Talk:Saturday Night Live TV show sketches of the 1980s

I've created four articles that could solve the problem of Saturday Night Live TV show sketches being waaaaaay too long: Saturday Night Live TV show sketches of the 1970s, Saturday Night Live TV show sketches of the 1980s, Saturday Night Live TV show sketches of the 1990s, and Saturday Night Live TV show sketches of the 2000s. Virtually all the text from the four articles is taken verbatim from the mother article. Tell me what you think. Purplebackpack89 (talk) 00:02, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to suggest updating the section on the "Bel-Airabs" sketch. I don't think it's accurate to describe the Assad family as "paranoid Arabs". They weren't paranoid, but rather, in keeping with the premise of "The Beverly Hillbillies", the classic "fish out of water" premise. They were Arabs, or better, Bedouin Arabs, portrayed according to the popular, stereotypical view of Bedouin that we have here in the West. It's a stereotype influenced heavily by the portrayal of Bedouin in movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia". They're not paranoid, they're pre-technological people transported to Beverly Hills in the 1980's. The first sketch played up much more on their ignorance of 20th century technology. For example, there was a gag in which the doorbell rings, and Granny (Gilda Radner), leapt up and down in an agitated manner, shrieking in an unintelligible spoof of Arabic. Mudhat (Bill Murray) remarks to Abdul (Don Novello), "Father-Granny is right" (part of the gag--he understands her) "Allah is warning us-someone is near!" To which Abdul replies, "Yes, perhaps he is behind the door again." The first sketch also include references to the publicized antics of Saudis who were notorious for their partying with Hollywood elites. For example, Mudhat paints the pubic hair on the nude Greek statuary. There was a Saudi who had a house in Bel-Air and did just that. That was the inspiration for the sketch. So, I think the description should reflect the premise that they were stereotypical desert Arabs inserted into the most decadent place in the West, not that they were paranoid.TheBaron0530 (talk) 01:41, 16 July 2010 (UTC)TheBaron0530