Wow, I wrote this in my LJ like over half a year ago and didn't htink till now to share it here (I think). Anyway:
I got this idea for an SNL skit making fun of the idea of an "Autism Epidemic." It would go something like this:
We open to a sort of "Good Day Live" informal news/morning show type of set, with maybe three people behind the desk. They list off some of the days stories, then start in on the first story of the day: The Autism Epidemic. It all starts off very professionally, and they have two or three experts that we keep cutting to in the field, discussing the theories about Silicone Valley, in utero substances, etc. etc. But, as the skit goes on, the reporters start acting weird. First they start avoiding eye contact with the camera and drumming their fingers, then gradually showing more and more popularly-recognized symptoms or signs of Autism. For example, one of them could start off the skit with a couple of statistics on the prevalence of Autism, and as the skit goes on they start interrupting with more and more complicated but obscure calculations every time a number is given. ("Only one in four people diagnosed as being on the spectrum is female, fifty-one percent of the population is female, that's a twenty-six percent difference, point two six squared is oh point oh six seven six…") They might start to more overtly self-stim, or make odd comments to the people they were interviewing (i.e. "We're both wearing blue shirts.") It would basically end with them wrapping up the interviews and one of them saying (looking down at the desk): "After the commercial break, we'll talk about [insert story.]" One possibility for the story to add an extra twist of irony would be "We'll talk about the obesity epidemic," and all of them go like piranhas for a plate of pastries on the desk but that might get confusing.
The obvious problem if that a lot of people would miss the point of the skit and think it was making fun of Autism and not the fact that it's almost being treated like it's contagious, and would get offended. But with the understanding of that context, I now want access to resources that would allow me to set up and show a skit like that. Then again I have a really bizarre sense of humor.
07 Jan 2006, 5:48 pm
