The original draft of this email was sent Washington Post showbiz writer Steve Zeitchik and copied to several of his Style section colleagues. It pointed to two silly left-wing assumptions in his story about Elon Musk’s invitation to host Saturday Night Live and the negative reactions that invitation generated among some cast members and others.
Dear Steve,
Among other things, your Saturday print edition story on A15, “Will Elon Musk’s offbeat hosting gig boost SNL’s sagging ratings?” reports that executive producer Lorne Michaels previously “had” to let comedy writer Shane Gillis go and “had” to disinvite musician Morgan Wallen when they fell afoul of woke Twitter mobs. But, of course, Michaels didn’t have to do either. He made cowardly choices, both of which speak volumes about the decidedly unfunny, far-too-woke-for-its-own-good show’s eroding ratings.
News flash! All humans are imperfect, including very talented humans who just may be stubbornly, hilariously, Archie Bunker unwoke. And if SNL or the Oscars or Tonys or Emmys or Grammys or comparably clueless and condescending late shows ever want to attract an audience that appreciably exceeds a few million LGBTQ’ers, white snowflakes and self-described victims of color, their producers and stars better come to terms with this immutable truth. There’s a whole big country out here, and most of it has no interest in lectures from soft-palmed “creative types.”
So whenever Stalinist speech suppressors demand that someone be fired or disinvited, Lorne Michaels (and every similarly situated executive) ought to respond unflinchingly: “Drop dead. When you’ve won countless Emmy Awards and are in charge of the longest running comedy/variety show in television history, you can make all the woke ratings-killing choices your networks’ shareholders will allow you to make. But until then, keep your perpetual unhappiness and virtue-signaling to yourself because I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of it. Funny is funny. And unfunny can’t be an option.”
Just ask America’s funniest man, Dave Chappelle, who recently came to Musk’s defense.
Darren McKinney, Washington, D.C.