SNL Skit on "Heroin AM"
 

I've watched Saturday Night Live since it began in the 1970s. I can't say I thought every skit was funny or appropriate or inoffensive, but I have a high tolerance for satire.

I just sent shot off an email to NBC after seeing their oh-so-funny ad for "Heroin AM."

This was WAY over the top, by any standard. Why is it okay to make fun of heroin addiction? Do they make fun of AIDS? Cancer? Lead poisoning? Child abuse? Why is drug addiction still so stigmatized that it's okay to JOKE about it while people are dying, struggling to keep living, and in the deepest pain imaginable in loving someone who's addicted to heroin?

Who the hell still thinks heroin addiction is a JOKE?!???

I am so mad I can't see straight.

Not a joke, never will be a joke. My 25 yo son just died 2 months ago of an overdose. He was mot than an addiction and his life mastered but definitely not a joke!

I'm sorry for your loss lotus.

Good for you for sending a letter, if enough people do that they may finally "get it" that addiction is not funny....ever.

Lotus, keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. :hug:

Bravo FreeDance - I'm happy to know I'm not alone!
I woke up this morning still feeling upset by that SNL skit that showed me that SNL has sunk to a new insensitive low! I am not nor never have been an addict of drugs or alcohol but watching that skit not even an hour after a friend of my sent me a text to say that he had a relapse (for the umpteenth time) really made me angry and sad about what we consider comedic. I was thinking to write SNL too and then I thought - they must have struck a nerve around the world so I googled to see if anyone else was equally disturbed by it which is how I found this thread and why I registered to this group just now. It's as if the SNL writers have forgotten that some of their greatest most legendary funnymen (John Belushi, Chris Farley) lost their lives to the same substances they are making light of! Even outside of SNL world, I'm still saddened to think of other entertainers that I loved to watch like Philip Seymour Hoffman (who suffered secretly) and Scott Weiland (who suffered not so secretly). Making fun of this is on par with making fun of anorexia, bulimia or any other disorder!

"SNL tried to joke about the heroin epidemic in America. Not all of America laughed."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ugh/?tid=sm_tw

I've noticed that in NA, we tell jokes all the time. In Al anon however, everyone is somber and crying.

I think this is a situation where those who have been in the addiction view it differently. Some people (like myself) use humor as a coping skill with grief.

Dave Chapelle makes fun of crack addiction. He didn't get strongly worded letters.

I saw the skit. I thought it was a great way to raise awareness. I even laughed.

There are more important things to be offended about for me when it comes to the media, like how the music industry glorifies substance abuse. At least this skit, while making fun, showed that it is not glamorous.

My two cents

I agree that it was a good way to raise awareness- not just about the rise of heroin use, but about the depravity of drug companies, and that everyday people (even your kid's school bus driver) could be under the influence of G_d knows what. I don't think it glamorized the drug.

But I am very sorry to all of you who have had your lives affected by heroin, and I understand how this could be upsetting.

I actually disagree with most of the posters on this issue; I saw the ad and don't think it was supposed to be funny. Anyone who is halfway aware of what's going on in this country knows full well that oxycodone and other prescription painkillers are a gateway drug to heroin addiction. I think that SNL was trying to make this point in an over the top way to point out how pervasive a problem this actually is. The ending was NOT all peaches and cream if you watched until it was over. I'd put prescription painkiller addiction and the follow-on heroin addiction as one of this country's main problems. Even Donald Trump referenced this issue in his acceptance speech in New Hampshire. I haven't heard anyone else mention it. Not Bernie Sanders, Hillary or Cruz.

Commentary: Outrage over SNL ?Heroin A.M.? skit misses the point | Q13 FOX News

I didn't see the sketch. Don't care to, either, for a myriad of reasons. But I also believe that SNL and its staff has an inherent right to write and perform whatever sketches that wish provided they don't have to be censored by the FCC. And as viewers, we have the right not to watch.

Quite understandable. Last night, I was watching TV with my girlfriend, and she briefly turned on Intervention. The focus was on a young lady who would mutilate and/or burn herself whenever she had an argument with a family member. It struck me as highly manipulative, and for some reason it reminded me of my AXGF and how she would threaten to harm herself. As a result, I got triggered. So I very calmly asked my girlfriend to change the channel, and then explained why. So I'm glad you wrote NBC an email, FreeDance. At the very least, it'll give them something to think about.