But you know perhaps Lorne Michaels will find a way to write a skit about that too.
ISIS is not off-limits to mock. It is not “too serious” to make fun of. They are bullies, they want people to be too scared to make fun of them.
It is not too serious? Are YOU serious? Get off the gossip sites for a bit and take a look at the news and what they are doing. I suppose you think of them as a JV team as Obama does. They are beyond being ‘bullies’. It’s not a question of being too scared to mock them, it’s the fact that what they are doing is depraved and they have no respect for human life unless of course it submits to their twisted ideology. There are just things in this world that are so horrific there isn’t any room for jokes. Setting humans on fire in a cage and video taping it is not bullying. It’s pure evil.
And did you see an SNL skit mocking people being burned in cages? I didn’t. I saw ISIS recruitment tactics being made fun of.
Do you honestly think I was saying ISIS is not serious, or were you just taking my words out of context? Think before you write.
they aren’t ‘bullies’, they’re f*cking psychos.
@loulou, I do think before I write. Your comment seems to dismiss them as typical bullies. I didn’t take anything out of context, I merely responded to what you said. No the skit didn’t contain burning people but that is what these monsters are doing. As I said there are things in the world that are simply not comedic material.
@loulou: Referring to ISIS as “bullies” is like referring to a war as a slight disagreement. They are the devil incarnate, they are insane and recruiting from the most mentally unstable and dangerous people in the world. Beheading, hacking to death, burning in cages…some things are just too horrific for mocking, especially for the friends and families who have lost loved ones to their depredations. SNL has truly lost the plot if they think this issue is worthy of satire.
Saw on the news today some guys from ISIS throwing a man off the top of a tall building for the ‘crime of sodomy’, ie being gay.
Yeah, ISIS is a bundle of laughs.
I thought the ISIS skit was funny. SNL was just making fun of the morons who go over there to join them.
And those morons go on to behead, set fire to and hack to death basically innocent people. Yeah….really funny and I’m sure the families of those killed or kidnapped by ISIS are laughing too.
@tippy…I am Muslim and I don’t believe that if I become angry, I have a “right” to get violent, nor do slights against Islam make me angry. Only disheartened that people don’t fully understand. Please don’t lump me or my faith with the actions of people who have hijacked it for their own selfish, destructive reasons.
Also, though I don’t pretend to be an expert on politics, it could be that the president doesn’t refer to them as “Islamic” because there is nothing Islamic about their brutality. It’s just pure terror.
Agreed!!! I think people who don’t understand island make those generalizations
As the mother of a couple of young 20-something’s, I thought it was hilarious. Absurdly hilarious, which kinda describes our life with them right now.
Serious question: Does anyone actually find SNL funny anymore? I’ve tried to give it a chance on multiple occasions and sat through it all totally stone-faced. The writing is horrible. Even if this skit were not offensive, it probably still wouldn’t have been funny.
I haven’t watched it in years, it’s completely unfunny in my opinion.
I didn’t find this skit funny at all. I guess nothing can be off limits with free speech, but there’s also having common sense and a brain. Plus, I find it hard to believe that SNL’s crappy writers were trying to make a deeper point about young people being gullible or whatever.
I actually enjoyed her on SNL. The ISIS thing made me chuckle. I feel like in the last 5 or so episodes SNL has been funnier, finally.
I loved the ISIS skit too. Some people need to lighten up and not be serious and sober 24/7. You can both mock your enemy and have a serious sober dialog about them. Those of us with more than one brain cell in our head can mock ISIS one minute, have a sober discussion about them the next and all the while know full well they don’t have the support of the entire Muslim world.
I’m still unable to fathom why people still watch this show. Why is Loren Michaels still in showbizness is completely unfathomable.
The very fact that in the last 40 years he’s yet to hire comedians of different cultures to be on his show on a regular basis is mindboggling. Yes there are several you can count on one hand but my God when I remember the cast of MAD TV I wonder how is it that Michaels missed out on an opportunity to hire those people who were funnier in their ten year run than SNL have been in 40years.
The controversy was mocking a current commercial in which a girl is joining the army and equating isis to the military. But the real sin of SNL is it isn’t funny.anymore. Dakota was so bad they couldn’t use a wide shot in her skits because you’d see her reading lines and not looking at others. Unbelievable.
