Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSOLz1YBFG0

Assignment:

“But can she wear red,” the staff writer queried, “without it seeming like we’re overly sexualizing her?”

“Goddamit, it’s the color of her party, she has to wear red, she actually does wear red.” The head writer was exhausted, and it was already Wednesday. The skit had to be finalized by 5:00 PM. “Don’t worry, our audience will get it. SNL has probably the most educated viewership in the world. Our jokes are written for a bachelor’s degree or higher. And we’re just copying what she actually does.”

In the corner, an intern shifted on her stool. She had much to learn and had been silent for the entirety of her three months there. Her dad had told her last night on the phone that she needed to speak up more if she wanted a return offer, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity.

“Excuse me.” It came out like a croak, her throat dry from disuse. Louder. “Excuse me.”

The head writer looked up, blinking in surprise at the college sophomore whom everyone had assumed to be mute.

“Excuse me, but I don’t think I understand. Are we trying to make the point that we need to stop sexism in political media or is that the joke? If the point is that people need to stop making fun of women for what they look like and sound like and stuff like that, then why are we also making fun of them?” The intern sat back, out of breath.

The head speech writer smiled. She remembered those days viscerally, the thumping of the heart so loud it felt like the whole conference room could hear it, the panic of desperately trying to beat away Imposter Syndrome and speak with confidence. She made a mental note to teach the intern how to lower the pitch of her voice when she was nervous.

“So, you’re asking are we making fun of these women or empowering them? The answer is yes. We’re empowering them because the way the media treats them is bullshit. It’s 2008 and we still haven’t made it past the Madonna-Whore complex. Apparently, a woman can either be sexy and dumb or smart and a boner-killer. And the worst thing is that the news media speak from a position of assumed authority and lay claim to impartiality. So, don’t get me wrong, this skit is about calling them out. But, at the same time, we aren’t the news media, we’re a comedy show. We comment on politics, but we make no claim to impartiality. We’re not reporting the news, and, let’s not forget, we’re supposed to be funny. So, I’m allowed to be political and judgmental and mad. Let me ask you a question. Are you a Democrat?”

Now, the intern blinked in surprise. “Yes, of course, I mean…”

“You’d have to be to work here, right? And so am I. And so is Tina Fey, the fake Sarah Palin, and Amy Poehler, the fake Hilary Clinton. And we think that the real Sarah Palin is acting like a gun-crazy ditz and it makes us mad. We think she’s an absolute liability to this country because she’s so goddam incompetent. So, we’re going to show that. But, by the same token, we also think that the real Hilary Clinton is absolutely frigid and it’s hysterical. If I would write a skit attacking any idiot, male politician in Washington without a qualm, I’m not going to just let these ladies off the hook.”

The intern sat back, her face turning a deep red. She felt stupid. She didn’t fully understand the answer, but she could get the shape of it, and she felt ashamed that she couldn’t have figured it out on her own.

The head writer looked at her, shrinking back into the corner. “It was a really good question.”

Working notes: 

I wanted to do a fictitious imagining of the writers’ room at SNL while writing this skit because I don’t often write fiction and wanted to stretch myself a little. I found it absolutely fascinating to consider what might have been going through the writers’ heads, especially because this skit became so popular – the line “I can see Russia from my house” is still often attributed to Sarah Palin, when it was actually Tina Fey who says it in this skit. I also wanted to include a dynamic between a female intern and her boss, who is also a woman, to highlight and parallel the discussion that is being had about Clinton, Palin and women in politics.