'SNL' Made A Black Holiday Movie For White People

Although Hollywood is finally recognizing that black audiences do indeed exist, the trend has confused and confounded plenty of pundits. For instance, USA Today was widely criticized for its description of "Best Man Holiday" making almost as much money as "Thor 2" at the box office: "Holiday Nearly Beat Thor as Race-Themed Films Soar."

"Saturday Night Live" responded to the trend with a commercial parody that took aim at Hollywood's inclination to synthesize black entertainment the only way it knows how: By replacing the black actors with white ones. "SNL" took this to the logical extreme with a trailer for a parody of the black holiday movie genre, "White Christmas." Billed as "The first black holiday movie for white people," the trailer featured caucasian actors standing in for the likes of a Tyler Perry ensemble (host Paul Rudd even played a Madea-esque grandma), pointing out the absurdity of clumsily co-opting black entertainment for white audiences.

Of course, "SNL" has seen its own share of scrutiny over diversity (and lack thereof). Jay Pharoah, a cast member who recently made the rare move of criticizing the show in the press, even acknowledged this by breaking the fourth wall at the end of the sketch: "Are we going to get in trouble for this?" Only time will tell, but it just goes to prove that the show who once had Chevy Chase call Richard Pryor the n-word to his face is still willing to address sticky racial issues.