Matt BlazeJul 26, 2023

in 1992, musician Sinead O'Connor's career virtually ended when she publicly protested the Catholic Church's sexual abuse of children.

Aside from the fact that history quickly proved her right, I'm struck by how utterly dignified and restrained her protest was. She didn't trash the Sistine Chapel. She tore up a photograph of the Pope at the end of a televised set. That's it. It cost her her career.

Thank you for speaking truth to power, and may you finally rest in peace.

Show threadMatt Blaze

The vitriolic reaction to O'Connor's 1992 SNL protest made it clear that, for all its veneer of being "edgy" and "countercultural", SNL and its host network was (and remains) a centrist product of the mainstream, with lines that Must Not Be Crossed.

At least that's what I took away from it.

Jul 27, 2023 at 4:23amWeb
Show threadhko 😷🪁Jul 27, 2023
@mattblaze "mainstream counterculture" is definitely a useful category, and I'd agree that snl belongs squarely in it
Show threadjohn spurlingJul 27, 2023
@mattblaze I get the sense that Lorne Michaels is not as left leaning as one might think.
Show threadMadopalJul 27, 2023
@synec @mattblaze I mean, Lorne didn't like musicians going off script, this was known.
https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/elvis-costello-recalls-snl-performance-stunt-apple-music-interview-9516023/
Elvis Costello Recalls 'SNL' Stunt That Got Him Banned

Elvis Costello told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview Monday (Jan. 25) that he just wanted to be remembered after the iconic Saturday Night Live stunt that got him banned…

Billboard
Show threadKayJul 27, 2023
@mattblaze The film "Bob Roberts" nailed this.
Show thread🌪Jul 27, 2023
@mattblaze so, i was very young when sinead became a thing. and, oddly, the haircut was what turned me off, because i confused it with white power skinhead sh*t. the spine on this woman was amazing, both in the causes and the music she did. as an adult, it was a joy to actually hear her and get it. an amazing artist an activist that will be missed. f*ck every douche that cynically cashed in on mockery!
Show threadS AufrechtJul 27, 2023
@[email protected] read '"Lorne Is Really Mad About This": What Colin Jost's memoir reveals about Lorne Michaels.' for more history than you asked for, and then go on to the related posts... https://sethsimons.substack.com/p/lorne-is-really-mad-about-this
Show threadDarryl RammJul 27, 2023
@mattblaze They finally got Norm McDonald, he's definitely not doing any more OJ jokes.
Show threadKeunwoo LeeJul 27, 2023
@mattblaze most comedians live in a state of economic precarity; SNL offers a career-making stable job with good pay in NYC, center of the US comedy scene; so the funniest up-and-coming comedians in the country all want this gig, yet SNL manages to be consistently mediocre. This is entirely due to Lorne Michaels's middling taste and his invariant pandering to an imagined audience that wants a steady diet of unchallenging and conventional humor.