This is a hillarious chess clip from Saturday Night Live. It reminds me of one of those Mattel commercials for kids. Click here to view it. It was sent to me by Ernie Schlich. Thanks Ernie!
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Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t that video appallingly sexist? The premise of the joke seemed to be that girls can’t handle a game like chess, and that they should stick to playing with dolls and dollhouses. Am I missing something?
Actually, I think that if the product actually existed, and was presented in a serious light, then we could make a claim for appalling sexism. Instead, this clip was a parody – it is poking fun at sexist stereotypes.
Yes William, you are…
For more chess comedy, Dan Heisman was on the Howard Stern show today. If you have Sirius, Heisman comes on right before Robin starts the news and stays the rest of the show, with a guy Adam Weisburg who won this as a prize for winning a tournament.
It was really funny. I provide a few snippets of quote here.
William, there’s no “should” in the video at all and no premise of “can’t handle”. The premise is that many little girls don’t see the point in the game and would rather play things they like to play. The same could be said about most little boys. The last line in the video is hilarious: “We’re playing chess!” This is not a joke about little girls, it’s a joke about marketing–trying to sell a product (chess) as something that it really isn’t (fun [btw: I think chess is great fun, but most people don’t]), so that you can trick the consumer into becoming a convert. But the girls have the last laugh, twisting the product beyond recognition but absconding with the name (“chess”).
Years ago, the Second City comedy club here in Chicago had a bit about a fictitious TV show entitled, It’s Sexist–But Funny! That’s what I thought of when I watched the clip. Being a generally PC person I tried not to laugh, but I couldn’t help it.
Thanks for the head’s up, Blue Devil Knight. So Dan brought Stern up 600 points in a year? It’s time to hire Phillytutor, though I guess everybody will want to do that now.
I think you are missing something, William. It’s called “life”! Lighten up and have some fun. The girls who made the video sure were. I don’t think they were insulting themselves; they were having fun, mostly at chess’ expense.
I’m a woman and I do find it funny. It’s good clean fun.
I had actually seen that episode of SNL and at the time thought it was very funny. It makes so much fun of those awful commercials and marketing to kids that you see on Saturday mornings.
Unfortunately I can envision some of the younger girls I’ve had in chess class wanting to do something like that with the chess pieces.
My good friend Ray sent me the link. I appreciate people who enjoy life and can poke fun at anything. My view was it is harpooning the marketing crowd. Remember, chess should be fun!
Regards, Ernie S
It was on Saturday Night Live. That should tell you something.
I thought it looked very professional. The little girls were so happy. It was fun to watch.
I think it was making fun of the toy commercials and not making fun of chess.
Blue Devil Knight looks like Jared Fogle.
It also comments on why there aren’t more girls who play chess–they’d rather have fun!