SNL tech talk touches raw nerve?

Saturday night live is known for its risqué comedy, and its latest sketch a “tech talk” on the iPhone 5 proved no exception.

Parodying the tech press, SNL hosted a pseudo panel of “experts” to discuss their extreme disappointment about the failings of Apple’s iPhone 5.

“Everyone knows that Apple maps has been a total disaster and since there is no Google maps app yet, I’ve been forced to use Google maps in my browser, which is significantly slower,” said the parody Cnet journalist, only to garner the sympathetic, “Oh, what a nightmare!” response from the host.

“I’m just upset about the camera, every time I point it straight at the sun there’s a very slight purplish hue in all of my photos, what is that?!” adds the lampoon Wired reporter.

“Exactly! That is unacceptable!” the host chimes in.

“The bottom line is, it’s just too thin and too light. I mean, I know we asked for a phone that was lighter and thinner, but, this is ridiculous, I mean, I feel like I’m holding three pieces of paper stapled together, not a smartphone,” said the caricatured Gizmodo reporter.

“Wow, that must be so hard to deal with,” acknowledges the host.

“I mean, it’s a real struggle, whoever built these iPhones, I don’t know what they were thinking…” says mock Gizmodo guy, before SNL’s panel host says,

“Yeah… let’s ask them.”



Cue the appearance of three actors playing Chinese peasant laborers.

“Apple maps, it no work, right? You want Starbucks it take you to Dunkin’ Donuts? Dat must be so hard for you!” sneers one.

“Oh yeah, you want Macy, it take you to JCPenny? Awwww, how you deal with that?” adds another.
“I guess we just lucky, we don’t need map because we sleep where we work,” says the third.

And so the satire continues.

“You upset with bug in new phone? I sleep in communal bunk bed with 100 stranger, lice are best bug I get. Best!” says the first laborer before saying that the journalists are right, there are legitimate complaints and they should air them. To the tune of a “sad Chinese violin” and the mime of a “traditional sarcastic dance.”

The real stinger, however, comes at the end of the clip when the host asks,

“Finally, would you guys like to complain about an American product?”

“Hmmmm, that’s a good question, let’s see, what does America make?” ask the laborers, before adding,
“Does Diabetes count as a product?”

Funny? Offensive? Too close to the bone? What are your thoughts on the SNL clip? Let me know in the comment box below.