Anyone catch this SNL sketch last week?

[Stike]

Pretty on the money.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li...ything/1379100

[Gigbag]

That was pretty funny.

[pfflam]

That's my milieu, dead center in the middle of the culture that sustains me - the 'Fine Arts' in Portland Oregon, an alternative school that didn't give me grades and a career related to ephemera and the arcane.

Its hard not to be bitter about such places and ways of being - bitter in the same fashion as this skit; bitterness which is the reason why it is purposefully insulting.

[pfflam]

There is a strange psychology both in the scene depicted but also in the need to write such a scene.
They present people as incapable of recognizing themselves because they are narcissistic. They offer the options of either working at being skilled or submitting to a kind of enforced obedience based on shame; either of those options can be a way to be able to see ourselves, both are really similar things. That may be one reason people sacrifice so much ordinary life to learn things seriously.

But I also think it belittles amateur enjoyment. I sometimes find the least learned and least dedicated, the casual dilettante etc can have something worth being caring about.

[pfflam]

I've always been wary of working to 'get my name out there', and as someone who bases their life on cultural productions of some form or another (Fine Arts and a love of making music) that is kind of a contradiction - its in the interest of what I do to broadcast my work. And yet the entire process seems sickeningly self absorbed.

[lfio710]

I thought the sketch was fitting, given the musical guest on that same show.

[Tuberoast]

Karaoke attracts the type in droves.

[jett1963]

I dont think they were targeting amateurs. I think it was more of a comment on the self esteem movement. To a large extent my generation embraced the movement and created a generation of narcissists. I thought the skit was pretty funny. When we praise our children's failures as success we devalue our words and confuse our children.

[woof*]

Skit's funny and right on the money.
I'm glad I grew up when I did, I'm also glad my kids weren't victims of this either.

[Nickstrtcstr]

Maybe we are finally becoming self aware to the fact that maybe not every kid on every team should have got a trophy for participating.

[bwires]

Originally Posted by Nickstrtcstr

Maybe we are finally becoming self aware to the fact that maybe not every kid on every team should have got a trophy for participating.

Beat me to it. I was going to say that all the skit needed to do was to present a trophy to each of the "participants" just for showing up. It's sad to see how other countries are surpassing us in scholastic aptitude due to this pervasive way of non-competitive thinking ... IMO.

[travisvwright]

I try telling my son at least once a day, "It's not worth winning if you can't win big."

[pfflam]

Strange, I thought this skit would attract more discussion.

[leftyaxeslinger]

I'm not sure how many of you watch American Idol, but I catch parts of it from time to time. It's amazing how many of the people auditioning, who literally can't carry a tune or stay in key are shocked when they get the "no" from the judges. No one in their lives has ever criticized (constructively or otherwise) their singing and they shocked to tears when someone tells them the real deal.

[Melodyman]

Originally Posted by pfflam

Strange, I thought this skit would attract more discussion.

Sometimes truth can be painful.