This SNL St. Patrick's Day Sketch Might Be The Only Funny Irish Sketch They've Done
Saturday Night Live does not receive the same veneration in Ireland that it does in the United States. Given that it is not made in or about Ireland, this comes as absolutely no surprise whatsoever. To complain about it would be analagous to complaining that you do not an interest in the well-being of a distant neighbour's vegetable garden - it is, for all intents and purposes, entirely irrelevant to your day to day life.
However, occasionally clips from SNL, specific sketches, will bubble forth into our national consciousness. Typically, this is due to the fact that they heinously maul some aspect of Irishness in the pursuit of humour and wildly miss the mark. The best example of this that perhaps springs to mind is from Saoirse Ronan's stint as host on the show last year which, lest we forget, birthed forth this calamity into the world.
Everything about it - from the bizarre CGI'd Aer Lingus plane featured at the opening and closing of the sketch, to the implied trope that Irish transport services are overrun by quite adorable but evidently terrified dogs - was sheer misguided lunacy.
There are several notable other examples of the mark being absolutely comprehensively missed - mostly from that episode with Saoirse Ronan. However, it is this repeated failure to have a genuinely funny Irish themed sketch which makes it all the more commendable when they do. Now, if we're being honest this sketch from last year's St. Patrick's Day show, was mostly just a vessel for ex-cast member Bill Hader, who was hosting the show that night, to bring back one of the show's most beloved characters, Stefon. Stefon's role as a social correspondent on the weekend update of the show used to see him giving New Yorkers tips on 'New York's hottest club' of the moment, and the heinous goings on that it would bear witness to. Given that the co-creator of the character, John Mulaney, also came back to help write the sketch - and make an on-screen appearance, it can be looked upon as maybe the best Irish-themed sketch the show's created.