Did Saturday Night Live Go Too Easy On Steve Jobs With “Undercover Boss?”

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by Drew Grant | 5:20 pm, February 28th, 2010

» 4 comments

While networks are still dealing with the fallout from Seth MacFarlane‘s two-week old Family Guy reference to Sarah Palin‘s son with Down’s Syndrome, it might seem a little disingenuous to ask for a harsher assessment of Apple CEO Steve Jobs from last night’s Saturday Night Live sketch. But NBC took no chances with their portrayal of Jobs (played by Fred Armison) in their sketch “Undercover Celebrity Boss,” while the other celebs in the segment -Sir Richard Branson, the Olsen Twins – got skewered, all in the name of good fun. Why?

A vague iPad reference? That’s it? The sketch, based on the new CBS reality show Undercover Boss, could have dug into the tech guru much deeper, but chose not to. Meanwhile…how many SNL viewers know who Richard Branson is, or get the joke that he parachuted into a meeting?

Two theories: Either the writers couldn’t come up with enough dirt on Jobs to make the caricature funny, or they bowed out of a harsher assessment in fear of a Palin-esque backlash from a hyper-sensitive audience. (After all, Steve Jobs isn’t the healthiest man in the world either.) And that would explain that lack of Dick Cheney jokes in the episode as well.

Still didn’t stop them from doing one of their controversial David Paterson bits on Weekend Update though. Then again, the Paterson criticism is old hat by now: safer to pick on an old subject than bring up a new one.

roxsteady

Actually, Drew you may have missed the most tasteless bit of the night. In the skit where Jennifer Lopez and Fred Armisen did the Univision tv anchors who were mocking the Olympics they talked about how these events seemed designed to kill people. Did the writers forget that a Luger was killed in Vancouver? It made my stomach turn when she said that. I’m paraphrasing but, I’m sure some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. By the way, you might be under estimating people’s knowleldge about Richard Branson. I know he’s the CEO of Virgin Atlantic and had parachuted into a meeting. In fact, I’m a huge James Bond fan and in Die Another Day the villian pulled a similar stunt but, I digress. Branson also has a daughter who’s an equestrian enthusiastsThen again, maybe I’m assuming too much about other people’s knowledge of him.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I really don’t see how the Jobs bit was less than knocking over the Olsen twins. Up until Martha Stewart, the whole skit was pretty middling to me and BTW, it may be somewhat elitist for me to say, but if a viewer doesn’t know Richard Branson, they’re probably missing most of the jokes.
roxsteady

Good point Magister! By the way, am I the only one who thought last night’s show overall was kind of boring? Although, I have to admit that there was one skit I found hysterical. It was the one where ESPN covered the Women’s Curling Championships sponsored by Gnye Lotrimin. While many of you may have found that offensive, I guess I have the sense of humor of a 15 year old boy because I found that hilarious. “If you have a fungal in your lady jungle”? I’m sorry but, I couldn’t stop laughing. I know it was gross but, I’m still laughing about that. There were several others but, I can’t remember them off hand. Wait, wasn’t there a “If you’re Susa Lucci with an itch in your coochy” line or something to that affect? I’m sorry but, it was so out there that it was hysterical. At first, I felt like the audience in the Producers when they first saw the Springtime for Hitler number. Stunned! Then, I just lost it.
etaylor1983

We stole the idea fro undercover boss from the British anyways. Networks have been out of any new ideas for a couple of years. And SNL even longer.