Women of SNL

For the past few months I have been learning a lot about Saturday Night Live. It began with one book, Live From New York by Tom Shales and James Miller. This 600 page book is filled with interviews of anyone who has ever touched SNL in any way. It was so interesting to read and I have learned so much from it. So for AP Lang, we has to write a book review essay that talks about a topic and incorporates a review of the book we read.

Although this may sound like a somewhat easy task, it. was. not. The hundreds of interviews I read from the book were helpful, but very hard to compile together in an essay that actually made a point. Think of all the random facts about the show that are floating around in my head. The names of every cast member in 1975, the story of how Victoria Jackson was hired, what happened after Lorne left, and soooo much more. These facts that have accumulated in my mind are pretty much pointless unless I can put them into my essay with a purpose. So that's what I attempted to do. Of course, not all fo them were actually put in, but I did try to put in as much detail as I could.

So what is the point of this blog post? A question I often have to ask myself.Well nonexistent readers, I will tell you! One very interesting aspect of the book, that was also included into my essay, was the misogynistic actions of cast members and writers on the show. That's right. When the show was conceived in 1975, there were three female performers and very few female writers. Not a huge deal right? Wrong! Those women were not treated well. Many of the men on cast thought they were "unfunny." John Belushi, a well known cast member, is less well known for his acts of sabotage against sketches written by women. As Jane Curtain, another cast member, said: "Their (women on SNL) battles were constant. They were working against John, who said women are just fundamentally not funny. So you'd go to a table read, and if a woman writer had written a piece for John, he would not read it in his full voice. He felt as though it was his duty to sabotage pieces written by women." 

Why did men act this way? Why did they treat women like they were inferior? Well, it has a lot to do with the time period. Apparently this is theme week because my last post was about Mad Men in the 60's, and now I'm talking about 70's where there was also discrimination against women. Although definetly not as much. Although not all men can be put into this generalization, a large portion continued to be in the mindset that women were inferior. Women continued to be paid less and on SNL had a tougher time getting sketches onto air. Did they give up? Heck no! As Geneane Garafola put it, "Life is a boys’ club. So SNL is a reflection of that. But Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer and Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch and Tina Fey kicked ass. They came in and would not be denied." She was reffering to a later period of SNL, when some really heavy hitters came in and changed how a lot of people thought about women comedians. 

In all honesty, I hate having to even talk about this. The fact that this even happened, and that it still happens today, really disturbs me.  I will say that I am so very grateful for the very strong women that have paved the way for my generation. I don't know if I would've been able to do the same. It's so comforting to know that women before were able to pull off successful working lives. Thank you to the women on Saturday Night Live, and to any other woman who as persevered through the male-dominated world with grace.