The video: Not all Saturday Night Live skits make it onto the live broadcast, and a satirical tribute to recently deceased Apple founder Steve Jobs was one that got canned after an Oct. 15 dress rehearsal. The sketch, which SNL posted online this week (watch video below), envisions Charlie Rose (Bill Hader) talking about Jobs' legacy with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (Andy Samberg), Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington (Nasim Pedrad), Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (Jason Sudeikis), and News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch (Fred Armisen). They all praise Jobs, then skewer their own efforts. For instance, when asked if Netflix measures up to the high standards Jobs established, Sudeikis' Hastings laughs. "Are you joking? No, no, we suck right now." Really, he continues, "comparing Apple to Netflix is like comparing apples to oranges. Especially if the oranges made so many mistakes that people stopped eating oranges and just went back to Blockbuster."
The reaction: SNL was smart to rip apart the living tech-media titans "rather than tastelessly poking fun at Jobs," says Sam Biddle at Gizmodo. The sketch isn't perfect — "Samberg's Zuckerberg schtick is a little worn," and jokes about Netflix's big Qwikster failure "ran themselves into the ground within hours of Qwikster's existence" — but lampooning this collection of clowns will never truly get old. "What's surprising isn't how painfully accurate the jabs in the skit are," says Aly Semigran at Entertainment Weekly. It's that SNL didn't air it. This gem is not only a "fitting way to honor Jobs" — it could have saved an "otherwise disappointing" show. Judge for yourself :
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
France and Indonesia promote a contentious bid for an Israel-Palestine two-state solutionTalking Points Both countries have said a two-state solution is the way to end the Middle East conflict
-
Film reviews: Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, and Final Destination: BloodlinesFeature Tom Cruise risks life and limb to entertain us, a young girl befriends a destructive alien, and death stalks a family that resets fate's toll.
-
Music reviews: Morgan Wallen and Kali UchisFeature "I'm the Problem" and "Sincerely"
