{"id":995273,"date":"2021-11-10T16:44:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T21:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=995273"},"modified":"2021-11-10T16:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T21:44:23","slug":"snls-sickening-clown-abortion-sketch-and-the-truth-it-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/snls-sickening-clown-abortion-sketch-and-the-truth-it-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL\u2019s Sickening Clown Abortion Sketch And The Truth It Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsnls-sickening-clown-abortion-sketch-and-the-truth-it-reveals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=995273&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Monday morning think pieces about Saturday Night Live sketches have become as routine as the rising sun. But for once, the media\u2019s designated winner of the week\u2019s <em>most<\/em> <em>important comedic commentary<\/em> really does deserve consideration.<\/p>\n<p>During the November 6 edition of \u201cWeekend Update,\u201d anchor Colin Jost interviewed long-time cast-member Cecily Strong, playing the part of \u201cGoober,\u201d a clown who wants to discuss abortion while sucking helium, squirting water from fake flowers, and making balloon animals.<\/p>\n<p>Given that the purpose of the fake news segment is to crack wise about the biggest stories of the previous seven days, the context of the sketch is ostensibly the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments over the new Texas abortion ban. Except Goober the Clown never mentions Texas or the Court. Instead, in between spinning her polka dot bow tie and making frenzied pleas to \u201cpull her finger,\u201d she shares her own story of getting an abortion at age 23.<\/p>\n<p> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Weekend Update: Goober the Clown on Abortion - SNL\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/exSZQICbSb8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Strong\u2019s performance in the sketch, which is intentionally frenzied and irritable, elicited more media praise than perhaps any SNL sketch in recent memory. A small sampling of the adulation:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dcopaken\/status\/1457280495574831104?s=20\">Atlantic<\/a> writer Deborah Copaken said whoever wrote the sketch should receive a \u201cpreemptive Emmy right now.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/11\/kieran-culkin-saturday-night-live-recap\">Vanity Fair\u2019s<\/a> Karen Valby described it as a \u201cstartlingly effective bit of political commentary\u201d and pleaded with SNL to \u201cprotect this generous and brilliant woman at all costs.\u201dAt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/11\/07\/media\/snl-cecily-strong-reliable-sources\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, critic Brian Lowry called it \u201cone of the most buzzworthy recent moments that I can remember,\u201d and chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said he had to watch it twice to \u201cfully appreciate it.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/tv\/story\/2021-11-08\/cecily-strong-snl-weekend-update-clown-abortion\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a> called it \u201cone of the most rousing and far-reaching rebukes of Texas\u2019 controversial abortion law.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/2021\/11\/9\/22772533\/saturday-night-live-goober-the-clown-abortion-cecily-strong\">Vox<\/a> poetically waxed that Strong displayed \u201chumor that spotlights the vulnerability and humanity of the comedian and her audience.\u201dPop-culture outlet, <a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/2021\/11\/07\/snl-recap-kieran-culkin-ed-sheeran\/\">Decider<\/a>, dubbed the episode \u201can instant classic.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/parents\/cecily-strong-s-clown-abortion-snl-skit-sparks-reactions-t238050\">The Today Show<\/a> cited it as an example of the \u201cimportance\u201d of \u201ccomedic abortion stories.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/damaged-jd-vance-ducks-ohio-senate-debates-and-delays-disclosure?ref=scroll\">The Daily Beast<\/a> called it \u201cbizarre and brilliant,\u201d and lauded Strong for using the \u201cabsurdity of her concept\u201d to \u201cunderscore some sobering facts.\u201dHollywood trade publication, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/cecily-strong-snl-abortion-segment-wins-praise\/\">The Wrap<\/a>, offered a round-up of all the people calling Strong\u2019s speech \u201cpowerful,\u201d \u201cjoyful,\u201d and \u201cbrave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Again, that\u2019s just a fraction of the acclaim culled from a mere three days. Imagine the media legend that will grow around this skit once it\u2019s been out a full week. Meanwhile, many on the right immediately dismissed it as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilkowMajority\/status\/1457541666731171842?s=20\">stupid<\/a>,\u201d \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhitlockJason\/status\/1457490498512433153?s=20\">not funny<\/a>,\u201d and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday morning think pieces about Saturday Night Live sketches have