…is Learnt from Saturday Night Live and Bad Lip Reading.
SNL is the U.S. TV programme “Saturday Night Live” and Bad Lip Reading is a YouTube Channel.
British Politics
It would be fair to say that I don’t know that much about British Politics. I know who the respective parties are, I know who the main people are in power now, and I despair just like the rest of the Country about their lack of competence, their lying and their egocentric, self-serving agendas.
When it comes to election time, whether it’s local or national, I do my due diligence and vote for the party that I think is right at the time. (So far, that’s not worked out terribly well.)
Other than that, I don’t care about politics. On a personal level, I’m unable to change anything significant (voting being the possible exception) and so I leave it well alone.
American Politics
It’s also fair to say that I have considerably less interest in American Politics than I do British Politics (mainly because I don’t live there.). I therefore know a lot less about U.S. Politics. I see the U.S. politicians in the news, or on social media, but that’s as far as it goes.
When I say see the U.S. politicians on social media, I mean the politicians saying or doing something silly, or committing a faux pas. Tripping over stairs, kerbs or floors. Stopping in the middle of a speech for two minutes, just staring. That sort of thing.
All of which is nothing whatsoever to do with American politics, or policies.
Enter SNL
Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been on the air for years. At time of writing, it’s on its 49th season. I never used to bother much with it, unless there was a favourite celebrity hosting. Then I’d watch it. Probably not all of it, but I’d watch most of it and find it reasonably amusing.
The part I always like however, is the Weekend Update slot, currently hosted (and written by) Colin Jost and Michael Che.
Weekend Update
Weekend Update is a long-standing comedic news segment that serves as a satirical take on current events, politics, and pop culture. The segment is designed to parody traditional news programs by presenting fake news stories, humorous commentary, and witty one-liners delivered by the anchors. Weekend Update features two anchors seated behind a desk (Jost and Che), with the format resembling a news desk. The segment often includes recurring characters and guests who contribute to the comedic commentary. The anchors deliver jokes, engage in banter, and occasionally bring in correspondents or celebrity guests to add variety and humour. The correspondents and guests are usually SNL cast members, dressed to parody a real celebrity, politician or a fictional stereotype.
The Weekend Update segment is undoubtedly hilarious (even to British people!). One day (I can’t remember exactly when), SNL cast member Bowen Yang appeared as a George Santos parody. Now, I’d never heard of George Santos at the time, or even seen George Santos before, but what Bowen Yang did was very, very funny. It was at that point that I started to pay more attention to the Weekend Update slot on SNL. Incidentally, George Santos began to hit the UK News with his “antics” a couple of weeks after Bowen Yang first appeared, giving some context around the comedy skits. Which of course, made the Weekend Update slot even funnier still.
Bad Lip Reading
I’ve been aware of BLR since 2017, although it’s been around since 2012. My first encounter with it was the video “Seagulls (Stop it Now)”; a hilarious take on The Empire Strikes Back. I very clearly remember the day (but not the date) that I discovered it, quite by accident. I remember it because I laughed so much, I thought I was going to have a major conniption. From that point, I have been an avid fan of the BLR YouTube channel. A serendipitous day, indeed.
Bad Lip Reading (BLR)
BLR is a popular YouTube channel known for creating humorous and absurd lip-synced reinterpretations of various videos, primarily focusing on political events, movies, TV shows, and sports. The channel takes original footage and replaces the spoken words with intentionally misinterpreted and often nonsensical phrases, creating a comedic effect. The videos are characterized by clever editing, catchy music, and unexpected dialogue that often diverges significantly from the original context. "Bad Lip Reading" has gained widespread popularity for its unique and entertaining approach to reimagining content through creative dubbing.
I’ll admit that I started off just watching the videos that I knew something of the context (film-based ones, or musician-based ones mainly). I quickly caught up with all of the others, including the American Football ones. They’re funny, even if you know nothing of the context, or American Football. That being the joy of BLR, it creates its own context.
Referring to the political ones: the Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, and all the others
Up until this very day, I have heard very few American Politician’s actual voices. The ones I have heard will be because they’ve been soundbites in British news, or they’ve appeared on British chat shows. So, I don’t know what Ted Cruz (or his wife), or the majority of American politicians sound like “in real life”.
I know exactly what they sound like on BLR though! I have watched (countless times) the Ted Cruz campaign videos, the Hillary Clinton anecdote videos, the State of The Union videos and the Debate Night videos. And all the rest of them.
I think it’s because I’ve watched them many times over (you must watch them more than once to pick up the background nuances) that the BLR voices are now stuck irreplaceably in my head. In the unlikely event that I hear Ted Cruz speak in a video, my brain’s going to overwrite his real voice with the BLR version.
Probably not a bad thing. And probably a lot less terrifying!