On March 26, The Onion ran the story "Kim Jong Un Comes Out In Support Of Gay Marriage: 'I'm Not A Monster.'"
About a week and a half later, "Saturday Night Live" returned from a month-long hiatus with a message from Kim Jong Un (Bobby Moynihan) declaring that gay marriage is now legal in North Korea.
Coincidence? Almost definitely. The Onion's article garnered over 57,000 Facebook "likes," so there's nearly no chance that some sly "SNL" writer thought he could pull a fast one by ripping off a little-seen Onion joke.
If anything, it would be unexpected if that these two high profile humor outlets didn't make a similar joke about these two high-profile topics. They have depicted the closest thing to a recognized public villain, the nuclear-happy Kim Jong Un, as finding it in his heart to support to gay marriage, which has hit record high numbers of public approval in the wake of the DOMA arguments at the Supreme Court and Democrats' push for the party's rank and file to support the cause.
"SNL" took a more moderate approach to the joke (Kim claims that he had a change of heart due to a personal story, parodying Rob Portman) while The Onion overtly disparaged those who are against gay marriage (the dictator says, "I have no idea what's going on with the justices over there, to be honest. The whole thing is a fucking embarrassment"), but they both indicate that the public barometer has shifted to the point that NBC's highest rated show opened with a sketch where an evil man was human enough to support same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile on talk radio, some pundits have found a connection between the two gay marriage and North Korea, albeit a bit more alarmingly. Right-wing radio host Rick Wiles and Southern Baptist Convention President Rev. Fred Luter said last Monday that there may be a "connection" between the two, and that "at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage...I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia" threatening to bomb the United States.
Hopefully, both these issues will be resolved soon and separately.
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