22.5.11

Saturday Night Live RapeWatch: Justin Timberlake Edition

For a Timberlake season-ender, this was a relatively weak episode, relying on rehashed sketches, and rarely giving its host any decent material to work with. If it weren't for the fun novelty of having Lady Gaga essentially co-host, appearing in a number of sketches, it would have been utterly forgettable.

Of course, I'm not here to talk about the show proper, but rather track its inexcusably objectionable content. Things started out terribly with a sketch about Strauss-Kahn being jailed and finding himself in a cell with two black men who are surprisingly well-informed about the goings-on at the World Bank. Naturally, it ended with a rape joke, because SNL writers couldn't think of anything other than the most obvious possible out. That was, thankfully, the sum total of the rape jokes last night - but not the end of the homophobia, which reared its ugly head again in an appearance by Stefan, and a return to the tunnel of love, which this time ended with a gay proposition, as opposed to a murder. Odd that they would consider that 'raising the stakes' in the second appearance of the sketch.

Anyhoo, here's the tally-

Rape: 1
Homophobia: 3

That's it for the season, folks! See you back here next year, for more hyper-aware overcriticism!

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