I think it’s very funny.
It’s a good thing to laugh at ISIS and other terrorists. It’s self-defense for the mind.
The skit was funny. Dakota needs to find another line of work. I dont see talent in her acting. She’s boring.
Just wanted to respond to Bettyrose said about wanting to understand why anyone would choose to join. Mods, apologies if I’m overstepping. But yeah the why…unfortunately in a lot of Muslim communities, so many messed up cultural practices are given such importance that people think those practices are mandated by Islam. And because those practices are so screwy, they cause heartache and eventually rebellion. An example…in the region from which I hail, there is STILL this asinine “requirement” that the girl’s side give the boy’s side a substantial dowry as “payment.” In other words, gimme gimme gimme because it’s a fair exchange for my poor son who now has to bear the financial burden of YOUR daughter. Infuriating right? Also COMPLETELY against the dictates of Islam. But people peddle this BS like it’s the word of God. This has resulted in so many broken engagements, marriages, and families that it’s heartbreaking. But many people still refuse to budge on the dowry issue. And in the past few decades it’s resulted in people turning away from their families, communities and even Islam because they resent the faith (wrongly so but they’ve never been taught otherwise) and the people that pushed them in to this mess. I’m COMPLETELY not using this example as a way to lay blame at the door of the poor families who are losing their kids to ISIS. That would be too simplistic and totally insensitive. I’m just saying there’s a lot of issues in our communities that need attention, one of them being presenting and imposing unreasonable cultural practices as religious requirements, and then being shocked when things inevitably backfire. Hope I managed to make sense.
Thanks, catlady. If I understand what you’re saying, it’s possible that some young women are made to feel like a burden to their families (i.e. we can’t afford your dowry), so an appeal to join ISIS makes them feel wanted/valuable and off to Syria they go. That sort of makes sense, but I still don’t see how one (male or female, honestly) could overlook the fact that this horrible group kidnaps children and holds them as slaves (sexual and otherwise). How can anyone justify that to themselves?
Hey bettyrose. That’s definitely a possibility, but the bigger point that I was trying to make is that there are SO many messed up cultural/traditional practices masquerading as religion in our communities, that the true message gets lost and people get pushed into bad situations. The dowry thing is but one example in a long list.
As for how people can overlook the horrific things done by ISIS…I dunno if I have an answer for you. Just that when you’re pushed to the brink by societal/cultural pressures, ANY alternative looks attractive and you turn a blind eye to the glaring lack of morality the alternative presents. It happens all the time, I’m afraid.
I thought the Isis sketch was pretty funny.
Satire: Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose human foolishness or vice.
VERY funny and pointed. It skewered both that maudlin Toyota commercial and ISIS. SNL kinda sucks now, but this “commercial” with Dakota Johnson is excellent satire.
Is it so hard to find a clip that will run in Canada?
I think it’s brilliant. This skit may seem like pure satire, but the last line is beyond chilling: “We’ll take it from here, Dad.”
I thought the skit was funny and not inappropriate in any way. What’s inappropriate is chopping peoples heads off, burning them alive in cages, not the mention the myriad atrocities they commit against women, gays, Christians, other Muslims, etc…. And not be insensitive, but I don’t particularly feel sorry for these parents. Girls don’t just wake up one morning and decide to join ISIS the way they decide what to wear to school. Something was going on there before the decision was made and the parents weren’t paying attention.
I thought the ISIS bit was funny. LOL! And she is darling. Lighten up everybody!
Some people on this thread are humorless. Mocking your enemy doesn’t mean you take him lightly or that you think all Muslims support ISIS’ views. In fact, being given a roasting on SNL means you are important. They don’t waste their time skewering insignificant people and groups.
Before anyone goes on a rant about mocking ISIS being religious intolerance let me point out that we mock Christians a lot in this country and almost no one says boo about it. The few people who do are told to lighten up. What is good for one group is good for all. Grow a sense of humor about yourself!
I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing, but she did great. There were some bad skits here and there but I personally find that she have some of the best lines. She’s really cute, and has this awkward timing(?) and dry humour lol
As for the skit I admit I laughed pretty hard because it was so out of no where.