I've posted a lot of SNL skits here because I thought they were funny. This one not so much. I didn't think it was funny when SNL writers had a black man call a woman a bitch. I didn't think it was funny when Amy Poehler stared into the camera in her role as Hillary Clinton and said, 'all my supporters are racist' (paraphrased). And I don't think there's anything remotely funny about ridiculing the blind and disabled.
ALBANY, N.Y. – Legally blind New York Gov. David Paterson lambasted a "Saturday Night Live" skit for portraying him as an aimless bumbler. . The skit that aired Saturday featured "SNL" cast member Fred Armisen as Paterson, who must appoint someone to replace Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Armisen said he has three criteria for filling the job: economic experience, upstate influence and someone who is disabled and unprepared for the job — like himself. He held up a chart illustrating the state's job losses upside down.
"I don't mind that they make fun of me, but I thought it was important of me to stand up for people who don't have a voice and don't have a job," Paterson said. . . Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, said the portrayal suggesting Paterson was befuddled and disoriented because of his blindness is "absolutely wrong."
"I can take a joke," Paterson told the Daily News on Sunday. "But only 37% of disabled people are working, and I'm afraid that that kind of third-grade humor certainly adds to this atmosphere."
Statement from the American Foundation for the Blind: No One is Laughing at SNL's Skit of Governor Paterson
Disability Politics New York Paterson News Saturday Night Live
