Warning: This man is not the president. He is an actor who sometimes plays the president. For entertainment purposes only. Image from Wikimedia.

I think some Americans out there are confused when it comes to the SNL Obama accomplishments skit. I think they are confused in a couple of ways. One is the nature of Saturday Night Live and comedy in general. That actually leads to the second point of confusion: whether it’s true that Obama accomplishments are nil so far.

The second part — whether Obama accomplishments really are nothing other than “Jack and Squat” as the skit says — is not as important as the fact that it was a joke and people need to understand that and lighten up.  So instead of talking about whether the skit was accurate, I will be explaining the nature of comedy, just in case people need a reminder.

Anatomy of a joke

People can turn anything into a joke, from the best payday loans to the worst place to get hot dogs. Of course, people often joke about far more serious subjects, and when that happens other people often get offended or otherwise riled up. In the case of the SNL Obama accomplishments skit, all kinds of people have gotten riled up for all kinds of reasons, and it all comes back to taking this humorous little sketch too seriously.

You see, hyperbole is a very popular form of comedy. That means situations are exaggerated almost to the point of being untrue, but they contain a little grain of truth, and therein lies the  humor. The SNL Obama accomplishments skit used this form of humor, and it seems to have people on both sides of the aisle looking for just how big that grain of truth is.

This just in: Real news covers fake news

So news outlets such as the Washington Post, the Huffington Post and Yahoo News have taken it upon themselves to make stories out of this fake news cast on SNL about Obama’s accomplishments. Mostly I think this phenomenon has occurred because confused people who don’t understand the concept of “comedy” and “fake news cast” and “fictional entertainment” hear things on SNL and wonder “Is that true?!”

Still others take the words from a comedy skit as though they are a press release from the Wall Street Journal and start preaching them as facts. Here’s the bottom line: SNLs writers and actors are paid to be funny. It’s their job. Obama supporters are all riled up because SNL made fun of him (operative word there is “fun”). Obama critics are all riled up because they want to convince Americans that the humor in the SNL Obama accomplishments sketch was truth instead of hyperbole.

Just kidding

Back when SNL did multiple skits about Sarah Palin, her supporters got all riled up because the show was making her look bad. Similar to what is happening with the Obama accomplishments skit, her critics tried to use the comedy skits as political propaganda.

Sure enough, all the jokes drummed up serious reactions and responses. It is because of this pattern that I feel some Americans just need to learn to take a joke.

Watch the SNL Obama accomplishments video

If you still want to know whether the content in the SNL Obama accomplishments video represents the truth, I’m inclined to point you to one of the news sources I linked to earlier. Now that I have explained the difference between truth and hyperbole and real news and fake news, I trust you to use content responsibly. And by that I mean laugh and remember that a joke is a joke. Use it to make others laugh. But don’t use it to spread lies or as a source of accurate news.

Check out the SNL Obama accomplishments video at NBC.