SNL101

Dua Lipa’s first gig as SNL host on May 4, 2024 was generally enjoyable, but a few moments really stood out. We talk about algorithms and the loss of water cooler conversations in Jerry Seinfeld’s appearance on Weekend Update as The Man Who Did Too Much Press, virtue signaling and slacktivism in Teeny Tiny Statement Pin, and the cognitive correlates of blackface and culture vultures in Good Morning Greenville. Readings include opinion pieces from The New York Times, The New Statesman, Newsweek, and The Spectator, as well as historical and current investigations into blackface by Eric Lott and Lauren Michele Jackson. 

Listen on Libsyn https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/31229847
Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-18-dua-lipa-s49e18/id1712886779?i=1000655175633

Readings

Bartholomew, J. (2015 Apr 18). “Easy Virtue.” The Spectator. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/easy-virtue/

Cabrera, N. L., Matias, C. E., & Montoya, R. (2017). Activism or slacktivism? the potential and pitfalls of social media in contemporary student activism. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 10(4), 400-415. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000061 

Carroll, N. (2021, Aug 3) “What we’ve lost with the rise of TV streaming.” The New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/agora/2021/08/what-weve-lost-rise-tv-streaming

Jackson, L. M. (2019). White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue. and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation. Beacon Press. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609002/white-negroes-by-lauren-michele-jackson/

Lloyd, S. (2024 Feb 18). Can Noah Schnapp’s Career Survive?. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/noah-schnapp-zionist-stranger-things-israel-war-zionism-sticker-comments-apology-tik-tok-1870243  

Lott, E. (1992). Love and theft: The racial unconscious of blackface minstrelsy. representations, (39), 23-50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928593 

Staples, B. (2019 Mar 31). How Blackface Feeds White Supremacy: A racist caricature from 19th-century minstrel theater still haunts America. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/opinion/blackface-white-supremacy.html