As Henry David Thoreau preached, if there exist unjust laws
or an issue on which we are strongly opinioned, we should civilly disobey and
stand up for what we believe in. Saturday Night Live takes this idea and uses
it to mock the majority of the Facebook community. The skit takes place on a
normal man’s couch, where the man (Scott) is watching the news, where the news
anchors are discussing issues like the Middle East, refugee crisis, and the
Black Lives Matter movement. Scott, the main character, knows he has to do
something about the issues, and so he shares a post on Facebook. The rest of
the song celebrates the wonderful things Scott did for the world. The singers
praise him, saying “You ended racism” and that he did more than Martin Luther
King. In the skit, the writers use blatant sarcasm to demonstrate the fact that
sharing a post on social media does not help global issues.
The writers of the skit use blatant sarcasm in order to
highlight the ridiculousness in people thinking that they are contributing to
solutions by pressing a couple buttons on their phones. In the skit, Scott
changes his Twitter bio to “BLACK LIVES MATTER” and then magical effects shoot
around the room like Scott had just changed the world. The use of the vibrant
scenery all to describe a man on his phone on the couch quite clearly is a
sarcastic criticism towards people who do what Scott did. It is clear that no
one that actively sought change would be content by just sharing a post on
Facebook, yet the characters in the skit celebrate Scott’s posts as if they
changed the world.
The writers of the skit produced a masterpiece, in my
opinion. Not only was it a hilarious song but it conveyed a message that
applies to most viewers of Saturday Night Live. Whether we see these Facebook
posts or share them ourselves, we now know how insignificant our “contributions”
really are.
Original Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDydKwmrHFo
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