become as routine as the rising sun. But for once, the media\u2019s designated winner of the week\u2019s most important comedic commentary really does deserve consideration.During the November 6 edition of \u201cWeekend Update,\u201d anchor Colin Jost interviewed long-time cast-member Cecily Strong, playing the part of \u201cGoober,\u201d a clown who wants to discuss abortion while sucking helium, squirting water from fake flowers, and making balloon animals.Given that the purpose of the fake news segment is to crack wise about the biggest stories of the previous seven days, the context of the sketch is ostensibly the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments over the new Texas abortion ban. Except Goober the Clown never mentions Texas or the Court. Instead, in between spinning her polka dot bow tie and making frenzied pleas to \u201cpull her finger,\u201d she shares her own story of getting an abortion at age 23.[embedded content]Strong\u2019s performance in the sketch, which is intentionally frenzied and irritable, elicited more media praise than perhaps any SNL sketch in recent memory. A small sampling of the adulation:Atlantic writer Deborah Copaken said whoever wrote the sketch should receive a \u201cpreemptive Emmy right now.\u201dVanity Fair\u2019s Karen Valby described it as a \u201cstartlingly effective bit of political commentary\u201d and pleaded with SNL to \u201cprotect this generous and brilliant woman at all costs.\u201dAt CNN, critic Brian Lowry called it \u201cone of the most buzzworthy recent moments that I can remember,\u201d and chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said he had to watch it twice to \u201cfully appreciate it.\u201dThe Los Angeles Times called it \u201cone of the most rousing and far-reaching rebukes of Texas\u2019 controversial abortion law.\u201dVox poetically waxed that Strong displayed \u201chumor that spotlights the vulnerability and humanity of the comedian and her audience.\u201dPop-culture outlet, Decider, dubbed the episode \u201can instant classic.\u201dThe Today Show cited it as an example of the \u201cimportance\u201d of \u201ccomedic abortion stories.\u201dThe Daily Beast called it \u201cbizarre and brilliant,\u201d and lauded Strong for using the \u201cabsurdity of her concept\u201d to \u201cunderscore some sobering facts.\u201dHollywood trade publication, The Wrap, offered a round-up of all the people calling Strong\u2019s speech \u201cpowerful,\u201d \u201cjoyful,\u201d and \u201cbrave.\u201dAgain, that\u2019s just a fraction of the acclaim culled from a mere three days. Imagine the media legend that will grow around this skit once it\u2019s been out a full week. Meanwhile, many on the right immediately dismissed it as \u201cstupid,\u201d \u201cnot funny,\u201d and mere \u201cleft-wing talking points.\u201dWhile it\u2019s true the skit wasn\u2019t funny, it was far from stupid, and it revealed something much deeper than typical leftist boilerplate when it comes to abortion.It\u2019s important to note that the implication throughout the skit is that the 37-year-old actress is giving an autobiographical speech. This becomes clear when Jost says, \u201cYou don\u2019t need to do this Cecily.\u201d Strong shoots back, \u201cWho\u2019s Cecily? I\u2019m Goober.\u201d Later, toward the end, she takes a deep hit of helium to brace herself before blurting in rushed, chipmunk tones, \u201cHere is my truth. I know I wouldn\u2019t be a clown on TV here today if it weren\u2019t for the abortion I had the day before my 23rd birthday.\u201dOn Monday, Strong confirmed that she was describing her own experience, saying on Instagram stories, \u201cI didn\u2019t tell my own wonderful and supportive mom for years and Saturday I told live TV.\u201d Thus, the meta-joke of the sketch is that she needs the guise of Goober to find the strength to talk about her decision to kill her child. What seems clear \u2014 or should be clear \u2014 to anyone with an ounce of spiritual insight is that Strong is not nearly so \u201cgrateful\u201d that her abortion \u201chappened\u201d (oh the multitudes contained in that passive sentence structure!) as she pretends. She certainly wouldn\u2019t present it in the way she does if it had been nothing more than a medical decision.And the presentation Strong gives, despite being packed with guilt-minimizing self-deception, is raw, revealing, and very, very sad. Nearly all of it seems like a woman trying to convince herself that she has committed no crime.Strong is hardly alone in seeking to mitigate shame by revealing her past with jaw-jutting defiance. \u201cShouting your abortion\u201d has become nearly as de riguer in Hollywood as curtain bangs. Michelle Williams declared hers while winning an award at the Golden Globes. Uma Thurman did it in the pages of The Washington Post. Busy Phillips in a memoir. And Alyssa Milano in an interview with People magazine.All made use of the same terrible arithmetic of success Strong does. I wouldn\u2019t be here today if I hadn\u2019t sacrificed my child\u2019s life.Throughout, Strong, er, excuse me, Goober the Clown, insists that she doesn\u2019t want to talk about abortion, she\u2019s only doing so due to political circumstances. However, nearly the entire rest of her monologue centers on how desperately women who have made this decision need to unburden themselves for the sake of their mental and emotional health.