Saturday Night Live does an ISIS ad

March 2, 2015 • 12:50 pm

I used to watch SNL religiously (that’s a metaphor), but lost interest after a while when the last actor I liked—Chris Farley—died. Maybe I’m a curmudgeon, but it’s never seem to recapture the days of the original cast: Bill Murray, Jane Curtin, Larraine Newman, Chevy Chase, and especially the comic geniuses of Gilda Radner and John Belushi.  But occasionally they still have some funny bits, and this is one. It’s at once funny, shocking and sad, especially in light of the three British students who absconded to Syria not long ago.

You might recognize Dakota Johnson, one of the stars of The Movie That Shall Not Be Named.

Yahoo News reports widespread outrage about the ad, but I find it a clever satire, and certainly not tasteless. But if you disagree, you’re welcome to weigh in below.

Imagine waking up to find your daughter has joined ISIS. You know you’ll never see them again, and one of the British women who joined them sent a message to her parents that she’d “meet them in the hereafter.”

76 thoughts on “Saturday Night Live does an ISIS ad”

  1. The objections are all saying it is tasteless and inappropriate without saying why.

    An awful lot of people are humorless dolts.

    1. without saying why.

      Subtext is: joining the US military is like joining ISIS.

      I think the authors probably didn’t intend that comparison – they were going for a much more superficial joke about the commercial itself, not anything deep. But the comparison is there, its easy to draw out, and it could easily offend people.

      That’s no reason not to do the joke, however. SNL should be doing jokes like this, they have in the past been very good at spoof commercials. I see this as a less funny variation of their Djesus Unchained bit. Same idea, just not as funny in execution.

      1. Ah, the military subtext was lost on me. If that’s a person’s takeaway then it’s what it is, but until the truck showed up I assumed she was off to college.

        It’s a real stretch, though, to think it’s a slam on the legitimate military: the parent’s emotions about his or her dear one leaving the nest is a trope one will find in all kinds of advertisements. And the point is not usually the child’s destination but the parent’s interest: how reliable the car she’s taking with her, how good the insurance or savings plan, and even how much fun the parents can have now that they are free!

        Having said that, I’m often out of the loop on SNL jokes since I DVR everything I watch and skip the commercials; a good amount of what I do know about current pop culture comes from Googlng the references in SNL skits.

          1. And would anyone care if universities or fraternities were offended? And how could that be anyway? Universities and fraternities are not people! It’s hard work considering so many tender feelings … I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

        2. I assumed it was an “off to college” scene, too. But now that the subject’s come up it may be parodying a military ad of a similar nature. I haven’t seen one like it (I don’t watch much commercial TV and when I do it goes mute with commercials). But I think I remember seeing a reference to such a thing.

          1. This is what I’m saying. It could for all I know be a shot-for-shot sendup of a recruitment ad.

            Not only do I FF through ads, but the ads I’m skipping are targeted to my demographic: expensive cars, medicines for the conditions of ageing, luxury vehicles, cruise ships, and the like. So I would not see the same commercials the kids do anyway if I weren’t skipping.

          2. It was definitely intended as a parody of Toyota’s ad, where the dad sees his daughter off at the airport where she joins other military recruits. I’d bet a lot of money on that. As to whether they were explicitly trying to say something about the US military…my guess is ‘no.’ Its just a bit of unintended subtext that may make the joke uncomfortable for more conservative people. Brings up the thought “what kinda terrible parent would let that kid go off with such a group with a “hey they’re independent and can make their own decisions now” attitude…oh. Oh.”

        3. Wow – I sure didn’t get that subtext either!

          I think for it to be a slam on the legit military, you (not you) have to want it. I mean, one has to be outraged about something right?

          1. That would seem to be the case. Somehow it feels like white conservatives feel very put-upon by having to be sensitive to the feelings of other groups, and in response are cooking up all kinds of ways of their own to act victimized and offended. Whatever! The fetishization of the military is particularly incongruous: like the Xtian God, they are invincible but oh so tender when it comes to an unwelcome word or image. Folks who engage in that particular sector of the offense industry should stop and think about what they are implying. I doubt they will, but they should. It’s weird.

      2. Check out the girl’s backpack at about 43 seconds. It looks a lot like the ones I see ROTC students and active military types carrying around. Pretty subtle, but it bolsters the notion that the US military is being compared to ISIS.

        1. Or, it uses an ad that apparently is familiar to many as a surprise set-up for the ultimate joke; nothing more.

  3. I laughed heartily when I saw this Sat evening, but at the same time knew that there would be a strong negative reaction. Cutting-edge humorous satire of ongoing current events is often controversial….

