The “Saturday Night Live” that aired Dec. 8 featured a sketch that may have been confusing to a lot of Mainers, and at least one character.
Opening with a photograph of Bangor and reportedly airing on WLBZ channel 2, the sketch takes place during an episode of fictional “Maine Justice,” the credits of which feature Southern staple “When the Saints Go Marching in” and an animated green alligator.
When both the bailiff, played by the week’s guest star Jamie Foxx, and judge in the show’s fictional courtroom speak in a deeply exaggerated Southern accent, out-of-town defendant Ethan Vandermark, speaking without accent, asks, “Hey, what the hell is going on here?”
After threatening to send the defendant to a “lighthouse crawling with gators,” the judge asks the plaintiff to call her first witness — hillbilly congressman Finton Worthington Kerry, an incomprehensible Charlie Day drinking from a Mason jar and wearing overalls and a trucker hat.
Vandermark asks, “Can someone please explain to me what is going on?” after the judge claims maple syrup comes from cypress trees and that voodoo lobsters exist, and the characters speculate on why the Maine courtroom is so stereotypically Southern. The judge claims the cast took shelter in Maine after Hurricane Katrina devastated the South, while the plaintiff develops a theory involving Maine, New Orleans and the space-time continuum.
The judge’s verdict? Vandermark is guilty of “being a fast-talking, water-wasting, no-good Yankee,” and is sentenced to “eat one of the spiciest bowls of jambalaya you’d ever seen.”
This is the second recent “Saturday Night Live” sketch with Maine characters. A “Weekend Update” segment in November featured two gay lobstermen who were criticized by a Bangor Daily News blogger for having Swedish accents.
Must be a follow up to the terrible Maine accents they used in the piece a couple of weeks ago with the two Maine fishermen.
wow. drug use on the snl set is pretty rampant these days.
Dear SNL writers…if you have to explain it, it wasn’t funny. Good to see Jamie Foxx still kickin’ the funny though :-D
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Probably in reference to the prior sketch with gay Maine fishermen. Really bad accents. That’s what I’m guessing, anyways.
Wow! How stupid!! SNL isn’t what it used to be.
You’re just figuring that out?
Yeah, SNL was hilarious when they parodied Sarah Palin’s ignorance a couple years ago. Ah, the good ole days.
The best SNL was during the 90s–Jon Lovetz, Phil Hartman, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Cheri Oteri.. Really only a few characters since then have been truly funny. I haven’t watched the show in years.
I think the first were the best….Steve Martin, Bill Murray , John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner etcc………
You’re right. I didn’t go back far enough…all good stuff.
I love how no one understood this. The people are from new Orleans and moved there. Its just sowing bias. If you understood it, its hilarious.
Then I guess I don’t have the requisite finely tuned sense of humor. Either that, or maybe I wasn’t drunk or stoned and the writers were counting on their audience being one of those.
All the SNL crew had to do, if they wanted to spoof Mainers, is go to the Blaine House for a never-ending supply of idiocy.
Sadly their potrayal of Mainer’s as some sort of moonshining ignorant cajun was more odd than funny. If they wanted funny they should have simply sent up a tracker of their own to follow Paulie around for a while.
fake posters pretending to be “REAL” Mainers .
Happens a LOT around here.
Better yet, the Democratic side of the isle.
Okay now this is getting a little bit funny. SNL seems to think Mainers are from Louisiana and you think the majority of Mainers (Democrats) live on one side of an island.
Great point.As usual,you’re on it before I could get there.
Probably will go right over his head.
Upon an island hard to reach,
The East Beast sits upon his beach.
Upon the west beach sits the West Beast.
Each beach beast thinks he’s the best beast.
Which beast is best?…Well, I thought at first
That the East was best and the West was worst.
Then I looked again from the west to the east
And I liked the beast on the east beach least.
Or, they could examine what years of democratic rule have done to the economy of the state.
Must be upsetting to the liberal elite of Maine to be viewed by their leftist cousins this way.
How funny is that. I hope they come back with the blue tarp flag spoof. Now that would be even funnier. If we can’t laugh at ourselves then we got to hang it up.
maybe NEXT week..
What in the heck is that all about?
And yet another lousy sketch and reason not to watch SNL…….
We usually watch for as long as we can stand it. That is only for a few minutes most weeks. Just not funny.
They need to get out of New York once in awhile. With all the talent there is in that city, you’d think they could have done some basic research on accents. Big fail, deah.
Cute, Im sure it will upset the people who are thin skinned…..
Oh, gosh, comedy isn’t an accurate depiction of Maine. What a shocker! Seriously, how dismal is this state when we worry about how authentically a surreal sketch portrays its people?
