Hey Lorne: SNL Needs More Diversity



The first rule of comedy is that nothing is off-limits. That being said, crisp child molestation jokes and sulfurous AIDS humor are almost impossible to bring off and, we advise, should be avoided at all costs. Larry David, however, may be the only comedian ever to work a successful child molestation bit in Curb Your Enthusiasm's "The Doll". Other than that, if a bit is funny, offensiveness, generally, doesn't matter.

So the first thing The Corsair thought upon seeing SNL's skit on Governor David Patterson -- see above -- was "Holy Shit!" It was unbelievably crass (and really not funny). Not only was SNL making fun of a legally blind man -- a genial, well-liked, albeit in-over-his-head blind man -- but the skit is in the wake of arguments that SNL isn't employing enough African-Americans. In the shadow of the questions about the shows racial makeup, the skit was in remarkably bad taste. And in the wake of a new African-American Presidency, where the show passed over tyalented African-American comedians to go with a bad impression done by the usually funny Fred Armisen, it was tone deaf as well.

This brings us back to the problem of SNL's lack of color.

Inside the comedy fishbowl there was a robust debate about whether or not an Obama Presidency would mean the end of humor. No African-American comedian worth his salt would ever even take that conversation seriously. Don Imus learned -- the hard way -- that the comedy frat mentality of performing in a topical news show wholly without color creates a racial imbalance, especially when doing jokes targeting a minority. The Howard Stern Show has had over the years Robin Quivers to occasionally rein-in the Long Island locker room mentality that often accompanies the Stern-show free-associations on the subject of race. Had Don Imus had a smart African-American on staff, he might have spared himself the well-deserved public beating and the firing. An African-American on Imus might have offered: "That joke about the 'ho's? No funny. Don't do it." Instead Don Imus was scouting comedy clubs last summer, looking to bring about a racial balance for his second, humbler act.

I was an editor at Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999. The Silicon Alley Reporter 100 was a prestigious prize that start-up tech companies in New York vied for inclusion. There was also a list called the Digital Coast Reporter 50 that focused on entertainment businesses in the Los Angeles area. As one of the only 2 people of color on staff (there was an Indian-American journo also working there), I lobbied hard to get some diversity on the list. Unfortunately, I was told during an editorial meeting that the list would not water down standards and integrity in favor of diversity. I managed to get Bob Johnson of BET Networks in the rankings, but by and large the two lists -- SAR 100 and DCR 50 -- remained overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly white.

The result? At the photo shoot for the Digital Coast Reporter 50, there was not a single woman. It was a wall of white men. The phone call that came in to the New York offices was pained. In politically forward California, which has 2 female Senators, that sort of scene amounted to an embarrassment for the magazine. It was a bittersweet justification of my losing editorial argument.

And so I ask Saturday Night Live not to wait until events force them to diversify and mar the ultimate Boomer Cool Brand. New York City, where the show is famously shot, has more Latinos and African-Americans than white residents. It would behoove Lorne Michaels to diversify the cast of the not-yet-ready-for-Prime-Time players and, while he's at it, that overwhelmingly Harvard-infused writing staff.

More Asians; more Latinos; more gays; more African-Americans!

Look at how the show has improved since the number of women and their centrality in skits has increased. Tina Fey, who didn't go to Harvard and doesn't have a penis, has been one of the most significant additions to the show. Before Tina Fey major magazines could run silly articles in a jocular tone on how women aren't funny. Fey and Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch have all, to varying degrees during their SNL tenures, helped the show and dispelled the myths of women in comedy. Diversity is a good thing in comedy and in life, Lorne Michaels, and not just in gender.

The Obama generation is watching.