Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
Did you know there are 32 million Americans with Irish ancestry while there are only 5 million people living in Ireland (7 million if you count Northern Ireland)? The Irish diaspora is real and gives American Irish a pretty good claim when going HAM on March 17th every year.
Then we discuss the SNL Colin Farrell sketch from last weekend and debate, “Who gets to make cultural jokes?”
Check out this episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
Which US cities have the best St. Paddy’s celebrations? It’s a highly contentious topic, but WalletHub joined the debate by analyzing city celebrations across various metrics. Their rankings:
We spend time talking about how the Irish Diaspora is a real thing – which of course, Kristin learned on TikTok.
@pmatzko There are SIX TIMES more Irish-Americans then there are Irish living in Ireland. #Irish #irishamerican #irishamericantiktok #JoeBiden #luckotheirish #immigrationfacts #immigration #stpatricksday
♬ original sound - Matzko Minute
The night before the Oscars, SNL opened with this sketch:
All the stars are out at the Oscars pic.twitter.com/BHKygkLJPW
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) March 12, 2023
Which sparked a backlash from a fair amount of Irish folks on Twitter:
Yes this fine 🤦♀️ https://t.co/Xk5nsYMyqS
— Lisa McGee (@LisaMMcGee) March 12, 2023
What the absolute fuck is this??
— Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera (@PantiBliss) March 12, 2023
This is beyond offensive.
— Lorna Claire Weightman (@styleisleIRL) March 12, 2023
Painting the Irish as drunks is what the British rulers in the 1800’s did to feel superior to the Irish and was racist. This Saturday Night Live’s skit of Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell (who works hard to maintain his sobriety) was so tone deaf and so 1800s.
— Elizabeth David (@MissLong) March 12, 2023
And then Colin Farrell even mentioned it at the Oscars – but unclear if it was really a “dig” or not:
Our take is that there is a difference between offensive and just not funny. The sketch wasn’t funny but it also wasn’t offensive. When SNL made fun of Wisconsin people, it was also not funny but also not offensive.
Watch here: “SNL’s Fond Du Lac News Sketch”
Actually, maybe JLo’s Wisconsin accent was offensive.
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