A Closer Look

My favorite segment of Saturday Night Live is always "Weekend Update," when Seth Myers gives a funny twist to actual news. In a recent episode Seth took "A Closer Look At Europe" regarding Greece's current economic state. A clip of this segment can be watched here.

Seth pokes fun at Greece saying that they "are not good at changing their ways." Not only does he make fun of Greece, but of every country "who though lending the Greeks money was a good idea." This segment was very well written and definitely made me laugh, but it also made me wonder how other countries would respond if they see this.

Would they also find it funny? Or would it be taken offensively, creating strong feelings of dislike towards our country? This video certainly doesn't help with America's reputation of thinking we are the most superior country.

Also, not to get too sympathetic on you, but how would Americans respond to videos from other countries making fun of us? After all, we currently are having a little bit of an economic low ourselves. Does this make Seth a hypocrite?

What do you think, is this video harmful or harmless?

RIP

Growing up, I have spent many of my Sunday night dinners in front of the t.v. while watching 60 Minutes. This is why I was sad to hear that Andy Rooney recently passed away. Always closing the show with a new complaint of his, Rooney was often criticized for his negativity. I'm all for optimism, but for some reason I was never bothered by Rooney's complaints. 

I think this is because I respected him for stating his honest opinion, rather than trying to sugarcoat the truth, as Americans often do.

We saw an example of this in Clybourne Park, performed at the Steppenwolf Theater. With minorities moving into a racially homogeneous neighborhood, the last subject the characters wanted to talk about was race. In the second act the character Steve points this out, claiming that they are all "dancing around" the subject. Ironically he is not even able to say the exact word "race" himself.

This scene showed how even today, although Americans claim to be past racism, we still sugarcoat the way we talk about it, in order to avoid discomfort.

Andy Rooney certainly did not sugarcoat the subjects he talked about on 60 Minutes. You can click here to see some quick clips stating his honest opinion. Do you think we could all learn something from Andy?  Or was he just an old man who liked to complain?