\u201cThey don\u2019t even know how to talk to other clowns about it,\u201d Strong says, continuing to use clowns as a stand-in for women. \u201cBecause when they do talk about it, if you were a clown who wasn\u2019t the victim of something sad like clown-cest [incest], they think your clown abortion wasn\u2019t a righteous clown abortion. I mean, what the d**k is that?\u201dWe see here that Strong resents the argument that the pro-choice movement has long made to soften the evil of child murder. Yes, abortion is terrible, but so are rape and incest. Therefore, to avoid further afflicting those who have already suffered, we must make abortion available to all. It works politically, but at its core, it exposes the fact that moral tradeoffs are being made \u2014 tradeoffs that leave the women who were not victims with no fig leaf to hide behind.Strong\u2019s next comments further illustrate the disconnect between claiming abortion is nothing more than standard reproductive care and the fraught language that surrounds it:\u201cAnd then, years later, you\u2019ll be at a dinner with a big group of clowns, and one clown will go out on a limb and say she\u2019s had an abortion, and then like eight other clowns at the table say they\u2019ve had an abortion too, because that\u2019s how common it is. And then everyone\u2019s excited and relieved to be talking about it.\u2019\u201dThis, she punctuates by brandishing a defective horn and manically squawking, \u201cah-honka, honka, honka.\u201d For those with eyes to see, nearly everything she says from this point on reads like a plea for absolution.\u201cThe doctor asked if I got pregnant on the way over to the clinic because I wasn\u2019t very far along,\u201d Strong quips, saying it\u2019s one of her favorite jokes to this day because it assured her she\u2019s \u201cnot an awful person.\u201dThe line provides a double-whammy of guilt minimization. Though Strong has already denounced a moral scale that makes killing a child that results from incest less offensive than killing one that results from carelessness, she, too, tries to grade her own virtue on a curve. Her abortion is less egregious because she obtained it so early in her pregnancy. She also appeals to the testimonial of an ostensible expert \u2014 the doctor \u2014 that what she\u2019s done isn\u2019t \u201cawful.\u201dFinally, Strong cites an erroneous statistic \u2014 that one in three women have had an abortion \u2014 to suggest that abortion is so ubiquitous, women shouldn\u2019t be ashamed to acknowledge they\u2019ve had one. In fact, she\u2019s off by nearly ten percent. Fewer than 24 percent of women have terminated a pregnancy, something you would expect Strong to know given that she once worked in an abortion clinic. But this inflation, too, suggests Strong is seeking to alleviate guilt by claiming the experience is more common than it is.Strong is a sharp and gifted comedienne. Too gifted to let the entire sequence pass by without authentic emotion. The first comes when she describes the guest book she found in the doctor\u2019s office the day she had her abortion:\u201cIn the waiting room, they had a little guest book where all the clowns could write their clown abortion stories for the next clown to read it so she wouldn\u2019t feel so alone.\u201dAt no point does she acknowledge how strange this is if we\u2019re only talking about medical care. Women going in to have gallbladders removed, for instance, do not leave notes sharing their own gallbladder surgery experiences so that others may find solace in them.Strong\u2019s greatest moment of honesty, though, comes when she says abortion is a \u201crough subject\u201d so she\u2019s going to do \u201cfun clown stuff\u201d to make it \u201cmore palatable.\u201d In the end, this, of course, is exactly the aim of the sketch. Contra the take of those many media commentators, its purpose isn\u2019t to offer a blistering commentary on the new Texas heartbeat law or to send a message to Amy Coney Barrett. It\u2019s an attempt to take the deep, soul-level sting out of the reality that millions of women like Strong chose to kill their children to advance their own prosperity prospects.At one point, Jost pretends to grow uncomfortable with the direction the interview is going, Strong blurts out, \u201cLaugh. I need it. I need you to laugh so hard.\u201d And she does. She needs us to laugh in order to pretend that subject at hand isn\u2019t a matter of life and death.In the Psalms, King David writes that when he kept silent over his sin, his bones wasted away. Though modern secular therapy gets many things wrong, one thing it gets right is the overwhelming need to talk about the evil we have committed in order to alleviate the weight of it. Even when confession comes without forgiveness or true acknowledgment of guilt, it still offers some measure of temporary good for the spirit.I have known many a wounded comedian in my time. Every one of them will tell you that jokes are how funny men and women process pain. So no, Cecily Strong\u2019s clown abortion skit wasn\u2019t funny. But it was often revealing. And always tragic.Honka. Honka.The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-995273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}