    2. Djesus Uncrossed was pretty good. Any time you can poke fun at religious conservatives and hollywood with the same joke, and make it work, you’ve probably done something right.

  6. I think they meant to mock toyota as much as isis especially since toyota pickup trucks are the vehicle of choice for jihadists. (the Hilux in particular but they used a Tundra in the commercial)

    On a separate note: Does anyone know who first said: ” beware of the humorless”?

    I think I read it in one of Hitch’s essays buit been trying to find it’s origin. Applies perfectly to this story!

    1. Well, Hitchens said the following:

      “The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity.”

      “Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

        1. I read both those books, I guess I created a false memory. I should have suspected my own motives! 🙂

          That man could wield a pen! Would love to read a Hitch essay on ISIS.

          1. It’s hard to remember all the quotable things he said, he was *so* prolific. I rely on Google and a close approximation usually comes up. 😉

          2. There’s a damn fine collection of Hitch quotations, The Quotable Hitchens, arranged alphabetically by topic, with a damn fine (and touching)introduction by Martin Amis. My copy is growing dog-eared, both from looking up specific quotes and subjects, and from general rummaging around.

  7. I’m not sure why offending some is the measure of this or any other piece. It is well done and funny and that’s all that counts. You will probably offend someone just petting a cat.

  10. I quit watching SNL about the same time you did, tapping in once in a while to see if they had reinvigorated AND funny and could give a slap to all sides…even Gerald Ford was on their show…It was a gentler, funnier time….(TIC)

  12. SNL was dreadful, but it is often surprisingly good now, imo. I have been watching it regularly this season, and I am often delighted with it. If you liked that, then you maybe you will like this.

    1. I thought Al Franken’s plea to “Kill Saturday Night Live” – I’d say 1981 or so? Not worth Googling – was a high point in the low years of the show. I don’t recall the sequence of events or how long it took for Lorne Michaels to return and clean up shop, and I certainly don’t know if that essay had anything to do with the change, but the show did improve after that. The program has had all kinds of ups and downs, and I am impressed that it’s managed to be as interesting and funny as it has been for 40 years! That’s nearly 2/3’s of the entire history of American broadcast television.

  13. Bill Murray was not in the original cast. He joined in the second season (1976) as the replacement for Chevy Chase. Also, Garrett Morris was a member of the first cast.

    2. True that. Several years ago, I re-watched the entire first season and came away with one distinct impression: Chevy Chase = VASTLY overrated. Repeatedly falling down to encapsulate Gerry Ford? SNL was quite lucky to have Bill Murray to replace him.

      We oldsters – who were in college when SNL started – may remember the hits and ignore the misses of the show with that excellent first cast (especially Radner), but some great sketch comedy was produced post-85 (when Michaels returned) with talents like Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Dana Carvey and Mike Myers.

      1. At the time, I thought it was great to make fun of Gerald Ford. As I got older and wiser, I realize what an inaccurate caricature it was. Ford was probably the best athlete ever to be president. Although I should point out that his senior season at the University of Michigan, the Wolverines lost to the University of Chicago 27-0.

        And then there was this incident as described in Wikipedia:
        “During Ford’s senior year a controversy developed when the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets refused to play a scheduled game if a black player named Willis Ward took the field. Even after protests from students, players and alumni, university officials opted to keep Ward out of the game. Ford was Ward’s best friend on the team and they roomed together while on road trips. Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team in response to the university’s decision, but eventually agreed to play against Georgia Tech when Ward personally asked him to play.”

        And there was his heroism during WWII.

        The Republican Party used to be a great party with great men. Now it is a joke. The legacy of the Know Nothings.

    3. Garrett Morris — Any doubt that Chico Escuela and “baseball been berry, berry good to me” would raise PC hackles six ways to Sunday now?

      1. Oh, I loved Garrett Morris! Didn’t he show the Czechoslovakian playboys (wild and crazy guys Steve Martin and Dan Ackroyd) how to pick up FOXES!!!? There was also a feather-duster-looking vibrator that turned at about 10rpm…

  14. I wonder how many have missed out on life long meaningful relationships with their family/loved ones because they thought this life didn’t matter as they would meet them in the “hearafter” (or in a subsequent life)?

  15. I have a dog-eared copy of a delightful “scrapbook” SNL put out in 1977, on the eve of the final season of the original cast. The material includes scripts, design sketches and other artifacts from skits that were dropped as offensive, including:

    1. A spoof of stovetop meal-enhancer products, “Placenta Helper,” featuring two gravid moms bumping into one another and one asking “Are you planning on eating the afterbirth? Many mammals do.”