SNL is becoming more like finger nails on a chalk board than comedy. Time for a mercy killing by NBC.
I didn’t see the sketch, but I can get the humor. Doesn’t anyone remember the Hurricane Katrina survivors transplanted here after the devastation in New Orleans?
NOPE..didn’t happen .
i thought it was pretty funny. but i have a sence of humor, sorry to let you all down.
I thought the sketch was pretty funny, especially Foxx flapping his arms like gator jaws at the defendant!
It’s sad you don’t get it, We are Mississippi North, with a state full of Teabillies
I think the past election proves otherwise. More like California North.
Sea Roses is just mad that Mr.LePage is a great Governor.
Stevey, not mad about anything, sad and embarrassed yes.
LePage is a great governor? lol. You should send that one to SNL. Now that is comedy.
:)
And the missing teeth everywhere to prove it.
watched it a second time and still LMAO… watch the whole thing and lighten up people..
Not only did I think it was hilarious but as the skit progressed it became quite obvious they were making fun of transplanted southerners. The alligator at the beginning and the Colonel Sanders looking judge told me they weren’t really supposed to be Mainers. They may also have been poking fun of themselves for the poor Maine accents from the gay marriage skit.
I agree with everything you said except that I thought it lacked any humorous bit.
some days SNL is briliant and funny , other days they are WAY WAY WAY off the mark. with HEE HAW like( really stupid) “humor’ Glad i missed this one !!!
Yeah they did a TERRIBLE job at portraying anything like that. Better skit: Loads of Louisiana shrimping boats offloading Cajuns on the beach D-Day style…while a bunch of shocked locals start panicking (or something).
ANYTHING other than that last skit, which may have been funny had it not been so vague/confusing
I kept asking what the joke was. The explanation of Katrina and some sort of wormhole causing them to spend time 50-50 here and there took care of that, but whats the reason for this crap. Comparing different cultures? It succeeded in that. NY sure is a different culture…
It’s comedy…
That’s a real stretch,,,,
My take is that it is a comeback to the criticism that they took a few weeks back after the poor Maine accents in the “gay lobstermen” skit. “Let’s say we’re from Maine and use completely different accents and mannerisms, just to screw with the people who complained before.” Personally, I found it hilarious.
That was the first thing I thought too. If so, they’re only making fools of themselves, as this was a poorly done skit, I don’t care where you’re from.
That had occurred to me, too. As to the hilarity of it, I thought it was worse than a one act high school play. Not knowing that SNL was still alive ’til about 6 months ago, I watched it and felt sorry for them.
It’s like art, I suppose. You either get ‘it’ or you don’t.
sound like it wasn’t funny.
I have a wonderful sense of humor. I can’t believe how awful this was.I couldn’t even watch the whole skit. This skit was as dry as the desert. SNL is really lagging. Tim Sample is funny compared to this. I hope SNL will do better in the future.
Well, at least it isn’t Buckwild. That one has West Virginia up in arms.
And that would matter why?Anything to let WV feel like they’re relevant and give a pol a mike.Yawn.
OK, it was kind of funny. I’m not so sure how amused I would have been if I came from Louisiana, though.
I haven’t watched SNL since the ’80’s. Looks like I haven’t missed much.
Agree strongly !
Good Lord people, it wasn’t a skit about Maine people, it was a skit about New Orleans people coming to Maine after hurricane Katrina. Loosen up your panties and laugh for once. If anyone should be offended it’s the people from New Orleans for SNL making them look so ignorant.
Exactly. Still didn’t find it too funny except for the a** fire part!
and yet … have you seen many ( any) refugees from New Orleans (or Katrina) in Maine??
Why do so many news sites cover TV programs as if they were news?
It certainly didn’t seem to be a slight at Mainer’s, or in poor taste, it was just poorly written and executed as so much of SNL’s stuff has been for years.
Like most things in life it’s your personal preference, whether it’s that you like chocolate or vanilla, beer or wine not everyone has the same tastes so I can understand that some don’t find it funny but I don’t get why some still don’t understand that the characters they were portraying were from the south and why politics have to be brought into every conversation.
I guess the folks in the tourism business need to create a better image of Maine if actors don’t even know enough about us to work up a decent parody.
No, they tried to work up a decent parody a few weeks ago with the gay lobsterman. They failed badly. This skit was a clever admission of such and was funny. SNL, is damn good these days as anyone who actually watched it would know.
Been watching for 30+ years, and I thought it was poorly executed and not funny, nothing to do with Maine, just not funny. Oh for Dennis Miller, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, Kevin Nealon, even tina Fey and Am,y Poeler. Seth Myers and Jason Sedakis can’t carry the show.
“I wanna be your Maine man”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDsd_sMtiw
I know where this courthouse is. It is the Belfast courthouse. That is something to be criticized.
