‘SNL’ Trashes Staten Island: Why Leftists Hate the Borough
by Alicia ColonEvery once in a while, I’ll get sent a clip of a Saturday Night Live segment that someone finds amusing but it’s been years since I’ve watched the show because it’s simply not that funny anymore. Most of the humor now is snide and while some conservatives like the anti-Obama pieces, I find them more daring than genuinely funny.
The latest clip sent to me was “Gossip Girl-Staten Island” and was a send up of the smallest NYC borough depicting the residents as “guidos” and loudmouth big-haired, spikes wearing women. There is also a reality show called “Jersey Shore” which has these prototypes being as obnoxious as possible for the small screen.
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I was born in Manhattan and knew little of the outer boroughs and was perfectly content with the daily newspapers ignoring them as well. The only television reference about the “forgotten” borough was usually on a comedy cop show like “Barney Miller” when a police officer was threatened with being stationed in the boondocks of S.I.
I moved to Staten Island in 1978 right after I had my third child and had outgrown our two bedroom apartment. We bought an inexpensive twelve room Victorian in the soon-to-be gentrified neighborhood of Stapleton Heights. In all the years I’ve lived here I have never met the likes of the characters parodied on SNL or any other reality show. Perhaps that’s because I live on the North Shore which has a more urban environment where many artists and musicians gravitated to from Manhattan.
The funniest line in the SNL skit is uttered by a “guido” telling his girl that he’s going to take her out for dinner at “some place romantic, someplace tropical, yes, Rainforest café.” Sophisticated New Yorkers may not even know what that is but it’s a franchise of family restaurants with a jungle motif. Note to SNL writers: Staten Island doesn’t have one but Jersey has a few.
The native Staten Islanders I’ve met do not speak with the Brooklynese accents in the SNL skits. Yes, there are many Italian families here but there are also many Africans, Pakistani, Russian, Polish, German, Asian, Irish and many Hispanics from Central and South America. There are also many pizzerias and many are run and operated by Albanians. So basically, Staten Island is your typical New York City borough or is it and why do the liberal elite find it such an easy target to mock?
Staten Island is probably the most politically conservative of all five counties that make up the Big Apple. It was the only NYC borough that went for McCain last year and it is more akin to the Midwest politically. Its population has the highest median income in NYC and is 77% white.
The view of S.I. from my home.
Although I’ve claimed to have never met the Staten Islanders ridiculed on SNL, my children tell me that the caricatures are dead on. But the big hair, loud mouthed, gold-chained hairy chest Italians were portrayed in “Saturday Night Fever” and those characters lived in Brooklyn. Why pick on Staten Island, you may ask.
Staten Island is heavily Roman Catholic and very family oriented. After receiving so many glaring stares from storekeepers in Manhattan at my expanding brood, it was a relief to find that Staten Island welcomed and accommodated large families.
In 2004, Amy Richards wrote an essay for the New York Times Lives section in which she recounted the dilemma of discovering she was pregnant with triplets. She wrote, “It’s not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I’m going to have to move to Staten Island. I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise.” I’m assuming the reason she aborted two of her babies was so she could still live in Manhattan. Therein lies the liberal contempt for a borough that cherishes and respects family values and human lives.
Well this native Manhattanite loves Staten Island. It is the most beautiful and greenest of all the boroughs. According to the Princeton review, the most beautiful campus is right here in Staten Island. Wagner College has a million dollar view of the skyline of New York City, the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor as do most of the palatial homes on Grymes Hill.
So if the untalented writers at SNL want to continue mocking Staten Island, so be it. I would like to remind them however that this is also the borough that suffered the greatest personal losses in the 9/11 attack. The residents have shown great resilience and courage since then and will surely weather their puny attempt at humor as well.
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53 Comments
I'm sorry but, with all due respect, while I thought this article was well written and informative, I think we're reading way too much into what is basically a semi-funny SNL parody of a vapid TV show. So they had it take place in Staten Island instead of Brooklyn or Queens… so what? I doubt the writers paid that much attention to the socioeconomic subtext.
I didn't catch any anti-family message. But I suppose anyone can watch any SNL sketch and find something wrong with it (especially if it's not funny).
Go Islanders!
I think the original skit and this article are both emblematic of the parochial nature of elite east-coasters. They think they're very cosmopolitan, but places as close to each other as Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island and New Jersey are like different worlds to them. Who, exactly, are the real inbred hicks? Us out in flyover country, or Manhattanites who think an Island just across the bay is a strange and different place?
