Dakota Johnson hosts for the third time on October 3 2026, and we are joined by writer, director, and educator Ashleigh Akilah Rucker. To put it nicely, the night was uneven; many sketches seemed to lack purpose, but there were high moments in the Weekend Update, including Che’s analysis of toxic masculinity in the wake of the sexual assault scandal at Cornell, Zelda vs. GTA, and Kam Patterson on the Glee reboot. However, the whole episode reads as an erasure of Blackness, culminating in Guns for Women as a failed attempt to mock commodity feminism, but a great opportunity to talk about the distinction between amusement, humor, and funniness. Readings include Toni Morrison and Alan Robertson as well as our own memorable birthday stories.
Listen on Libsyn
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on YouTube
Readings and Resources
Fincher, D. (Director). (1997). The game [Film]. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment; Propaganda Films.
Gill, R. (2009). “Supersexualize me!”: Advertising and the “midriffs.” In F. Attwood (Ed.), Mainstreaming sex: The sexualization of Western culture (pp. 93–109). I.B. Tauris.
Goldman, R., Heath, D., & Smith, S. L. (1991). Commodity feminism. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8(3), 333–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039109366801
Harris, A. (2019). What to send up when it goes down. Samuel French.
Kendall, M. (2020). Hood feminism: Notes from the women that a movement forgot. Viking.
Morrison, T. (1992). Playing in the dark: Whiteness and the literary imagination. Harvard University Press.
Murray, D. P. (2013). Branding “real” social change in Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Feminist Media Studies, 13(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2011.647963
Roberts, A. (2019). A philosophy of humour. Palgrave Pivot. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14382-4
Leave a comment