There was a time when I was a devoted fan of Saturday Night Live.
I watched it faithfully whenever it was on. Sometimes I watched the reruns if I knew a program I had enjoyed the first time was being shown again.
But in recent years I have lost interest in Saturday Night Live. I don't mind if comedy occasionally takes sides on an issue, but Saturday Night Live's comedy has shown entirely too much bias for my taste in recent years.
I don't tend to watch late–night TV much anymore. And on Saturday nights, I usually find something else to do when Saturday Night Live is on. Such was the case last night.
I really regret that now.
This morning I saw a video of a skit that ran during last night's show that was so reminiscent of SNL in its prime. It was set during the Revolutionary War with colonial leaders gathering in Philadelphia's Independence Hall to discuss things. There was a collective groan when news reached them that the British had been defeated in New England.
At that point the patriots from New England came into the room, hoisting beer steins and boasting of their victories ("We are the patriots of New England, and we are unstoppable!") — especially the latest one in which their leader, Capt. Thomas Brady, had launched a great comeback with his cannon after the British had pushed the patriots "fohty yawds" behind their line.
Then the delegation from Philadelphia came in. They used words like youse and called Boston a "college town with a fishing pier" and referred to themselves as "rowdy Quakers." They brought food like venison hoagies.
Obviously the skit was poking fun at the participants in the Super Bowl, which is slated to start in a few hours.
Maybe you have to be a lover of history like myself to appreciate some of the humor, but it really struck me as the best skit of its kind since early in SNL's existence, when the program's trailblazers like Bill Murray and Garrett Morris saluted Lord Douchebag (Buck Henry).
Anyway, the skit came to an end when the two groups agreed to take their fight outside — and the delegates who remained in Independence Hall wondered if it would be possible for both to lose.
No doubt millions of people are wondering the same thing today.
