Saturday Night Live: Better than Politicians !?!

             

As an avid viewer of Saturday Night Live, I have seen many funny parodies and skits that have addressed a plethora of topics from politics, equality, alien encounters, and mock political debates. Throughout the 45 seasons of SNL, they have successfully addressed many important and influential issues at the time through the use of humor, irony, and parody. By using these humorous skits, SNL masters the use of comedy to deliver the casts message without the backlash that a regular politician or activist would receive from making these claims. 

SNL has made parodies out of American government, highlighting the absurd nature of some of the considered bills and laws. In the SNL video, “Welcome Video” the cast shows an edit of a customs video right after Donald Trump was elected into office. During the video, a customs agent uses voice overs and effects to create humorous edits to the custom guidelines since the Obama administration. The video is an obvious parody of what American customs would do in result of the travel ban being passed, yet, by exaggerating the ban through the use of humor, SNL successfully explains the conflict that opposing people have with the ban.

This SNL sketch explains Botton's position on humorists in society. While some conservatives disliked their video, the backlash that SNL received for making a statement on Customs and Border Control was minimal compared to the backlash that some democrats in the Federal government received. Botton believed that humor used to address political policy is important to reduce conflict between each other.