Be careful, people started trying to explain why the South was a good place to live….and THEY started moving here. You might have just ruined a perfectly lovely place to live.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dock Street and Clyde, Big Tweeting. Big Tweeting said: BigHollywood: ‘SNL’ Trashes Staten Island: Why Leftists Hate the Borough: Ev.. http://bit.ly/5VREh9 #BigTweet [...]
Perhaps the elite effete Easterners dislike Staten Island for the same reason they hate the midwest….conservative, principled, home oriented…for God and country is not a laughable topic but a value observed….Love the show "The Middle"….
Regardless of the validity of Alicia's criticism of this specific skit, her point remains important. Liberals, who preach inclusion, diversity and tolerance, always fail to extend those ideals to groups that they wish to marginalize. And that desire to use the media to marganilze people is directed against people who don't vote left wing. So, Italians from Staten Island, Midwestern church goers, white people, the middle class, members of the Armed Services all fall victim to vicious stereotyping as stupid, dishonest, lazy, hypocritical, psychotic.
There's nothing inherently insulting in the proper name "Guido" but when it is used as in "He's a Guido" meaning he's a particular unflattering "type" of Italian American, then I think it is ridiculous for someone to defend its usage on free national television as benign and no big deal. It's insulting, plain and simple.
The left thinks that anyone who disagrees with them must be either stupid or hateful, therefore fully worthy of thier contempt (and hatred)
I am sure someone could write a paper on the irony of a hater accusing everyone of hate, but it just makes me tired.
Wait, someone is actually still watching SNL?
I understand. I think my initial reaction was simply a case of, "Of all the things to write about. SNL is the least of anyone's problems. And as someone who doesn't live in NY (not yet anyway), it never would've occurred to me that this sketch would be offensive in the first place."
That's all.
I think it was just a silly take on Gossip Girl, which itself portrays a ridiculously unrealistic vision of Manhattan. Most New Yorkers no more want the image of their city to be vapid, oversexed, rich white kids than the outer burroughs want to be consistently portrayed as yahoos.
Alicia, I grew up on SI in Tottenville, home of the 123 police precinct, where cops from The Naked City to CSI and the NYPD itself were sent as punishment, the real "boondocks" and don't take offense even from SNL. A big problem today is that people are so sensitive to humor even attempts at such from the irrelevant SNL!
That's Long Island.
I concur, Tottenville is definitely the 'boondocks.' (i lived by the mall.)
Staten Island sounds like the rest of New York State – a beautiful, wonderful place that's had the financial life sucked out of it to support Manhattan, yet the Manhattanites have no clue it exists. In a small way that's actually not a bad thing, don't need the clueless of the lower east side wandering around some where they could get hurt… like the real world.
SNL is still on the air?
F SNL… AND THANKS FOR THE INFO ON STATEN ISLAND; NOW I KNOW IF I EVER AM FORCED TO LIVE
IN THE BIG ROTTEN APPLE, NOW I'D KNOW WHERE TO LIVE…
I'll be waiting for someone to make a post next time the south is made fun of on television…
As much as stereotypes annoy me, every area of the world has them, this isn't the first area of the world SNL has made a skit about and it won't be the last. I found it amusing, not because I think that's how SI is, but because I did, it was mocking Gossip Girl, which I'm also a fan of.
I thought our side was supposed to be less PC…
[...] as loud-mouthed “guidos”, and big-haired women. Very unflattering. So I penned this article pointing out that S.I. is a target from the liberal elite and pointing out how great it is to live [...]
If this SNL skit was the only hit on S.I. I never would have written the article. Unfortunately, MTV has been running a steady stream of programs depicting the worst stereotypes- i.e. spoiled Jewish and Italian princesses and guidos. The station had an open casting call last year and only picked the absolute worst candidates that would fit in with their bias. Let's not forget "Working Girl."
Three of my children were born here and it would be nice if they didn't have to cringe when they share that information with strangers who have no idea what a great place this is to live
well said alicia,i miss your column in the s.i.advance tom
It's an urban legend that Rudy Guliani won election as mayor of NY because a referendum was placed on the ballot in Staten Island to petition for secession from the City of New York. That referendum led to such high turnout in the borough (which leans republican) that Guliani garnered enough votes to overthrow the Democratic hegemony in the city.
Then they should hire me back. I'm available.
I nearly threw up a little bit on reading that a woman aborted two of her triplets so she wouldn't have to shop at Costco. I wouldn't be surprised if the surviving triplet grows up to hate the mother. I would bet money on it. Maybe the callousness of liberals is what the author's larger point is and not whether SNL should just be accepted as humor. SNL is just a symptom of the sickness of liberals – a sickness that pervades liberal thinking and action.
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Great article.
Really?
Alicia, dear: summerdonna!
Stop Whining!
You sound like a leftie that can't take a joke.
