SNL Gabourey Sidibe/MGMT

Last weeks SNL was a pretty typical bad SNL episode and par for the course from the rest of the season. Probably not any worse than the Blake Lively/Taylor Lautner or January Jones episodes. The only saving grace was Bill Hader and John Mulaney on weekend update. However there was something about this episode that really bothered me and that was that it seemed like everyone on the show/audience were Gabourey Sidibe's parents hoping she would do well. A disclaimer I have not seen Precious and don't plan on watching it, I am sure it is a very good movie, but I don't feel like watching a movie where the best case scenario is it succesfully tells a tragic story and makes me unbearably sad. My problem was not that the audience was behind Sidibe I am not such a cynic that I dislike the idea of a live audience supporting a green host. My problem is that it felt like most of the support came out of pity or guilt. During this episode I was reminded of all the pre-Oscar coverage, where everyone*kept saying how beautiful Sidibe is. When I saw Sidibe on SNL and talkshows I was surprised at how bubbly and charismatic she was and it is endearing, but she is not beautiful* by any stretch of the imagination.

*Everyone including reporters for shows like Access Hollywood who are possibly the most vain people in the world. As far as I can tell there job is too look pretty and read a teleprompter without shouting offensive statements.

*Yes I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but a large percentage of both the population would not consider her beautiful. I also realize that beauty can be used to describe inner beauty, but there are several other adjectives that can be used to describe that and don't have the same connotation of aesthetic beauty.

This sentiment is such a bullshit Hollywood feel good thing where people with nice hair and fake smiles get to pretend that they aren't in an industry where aesthics superficiality is rewarded. It's almost as if Hollywood is surprised that someone who isn't a 9/10 can add value to society and Sidibe overcoming obesity is the equivalent of making the NFL with a fake leg. If Sidibe is truly as intelligent and grounded as people have said I am sure she is not delusional enough to sincerely believe the claims of her beauty. Patronizing someone doesn't change the truth. This brings me to this weeks SNL. Last week I watched the SNL in the 2000's documentary and one of the segments was about SNL's willingness to make fun of anything, because they are a comedy show and being as funny as possible should be the priority. Alec Baldwin joked about his divorce weeks after it happened, they have had a recurring joke making fun of David Patterson's blindness, etc. however when Sidibe hosted SNL they bent over backwards to not make any jokes at her expense and throughout the episode that was the elephant in the room. I am not suggesting that the episode should have turned into 90 minutes of fat jokes, but if you are trying to make a comedy show it might make sense to have some sketches where the host is the butt of some jokes. People may argue that she is an innocent child and making fun of her on national TV is cruel. That is a fair point, but that hasn't stopped SNL in the past. They made fun of Britney Spears claims of virginity when she was a teen sensation, but I guess questioning someone's fidelity is funny so long as they are sufficiently beautiful that people are jealous of you and won't feel guilty about it after the fact. Others may say they didn't have any good jokes or sketches that would acknowledge Sidibe's appearance, but given the quality of the episode a couple token fat jokes probably would have been a welcome addition. If people actually read this blog, I think some people would get up in arms about this post, but my primary contention is this. SNL you are a admittedly a comedy show first, so you should be willing to make fun of everyone and everything patronizing someone because she is one of the few people in Hollywood who isn't drop dead gorgeous is insulting to that person and a bane to your craft.