    2. “Planet of the Enormous Hooters,” a world of grotesquely-endowed women who were to have mocked host Raquel Welch for her undersized breasts.

    3. Dan Aykroyd nailed to a cross wearing outlandish Country-Western garb, singing “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” in “Jesus of Nashville,” to be aired during NBC’s Jesus of Nazareth miniseries.

    Whatever bar of tastefulness the show thought they were setting then, over the years they have blown right through it many times, as has the rest of TV comedy. I’ve seen pieces way grosser than #1, far more suggestive and/or mysogynistic than #2 and at least as mocking of religion as is #3. But also, lots of those bar-bustingly tasteless skits were not as funny as I think #1 and #3 would have been – although the punchline to #2, where Raquel is banished to earth where her deformity will not be so detested, is a fun take on a certain Twilight Zone episode about the relativity of beauty.

    And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

  16. Nothing about this is tasteless. It says nothing that should create outrage. I’m sick of the hypersensitivity of Muslims and their apologists and I agree with those who think we should bombard Islam with satire about their religion and culture (which seem to be one and the same), especially satirical images of Muhammad and any other image that might bother them in order to repeatedly make the point that we have freedom of speech that we take even more seriously than they take their religion. We will certainly fight for it as we have many times through history. It’s non-negotiable.

  18. Saw it live and was surprised by the turn from expectation. That’s what makes it humor. And infinitely better than a lot of the sophomoric stuff they do these days. Good for them!

  20. I usually try to catch the beginning through the “news” because that’s when the best stuff will be on, but I forgot to watch last weekend. I think this satire is cute. People who are too easily offended are… ISIS?

  21. I have loved SNL for 40 years now. Not every show, but I found something funny in every season I have been able to watch. I think the latest crop of SNL regulars are every bit as good as any others before them. My wife and I watched the last one live and thought this particular commercial was funny, edgy and started the process of making the Syrian terrorist group less terrifying. What better way than to poke fun at them?

    There are parents out there whose sons and daughters have gone off despite their best efforts to join this group of serial killers. I wonder how they feel? They are probably not ready to laugh.

    1. You make a good point about the parents of recruitees of this blood cult. The video isn’t viewable in my area, but based on what I’ve read about it, it probably serves an additional purpose which is to hold up as ridiculous the actions of young and the impressionable who’ve gone off to find some kind of glory with these killers, without a backward glance at their families. Again from what I’ve read, many are put to work cleaning latrines and washing up dishes and so on. Or in the worst cases, they’re used as suicide bombers. Many are disillusioned.

  22. Good satire.

    On the last bit of Jerry’s post

    “meet them in the hereafter.”

    How much death and suffering has the notion of, or belief in, a hereafter caused, in the history of the world.

    Is there any other particular belief that comes close?

    And given all that we know of life and consciousness, death is death, there is no afterlife. It is a false belief.

    The single worst notion in the history of the world, IMHO.

  23. I think Monty Python was the show. Although it was better depending on what you were doing at the time.

    2. You might try emailing that to Jerry. He doesn’t have a lot of time to read comments anymore. (Find his eddress by clicking on Research Interests above, or google him.)

  26. I didn’t find the video funny. Usually the darker/edgier the humor, the better, but this spoof just did nothing for me.

    I guess the idea could’ve been funny, but never in the spoof did I ever think, “haha, that’s funny/clever”. Nor was I ever offended or think it could be seen as some sort of controversial criticism of the US military or a comparison of the US military to ISIS (though it very likely is a spoof on US military commercials).

    I lost interest in SNL very soon after Will Ferrel left, and by 2007 I pretty much stopped watching it entirely (my favorite era is probably the Chris Farley one), and this skit does nothing for my desire to begin watching again.

      1. Thing is, the laugh track helps a lot with the humor.

        Try this: rewatch the video without the sound while playing Gary Jules’ “Mad World” in the background.

        Go ahead, I dare ya!

        1. Ok, I initially posted that comment as a joke, but I’ve just tried it myself, and it turns the comic sketch into a tragic PSA.

  27. “The uploader has not made this video available in your country”.

    I’m calling a fatwa on the RIAA/MPAA and their attempts to gag speech in the name of profits…

    1. Yeah, as I said, it’s like the USA is the centre of the entertainment universe, and only sometimes
      we in other countries get invited to play with them. The rest of the time we sit there peering in the window at all the stuff the “cool kids” get to have.

  28. I don’t find the video offensive or tasteless, but at the same time, I’m kind of wondering why it’s funny. What exactly is it satirizing? Is it just making fun of people who join ISIS? It is most definitely modeled after a military recruitment commercial I’ve seen a few times.

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