Saturday Night Live sparked a bit of controversy last night when the show released a sketch that portrayed a daughter being dropped off at the airport by her father to join ISIS.
The skit was modeled after a Toyota commercial that showed a girl growing up from her father's point of view, culminating with him dropping her off at the airport to join the military. On the SNL version, the daughter is instead greeted by a truck full of ISIS militants armed with machine guns.
Personally, I thought the SNL sketch was funny, and this "outrage" (while relatively minor) is kind of ridiculous. To borrow a line from comedian Margaret Cho, "you imprison, starve and brainwash my people, you get made fun of by me." ISIS wants to destroy the west. ISIS has beheaded journalists. They've beheaded Christians on a beach. Polio is making a resurgence in areas under ISIS control. Yet despite these atrocities, Americans are still attempting to join up with them. These people are worthy of being mocked. They are scum. We should not be worried about offending a group of people who would have zero issue with killing the entire cast of Saturday Night Live.
Expressing outrage over a skit like this is elevating ISIS to an untouchable level. That's what they want. This shouldn't happen.