SNL skit lampoons character with disabilities
October 15th, 2008
It’s the Lawrence Welk show all over again on Saturday Night Live (video here), but with a difference.
Kristin Wiig appears as a member of a singing group that looks a lot like the Lennon sisters, complete with big hair and voluminous chiffon 
skirts.
But when the camera comes in for a closeup, it reveals that Wiig’s “Judice” has physical deformities — an abnormally large forehead and tiny, doll-sized hands.
There’s also more than a suggestion of intellectual disabilities here. As her three sisters (led by Anne Hathaway) sing conventional lyrics about boyfriends and butterflies, Wiig’s character sings about chasing cars, eating a dead cat she found in the road, and finding love “with my by myself.”
Readers: Funny? Not funny?
(Photos from Saturday Night Live video)
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May 19th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Truly one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I laughed both times the Finger Lakes sisters act was done, most recently on May 16, 2009, but it is, in fact, making fun of a woman who has what could be interpreted as birth defects, Asberger’s, Tourette’s or schizophrenia. As the father of a boy with Asberger’s, I have to deal with inappropriate comments similar to those made by the Kristen Wiig character. I guess I come down on the side that it is within the realm of what is acceptable. After all, she is part of the sister act, disabilities and all!
March 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Profoundly hilarious. Clearly, there was no malicious intent.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 am
That skit was absolutely hilarious. Nobody was harmed, insulted or mocked.
“More than 50 million people in the United States have disabilities, a number that is growing rapidly as the population ages”. Exactly what constitutes a disability to you? Roughly one in six people in America have a disability? Not even close.
Inflating numbers, or using a grossly broad definition of “disability” does a great harm to the very people you are attempting to be an advocate for.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I thought it was soooooo funny ………… its not like it was directed to disabled people!!!!!
October 27th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
This is hilarious. I have a close family member with disabilities and even she laughed at this skit. Kristen Wiig delivers a performance that does what SNL was created to do, make people laugh! She is not making fun of anyone just playing a character that we all begin to like while making us roll on the floor in laughter. Take a chill pill and enjoy the common hilarity. Don’t be such a tight a**.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Extremely funny! I was dying laughing the entire time. I think you took it a little too seriously…
October 15th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Not even slightly funny. What the **** were they thinking?