True, Chris Rock has a show to plug when he obliged to open SNL's November 1 episode. But he did not just pass by the set and said 'hi'. He came in prepared with a cerebral script to do his job of entertaining the live audience and televiewers. He was aware it's the day of the dead, so to speak, that he tailored his funny lines referencing on tragic events like Boston Marathon bombing and Freedom Tower that arose from the 9/11 bombing. He was aware that next month is Christmas season that's why he included his disgust on commercialism of religious festivities like Christmas and Jesus.
The close to seven minutes monologue of Chris Rock had the televiewers awakened from passive television watching. He poked their sensibilities and shook them enough to draw out a mixture of reactions -- from wincing to laughing --- or from wincing to shaking their heads of disapproval.
Twitter messages were generally like this:
"Chris Rock, your monologue is making me extremely uncomfortable. Please stop. This is not okay. This is not funny. This is offensive." - cranberryann
Or this..
"I thought the monologue was hilarious. I kept waiting for Chris to go over the line. He didn't.Now gimme some of those $9.11 shrimp."
This writer watched the video and, to be fair to Chris Rock, it was entertaining. The amusement is not because of the thousands of innocent people who died on the events, but on his thoughts about the events before they became tragic (for the Boston Marathon) and what happened after the tragedy (Freedom Tower erected from the same site of the bombed Twin Towers).
To cite a portion of the monologue, Chris Rock joked on the Boston Marathon being "terrifying and sadistic" referring to the 26 miles distance that participants needed to jog in regardless of pain and hurt. And, as what happened on the ill-fated day, who would think a bomb would explode killing the first 'victors' that reached the cursed spot? And his opinion of the Freedom Tower that should instead be named 'Never-Getting-In-There" Tower because of the harrowing memories it evoked in the 9/11 bombing, was legitimate.
It was certain no comedy shows or spoofs were made in the US or anywhere in the world about Boston Marathon bombing and 9/11 when these were still fresh in the minds of people. But after a time, creative works and performances using them as reference were inevitable.
In a way, satire and making fun of tragic events has been done a thousand times. I am not sure if Chris Rock had Mark Twain's famous line, "Humor is tragedy plus time" when he performed the SNL monologue.
One thing is definite, SNL is back in the ratings game!