It might be a bad joke, but it's till a joke.
So please leave the cultural sensitivity and political correctness to the liberals.
Thanks for the informative piece. I'm a denizen of the Rocky Mountain West and had only the vaguest notions of Staten Island, and it turns out they were mostly erroneous. My wife and I plan on seeing New York someday, and Staten Island will certainly be on the itinerary.
As for SNL, I haven't watched that show in at least a decade and a half.
" In all the years I’ve lived here I have never met the likes of the characters parodied on SNL or any other reality show. Perhaps that’s because I live on the North Shore which has a more urban environment where many artists and musicians gravitated to from Manhattan."
Alicia, I want to let you in on a little secret: statements like the one I highlighted above makes this native son of Shaolin brand YOU as just as big an elitist snob as anyone living outside the Rock. You've spent thirty odd years living here and you never went south of the Manson/Nixon line(SI Expressway)? I, too, live on the North Shore, and I find people with your mindset deplorable. Your ilk remind me of hipsters decamped to Brooklyn because they couldn't cut the "Manhattan money" nut. You say you've "never met" anyone like the SNL caricatures, but I'd bet a large wad of folding money you've voted for Guy Molinari. And for the idea that Staten Island is more akin to the MidWest mindset? You're kidding yourself. Maybe–maybe–if you happen to be down in Travis watching the Fourth of July parade, that kind of shine flies, but all you need to do is walk roughly ten blocks from your perch in the Stapleton hills and you are smack dab in the middle of gang-controlled territory.
I love Staten Island, but don't for one minute try to act like we're some kinda misunderstood, bucolic wonderland. Per capita, we have way more mobsters than Brooklyn; shoot, I went to school with their kids, and used to shovel Big Paul Castellano's walk!
Why don't they (SNL) do a skit on Queens…?? Oh, that's right…it's FULL of Mosques!!!! Someone might actually get offended!!!
It's not a myth
They are already moving here – they can't afford Manhattan anymore.
Wish I could afford some of the houses in Tottenville!
I wish they would! Saw you in the Sun, but now that is gone.
Now that they only feature one columnist in the actual paper, that isn't likely to happen.
SI's loss.
Visit Historic Richmondtown and the Conference house. SI was Tory during the 1st Revolution (waiting on the 2nd…). I believe it was Adams and Franklin who met with the British at the Conference house.
Also, I believe the 1st place the Brits got official word of the Declaration was here (althought the tavern doesn't exist anymore.
Alicia thankU for writing this. Im glad there are honorable people in the world who respect the sanctity of their homeland. Ive been reading bogs & im astonished at the level of ignorance and stupidity that i see from publics comments. NYC would not be what it is if it were not for the boroughs. We are the spirit, passion and guts of this city! I can understand why an ignorant person would find it funny. what i can believe is how the youth of the our burrough can entertain & give ratings to these networks that are thriving of making a mockery of their very existence. God bless you friend. Keep up the great work. I look forward to reading..
COULD NOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE!!! just becareful rckmom…you may get jihad on you just for saying that!!
I AGREE.. WHAT IF SNL DID A SKIT ABOUT MUSLIMS AND MADE THEM ALL "TERRORIST TOWEL HEADS"!! IS THAT ANY DIFF REALLY?? FIRST SNL OR MTV DOESNT HAVE THE BALLS TO DO THAT….AND WHY?? BECAUSE THEY WOULD LITERALLY BE RISKING PHYSICAL HARM FROM ISLAMIC GROUPS, WHO KILL ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR SPEAKING DESPAIRINGLY ABOUT THEM.
PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY DONT SEEM TO CARE WHEN BEING MADE A FOOL OF. SAD!.
Double dog right!
Damn!
It's meant to be insulting and it defines that type of Italian perfectly.
I hear you there. I was born in Manhatten, but family moved to North Rockland on the west side of the Hudson. I grew up there and loved it there (tried moving back a few years back but home prices were through the roof). We were also very well aware of Manhattenites view of us as backwood hicks. Even though you could still see the skyline from the high hilltops we were a world away.
The biggest myth about Saturday Night Live is that it was ever funny. It wasn't. Not even during it's first season. I was a 16 year old high school sophomore who had to watch it every Saturday night to survive school the following week because to NOT watch it was to immediately be viewed as terminally uncool. So I suffered from 11:30PM to 1AM every Saturday night a new episode was on in case there was a 2 minute bit that would be the talk of school the next week.
There rarely was a funny live bit. The pre-taped stuff was usually pretty funny. The fake commercials were always good for a laugh. Mr. Bill was funny the first couple of times. The beginning of the show was OK. You just basically had to wait for Chevy Chase to fall down. Weekend Update was usually fairly funny, accept for when they beat the dead horses like Emily Litella. If Dan Akroyd was in a sketch, it was usually very funny.
