“SNL” Did On Saturday What It Has Always Done Best: Find A Way To Show How Laughter, Like Sport, Can Bring Us Together..

I have been a fan of Saturday Night Live since it’s inception. On Monday morning’s in high school my classmates would sit around the breakfast table in the cafeteria talking about the previous week’s episode. We even used skits like “The Coneheads on Family Feud” and others in our Spanish class for skits. The show has had its fits and starts over the last five decades, but it always seems to find a tone through humor that can make us think, and for those who choose to, enjoy the moment.

Case in point was Saturday night’s opening monologue (on NBC, the network of the Olympics) by Connor Storrie, the actor who is half of the duo of HBO’s hit “Heated Rivalry.” The SNL team found a way, and a way is not always easy, to bring what has been a week long back and forth sometimes nonsensical debate about the two gold medal winning US Hockey teams to what is hopefully a conclusion that we all move on from, and gets us back to the core message…that the two wins were great for everyone involved in the sport of hockey, and will live on way beyond the unforeseen political debate the athletes were drawn into. (Deadline has a solid summary here).  

By bringing the men and women together during the monologue, making it fun and poignant with a few light pokes of dialogue, SNL was able to make everyone watching (at least those wanting to find joyful distractions not joyless debates) that sport and these amazing personalities unite us, not drive us apart, and that their messages are much bigger than the unforeseen agendas that they were all thrust into, and frankly, as the week went on, handled very well.

Maybe some will say SNL re-lit a fire that was gone away. Nonsense, they ignited what this should be, a joyful celebration of sport, with an actor in an unconventional role for an athlete bringing it all together by deftfully using his craft. And by the way, what a huge win for USA Hockey and for the sport, by having the four Olympians be part of SNL!

Bravo SNL staff for making us laugh and seeing these amazing athletes for what they are, not for pawns of another agenda, but for the successful humans they are and will continue to be into the future.