Media MonsterNBAVideo

SNL Tackles The Jeremy Lin Racial Issue With Inappropriate Jokes About Asians

Given that it’s all anyone’s talked about for a week and it’s going down in the show’s backyard, Saturday Night Live had to say something about Jeremy Lin. So it did – and SNL wasted no time doing it, devoting the first sketch of the night to Lin’s exploits. There were Lin puns made. And then, there were offensive jokes about Lin’s Asianness made (with references to the Jason Whitlock and ESPN headline controversies, to boot). But then, when the Linappropriateness went beyond cheap Asian jokes, the real issues started:

The word “tolerant” on the screen, followed directly by a gong hit: pretty good. Top honors for comedic handling of Linsanity, however, still go to The Daily Show and Larry Wilmore’s rant the other night. So many have chimed in on Lin at this point that we’re not even sure how much there’s left to say. As appreciated as SNL’s needling of the racial aspect to the Lin story (and the reminder that not terribly long ago, Charlie Sheen was a cultural phenomenon rivaling what Lin’s become) is, we’re starting to feel a little Linundated.