TV is a waste land. This skit just proves it. Shut the tvs off and go outside.
if you can’t understand the humor
go away
There are plenty of ways to spoof Mainers; this skit made no sense to me. The SNL people are a talented bunch; they could have made this authentic and funny.
Of course people from Maine don’t get it…we are the North South…
maine is the north south!
this was more funny than anything Bob Marley has ever come up with…
Would somebody mind telling me what’s going on here?
Too funny, “…you from out town, that right ?” Nailed that one to a “T”.
Thanks for uploading that clip, Andrew. I got stuck working late in my office at DISH. Thankfully, DISHOnline.com posts the show the day after it airs, so I can get caught up whenever I have the time. I just watched the episode, and this was one of the better sketches of the night. I also liked the McDermott or Mulroney sketch, but beyond those two, I thought the show was pretty mediocre.
I think this was just their way of conceding that their last Maine skit missed the mark.
It wasn’t a “skit,” people. It was a sketch.
It’s just too sad that we are seen by the rest of the country as this lame. Reminds me of when I lived in New Mexico and folks complimented me on my ability to speak English. Do you ever wonder what we are getting for all the bucks we are spending on education?
We aren’t seen by the rest of the country as this lame. It’s merely a tv show that has no idea about Maine. It’s their ignorance not ours that is the problem.
The funny thing is……they didn’t even dare to do the accent. I dunno, but I’m gonna go do some “gator hunting” on the Piscataquis, fore them thar fiddleheads cmon up and eat em all in the spring…..
Seen the the show and had a good laugh for it was funny and it was not about Maine people just thank if there was no laughter anymore how sad this world would be.
Nobody watches SNL anymore except Demiroids…
You folks have to know that this was SNL’s lame attempt to pick up market share for it’s shallow, unfunny, dated show. This is similar to Letterman calling random numbers in Bangor to ask why folks down here were asleep. He wasn’t liking his numbers so he tried to improve them. He was totally unsuccessful.
Once when I was living in Oklahoma, a farmer asked me where my kin lived. When I told him “Maine” he replied; “I wouldn’t have picked you for a Canadian. ”
Most of the Nation doesn’t know, or care where Maine is, or what we do.
That’s just fine with me.
OK I Figured it out …with Al Franken in Congress now there’s is no REAL “Maine consultant.” on the job
OK It’s pretty funny . I think it is mocking all the out of state posters PRETENDING they are “REAL” Mainers ( but their posts give them away, as “foreigners’ )
It wasn’t funny
Sad to see how SNL has faded to nothing over the years.
Not remotely funny … that was just stupid.
It’s really about Louisiana, not Maine. Watch carefully.
Without any doubt whatsoever, they certainly must have been presenting the views and considerations of those “people from away” who have “occupied” “Southern Maine” thereby representing the views of those who believe they know better than, and the perception they have of local people, who were born here, as they have stated so many times on theses very forums provided by the BDN. Politics make no difference. It’s the “better than thou” attitude which upsets so many of us and this is simply another example of that attitude.
OK, It’s Monday now, please take this off the front page. It still isn’t funny and it most certainly is not news…
This skit is totally accurate and hilarious. Any Mainer in the truest sense will never get this. However everyone from outside of Maine gets it. Maine courts and how they are managed are jokes. Notice how all the Mainers in the skit understand the judge and the court, but the defendant, (an out of stater) is completely confused by the court, because he is smart enough to know that the judge and the security officer make no sense. Anyone that has ever been to court in Maine, ask yourself, Did you not leave the courthouse completely confused and laughing your butt off? Now watch it again, thinking like a normal person, not a Mainer.
…so you are seriously suggesting that rather than going about their own lives and enjoying their hobbies and friends and caring for their loved ones, “everyone” outside of Maine has made it their business to study “Maine courts and how they are managed” so that they understand what a joke they are, and SNL tapped into this knowledge that somehow “everyone” has, except of course for Maine people? Interesting theory……next!
Thanks for a good laugh.
BDN made it funnier for me because I read their story before I watched the video. They explained the premise that these southerners moved here from New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane. It’s a sort of reverse carpetbagger situation and I think that could be a great foundation for a good comedy writer. The problem I see with this sketch is that they should have revealed that underlying premise right at the beginning. People need the context to get the joke. To me, this seems like an inexcusable oversight by the writers and whoever approved their work for production. Too sloppy.
It was funny, but odd
Who remembers when Saturday Night Live was worth staying up for?
It’s been a long time.
I see it upset a few commentors here, funny how people get worked up over nothing.
Maybe they modeled the ignorance element on the comments in the BDN. Look at this article alone, a less than funny skit brings out the governor bashers in droves.