Millions of viewers thought Saturday Night Live’s recent comedy sketch parodying New York Governor David Paterson was hilariously funny.
Paterson… not so much.
“Paterson in a BLIND Rage Over SNL Skit” screamed the headline in one New York paper.
Apparently, the visually impaired governor was not laughing after SNL aired a bit that mocked his blindness.
In fact Paterson made his opinion of the late-night comedy’s skit abundantly clear to reporters shortly after the show aired.
“I can take a joke,” Paterson told the Daily News, but added, “only 37% of disabled people are working and I’m afraid that that kind of third-grade humor certainly adds to his atmosphere.”
If you missed the show, SNL’s Fred Armisen appeared as Paterson during a “Weekend Update” piece in which he nailed the governor’s wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, affable demeanor. The sketch further ridiculed the governor’s disability by having Armisen hold charts upside down and appear dazed and confused.
The SNL audience roared with laughter, but Paterson was far from amused. Ditto for advocates for the visually impaired, who didn’t appreciate stock blind jokes that had Armisen wandering aimlessly around the studio.
Paterson told reporters that the SNL spoof could lead others to believe that “disability goes hand-in-hand with an inability to run a government or business.”
While Paterson willingly admits that he is legally blind and has aides help him with some tasks, he notes that he is highly competent and comfortable in virtually all settings.
Advocates for the visually impaired also came out swinging this morning.
“When you have a perception problem like we have, you take these things a little more seriously,” said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind. “Obviously, the governor of New York is blind, and he’s doing the job. Whenever you have a portrayal that calls the basic capacity of [blind people] into question, that’s a potential problem.”
Danielsen also noted that SNL has a long history of mocking the blind, including a recent “Weekend Update” one-liner, which stated that hybrid cars are dangerous to blind people because they can’t hear the engine.
Paterson’s spokesman, Errol Cockfield told the New York Post, “The governor is sure that ‘Saturday Night Live,’ with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive.”
What did you make of the skit? Did SNL cross the line in its portrayal of Paterson?