Saturday Night Live iPhone 5 skit pits tech bloggers against Chinese peasant laborers
Last week's Saturday Night Live Season opener, with Daniel Craig hosting, really disappointed. But last night's show returned to form, with host Christina Applegate. Among the highlights, and somewhat appropriate for a host with "Apple" in her name, is a skit about iPhone 5. SNL is often best when using humor to make social commentary and, whoa, does it in the new episode.
I have embedded the official video from NBC but can't be sure it will be visible to international readers. If you can't view the SNL skit, try this user-posted YouTube video (and hope NBC doesn't demand its removal).
Applegate appears as host of show "Tech Talk", which focuses on "iPhone 5 and its plethora of glitches and design flaws". Three bloggers then go on to complain about the device -- everything from Apple Maps misdirection to iPhone 5 being simply too thin.
"Whoever built these iPhones, I don't know what they were thinking", says the Gizmodo blogger. "Let's ask them", Applegate answers. "Joining us now are three peasant laborers from the factory in China where these iPhones are manufactured". Hilarity follows.
Talk about shock journalism. If only it was real. The skit is American self-deprecation at its funniest. In re-watching the segment this morning, I laughed again and reflect about tech-gadget obsession and priorities that should matter more than the newest Apple rumor or gadget. Please do likewise.
The skit ends with Applegate asking the peasant workers if they have complaints about American products. They can't think of any because America presumably doesn't manufacture anything.
"Does diabetes count as a product?"