A momentary diversion …

For any Rusters unfamiliar with it, Saturday Night Live is a decades-old American broadcasting institution.

My half-baked effort at suggesting a British equivalent might be a mix of the very best entertainment segments of the Graham Norton and/or Jonathan Ross chat shows combined with a human version of the classic satirical series Spitting Images – on which a group of regular actors and comedians knock out humorous sketches and commentaries on what has been going on in the world recently, spiced up by a succession of guest appearances by A-lister and other celebrities from the world of Hollywood, the music industry and even sometimes politics.

To expand: when I wrote ‘what has been going on in the world recently’ I mean, of course – in this case – what has been going on in the United States of America.

One thing that any foreigner realises very quickly if ever they visit America is that, for Americans, very little happens in the world outside America. In fact, for many of them, there is no world outside America.

Their news broadcasts very rarely cover anything that is not American or related to America simply because the United States is a very large area of land and frankly, who needs the rest of the world anyway?

Only about 20% of Americans own passports and if a representative sample of them were asked to identify on a map of the world to where India, Syria, Austria, Egypt or North Korea [add up to ten of your favourite other nominations here] is, I very much doubt even that percentage would be able to point to the right continent, let alone country.

All that said, although as with any ‘live’ entertainment show there is a degree of ‘hit and miss’ to Saturday Night Live’s attempts to mock or send up those whom some might say need it from time to time, when it get things right, it can be brilliant.

Just for the hell of it, here are links to a pair of items on last weekend’s show, courtesy of the website YouTube – and my apologies in advance to those who may already have seen either or both:

Firstly, Brad Pitt appears as Doctor Fauci … er … seeking to explain President Trump’s extraordinary press conference riffing about crackpot cures for coronavirus – see here – SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1)

Secondly, Miley Cyrus, now 27 – one of the most popular musical artistes in the world, daughter of the country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, began performing life as something of a singing prodigy and child actress and has been through subsequent ‘wild child’, substance abuse and ‘deliberate outrage’ stages during her stella career.

For all of the above, she is a major talent.

Here’s her contribution to the same show, a poignant and spine-chilling performance of Wish You Were Here, the classic title track from Pink Floyd’s 1975 album – see here – SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (2)