But it was very few and far between. Most of the show was simply painful to sit through. If you added up all the funny bits from the first season of 90 minute episodes, there is no way you could find 15 funny minutes of live material. No way.
Man, oh man, I couldn't wait until 1 o'clock so it would be over.
I used to look forward to that one weekend a month when Lloyd Dobbin's show was on. That was much better, and funnier, than SNL.
It's amazing to me when people complain about humor. We all laugh when the joke's on someone else. But attack our city? Our political affiliation? Our religion? THAT's not funny. And all of you who say SNL isn't funny or never was funny…I cannot take you seriously. You either do not watch or never did watch or have no sense of humor. Sure many gags fall lame…that's the way comedy is. What's funny to me may be unfunny to you. So we wait for the next gag if we don't like the current one. So when they make fun of the liberals, or the Jews, or the Athiests, or the Pope, or the poor, or the rich, or A-Rod, or Tiger Woods, or Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann or Sarah Palin, or Hilary Clinton you will probably laugh. Unless it's someone you support. That's not funny.
It was funny back in the day. I STILL laugh like an idiot at Samurai Delicatessen, and the current digital skits are often funny, if crude (D*ck in a box is really funny)
It's sort of sadder that you suffered through a show you hated just so as not to appear uncool. Was it that important? Here's what would have been easier and still got you cool points: say your uncool parents wouldn't let you watch.
Don't feel bad. There are Manhattanites who are absolutely terrified of the thought of New Jersey.
I grew up in New Jersey so I have spent my whole life subjected to what ruffles your feathers about the portrayal of Staten Island. Italians have always been portrayed as idiots in comedy. The idiot(s) in pretty much every classic sitcom fit the mold, and I think it has less to do with elitism than with the fact that whether you're talking about mid-century Brooklyn, Chicago or wherever else in the country, Jews and Italians came of age in the same places – at the same time – and the former has somewhat dominated the realm of film and television comedy. Being from the same background, but being from the other big white "ethnic" group – Irish – that is heavy in the same places, we mock "guidos" relentlessly as well. They are an embarrassing subculture and endlessly amusing. It may not be fair to other Italian-Americans, and is especially unfair to the rest of the people who inhabit places like Staten Island to be painted with the same brush, but guidos are what they are and make for great comedy.
Thank you for this article. While I agree that the sketch was an attempt at humor and perhaps we should have a thicker skin, it is important to note that there have been hardly any positive depictions of the Borough on television or in film. It is disappointing and frustrating to constantly defend your hometown or shrug off comments like "You don't look like your from Staten Island" or, even better "You don't sound like you're from Staten Island."
There is no balance in how the Borough is depicted – according to popular media it is home to mobsters, Italian-Americans that think that they're mobsters, and little else. What is perhaps most disappointing is that this most recent send-up was written by a native Islander.
I do not deny that these stereotypes do exist, it's just upsetting that, in the eyes of the rest of the world, they're the only thing that does exist.
If anyone is planning an excursion to our beautiful, diverse, and charming Borough, check out http://www.VisitStatenIsland.com.
"Red-neck" also has been used to define us "fly-overs" as beer swillin', toothless, illiterate, inbreds. However, I think that the term has back-fired because many of us in the midwest and south know that those ideas are riduclous and narrow-minded, and don't care what the liberal elite think about us. A lot of people I know are proud to wear that moniker because the definition to many of us has come to stand for those who are not liberal, but God-fearing, country lovin', family oriented folks who are also proud of where we live. So as far as name labeling is concerned, I think we need to stop and think about WHY we are being stereotyped, then just consider the source.
I went to Staten Island for the first time last weekend. My son's scout troop took a trip from central NY state to NYC to see the Christmas sights. The Staten Island ferry is the best deal in the world. From an outsider's perspective it was not much different from Brooklyn (where we were staying).
The recurrent use of stereotypes in humor runs a predictable parabola. First it is clever because it makes a subliminal connection. Then it is a trope, a short cut to a humorous association. Then it is just lazy. SNL has been just lazy for about thirty years.
I live on Staten Island and it is an awful place. The SNL characters are a kind representation of the type of people here. Not everyone of course. I come from several generations of Staten Islanders that do not fit that description. But for the most part Staten Islanders are rude, pushy, uneducated and arrogant. They are among the least healthy looking people I have ever seen. Fat, sloppy and all in all ugly. SI has the best food in the world though. Which is probably why everyone is fat. It is one of the ugliest and most depressing places to live in the country.
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