These are two Saturday Night Live Weekend Update skits, both featuring Seth Meyers as the host. The first also stars Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley. SNL, a sketch comedy show started in the mid-seventies which now airs every Saturday night at 11:30 pm, is well-known as a parody show, taking current events and trends and turning them on their heads. This first sketch, originally aired on 1/10/09, starts off with the political news of the week, followed by an in-depth interview with Sir Barkley on his recent traffic violation. The second clip, aired 2/7/09, is Seth's analysis of Michael Phelps marijuana scandal.
Barkley and Phelps are the latest in a line of celebrities to be skewered by the SNL crew for immature behavior. These sketches bring up the debate on how celebrities and potential role models ought to be punished for behavior that would probably go unnoticed if they were not famous. Any other young adult male, for example, could have used a bong profusely and not suffered the consequences, but Phels only did so once (to our knowledge) and is loosing millions of dollars because of it. While the Barkley sketch doesn't have much of a complete argument, Seth and the writers clearly see Phelps' treatment as too harsh. Meyers points out how ridiculous the standards are for Phelps, and how the 12-time-gold-medal-winner ought to be given a few breaks every now and then. As the show is aimed at Phelps' age group, the audience will probably tend to agree with them.
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