Tuesday, March 10, 2009

SNL + Hawaii --> ... oh my


A "Saturday Night Live" skit depicting a fictitious hotel on Kaua'i while mocking the visitor industry has incited the ire of Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona Jr. and tourism officials, who claim the piece is offensive and crosses the line at a critical time for the state's biggest industry...


When describing where he lives to a table of tourists: "Want to come visit? It's really easy to get to. Just drive through the shantytown, make a right at the meth lab, and you'll see a 15-year-old girl who got pregnant by an out-of-town businessman, then ask for her brother. That's me."


Visitor industry officials said the skit is tasteless and offensive, coming at a time when Hawai'i's tourism industry is suffering from declining arrivals.







7 comments:

Mr. Pony said...

I'm guessing that was from the last quarter of the show. Isn't the (attempted) joke here that people here are supposed to be so hospitable and friendly, and these guys aren't? I mean, Jersey gets it much worse.

Mr. Pony said...

The Rock's "Oh you know wot" was kind of pitch-perfect, though. I almost ran away from my computer, anticipating a beating.

Ruby Tenneco said...

darn, only in the US this vid

Galspanic said...

Wife was excited about this. said the Rock was spot on, as Pone declared.

odori said...

The AP wrote about the skit, but sought reaction from a more diverse selection of people. You can read the story here.

odori said...

I mean more diverse than the people the Advertiser talked to.

The irony is that by complaining, Aiona et al have caused thousands, perhaps millions, more mainlanders to watch this skit.

I LOVE IT.

Fugu said...

Nice article!

I can see it both ways. The economy sucks right now, but how would this have really made a difference before Aiona made such a big deal out of it?

And it's f'ing television--who's gonna base their vacation choice off of an SNL skit? ...But then, I've come to not over estimate what people will believe that they see on TV.

SNL could at least have had The Rock hook up with all the wimin tourists though, which would have countered any negative spin the skit had on the ladays.