The Champion of Political Satire

It’s time to put “Saturday Night Live” out to the proverbial pasture.

To say the sketch comedy show is irrelevant is an understatement. It’s become a painful TV experience, the goal of which seems to be stroking celebrity egos and avoiding controversial satirical jabs at all costs.

The show’s unwillingness to tackle tough subjects has been made even more obvious in context. Compared to the hilarious, political incorrectness of “South Park,” “SNL” is hardly a blip on the cultural radar. Once targeted almost exclusively to crabby juveniles, “South Park” is reaching an even broader audience today, and it’s raunchier, bawdier, and better than ever in its 19th season.

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The animated show, launched in 1997, has made waves across television and the Internet for taking on subjects now considered taboo. This year’s season, in particular, has created a cultural tsunami with a long-running storyline about political correctness.

The major media story of the year revolved around mob justice on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Virtually anonymous, ordinary people are being harassed into hiding and losing their jobs because of an offhand tweet they may have only intended for a few friends or followers. Social Justice Warriors, the euphemism most associated with the mob, take aim at anyone not obeying their rules of restricted speech.

Mob justice in the name of political correctness represents a thorn in the side of college coeds, seen recently in action at Yale, Columbia and the University of Missouri, where students have been pressing for stricter regulations on free speech with the goal of enforcing greater sensitivity. PC culture on campuses is, more often than not, an attack on the First Amendment itself.

As a result, classic comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock are swearing off college visits. Rock calls campus culture “too conservative,” but he means liberal. Conservatives defend free speech.

“South Park’s” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone honed in on this dynamic from the start of the show, culminating in the most recent season, which features conservative frat guys ironically enforcing politically correct culture. The key is the irony of it all. Strong, meat-headed, beer guzzling conservatives don’t harp on political correctness. The genius of the sketch is in the show’s ability to convey irony. It’s a caricature of the angry, privileged white male turned on his head.

The show’s willingness to remain committed to pinpointing irony is extraordinary, particularly as shows like “SNL” have increasingly kowtowed to guests who would rather sideline controversy in favor of more benign topics.

At this point, “South Park” is one of the few shows, and perhaps the longest-running one, dedicated to mocking and deriding politically correct tropes most modern comics won’t touch. No subject is safe. Microaggressions, trigger warnings, and gender-neutrality are ridiculed without apology. And it’s done in sync to national events happening each week.

A rising number of media outlets, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker, are dissecting the negative impact of PC culture on America, but few comedy shows are willing to even acknowledge its existence. And the effect is clear. The goal of carving out a “safe space” for comedy is nearly complete.

Shame for a comedy like “SNL,” which for years pushed the satirical envelope. It wasn’t afraid of poking holes in the great cultural touchstones of the day.

Whereas once Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy were willing to tackle issues of race in skits like “Word Association” and “White Like Me,” “SNL” has decidedly backed off, opting for more regional parodies, like “The Californians.” An occasional nod to race was released — “28 Reasons (to Hug a Black Guy)” during Black History Month — but these gems are few and far between these days.

Similarly, issues like feminism and homosexuality are off-limits today.

Canteen boy skit with Alec Baldwin as a Boy Scout leader hitting on the vulnerable Adam Sandler? It would never happen today. A skit like “Sexual Harassment and You,” in which Amy Poehler and Tina Fey mocked harassment in the workplace? Nope. And we’re only 10 years down the road.

Even Amy Schumer backpedaled after mocking the Kardashians in her monologue for influencing her niece and other young girls negatively:

“We have to be a role model for these little girls, because who do they have? All they have really is the Kardashians. Is that a great message for little girls? A whole family of women who take faces they were born with as a light suggestion? We used to have Khloe. Khloe was ours, right? Whenever there’s a group of women, you identify with one of them … but then Khloe, she lost half her body weight. She lost a Kendall! We have nothing. I want good role models.”

Schumer tweeted an apology after Khloe Kardashian took issue with the jab. Schumer wasn’t fat-shaming. She wasn’t exactly skinny shaming. She was being mean, and mean doesn’t fly any longer. Apparently, “SNL” has established an ethos that disallows anyone to be shamed in any form on the show. Caitlin Jenner is possibly the easiest target for satire this year as the poster child for transgenderism and a member of the Kardashian juggernaut. Yet, even she is off-limits. “SNL” won’t touch her.

It’s no surprise, then, that “SNL” is absent on today’s discussion of political correctness. It’s also no surprise Middle America is changing channels. Ratings for “SNL” have shown a steady decline over the past three decades. Americans appreciate satire that pokes fun at our own inadequacies in dealing with some very difficult political and social issues. That “SNL” won’t go there reveals a level of arrogance and condescension most people simply won’t tolerate.

Not that it matters. “South Park” is more than willing to carry the torch of culture’s chief satirist, and carry it well.

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