Saturday Night Live wasted no time addressing the "Linsanity" surrounding new New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin, as the opening sketch of this week's show skewered the overuse of Lin puns and addressed the racially insensitive missteps made by some of the media as the Asian-American point guard has gained national prominence.
In the sketch, a panel on "New York Sports Now" doled out Lin puns and references that ranged from inane to downright offensive. The hosts mentioned Jason Whitlock's racist tweet as well as ESPN's offensive headline that was posted after the Knicks' loss to the Hornets. But when trying to explain that race has nothing to do with the Linsanity hype, the panel couldn't seem to stop themselves from relying on stereotypes about Asians and using inappropriate jokes.
After calling the New York Post's "Amasian" headline "hilarious" and making light of an MSG graphic that included a fortune cookie, one of the mock hosts joked that Lin turned Kobe Bryant into kobe beef.
The mood on the set of the sportscast took a serious turn, however, whenever one of the analysts would make jokes based in African-American stereotypes. Toward the end of the sketch, the host apologized on behalf of his network for one of those remarks.. by using a couple more Lin puns.
Has there been a double standard for discussing Lin that has permitted comments that would be unacceptable if were from a different background?
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