Saturday, March 6, 2010

2010 SNL Flag Short Analysis: Part I

by Jacqueline Handy


On February 27th, 2010 Saturday Night Live made a digital short based on flags. It was a cute song and amusing video. Amazingly the flags shown in the video also express the 'flag symmetry' property that Mr. Maddish has been harking about. Let's take a look! The need for a balanced harmony is evident even in professionally humorous presentations.

The Pasta Flag is balanced with the Turkey Bowl of Food Flag







These next pair are flags of two famous football stars: Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers era (now plays in Minner-soda) & Brian 'Boz' Bosworth of the Seattle Sea Hawks back in the 1980s. Boz later became an actor and starred in a Saturday Night Live Alumni movie the Longest Yard (2005) that starred Adam Sandler. It's a good bet the Boz and SNL crew party it up. Also both Boz and Favre are arch type southern boys.










The next two flags are not so symmetrical, rather the flags are aligned by way they are displayed as elegant jewelry. The flag of Ireland reflects a large swath of Americans with Irish American heritage, and the flag of South Carolina is very popular for several historical reasons, due to its connection to the Confederacy, State's Rights, and representation of individual freedom. In any case it's SNL's way of tipping the hat to Irish Folk and cool South Carolina.

They key symmetrical element is that the flags are on bracelets on the limbs, namely the wrist and leg.









These flags are aligned again by the way they are presented in humorous fashion on the human body. Note the flag on the saggy baggy legs does not represent a nation, if it did Saturday Day Night Live would have gotten about 10 tons of hate mail. But the flag on the saggy arm probably made the executive board think twice. Probably the only reason why SNL went with the Sag Flag is because it looks like it is waving in the breeze.









Here the Adam Sandler II is holding a piece of food as a flag, while the a piece of food is holding a flag, denoting its preparation level: Medium Rare.










The final pair today, are the finger flags that look like little golf flags. The flag being held by the black man is supposed to be the inflammatory middle finger, while the index finger of the white woman is in response to receiving the 'byrd.' Interesting anthropological note is, if the races were reversed it would not have been culturally kosher as of 2010. Imagine of a white man were giving a middle finger flag to black woman, kidding or not.









Just ask Mr. Imus, Donald.

CLICK HERE FOR PART II

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