SNL spoofs KJU (and opposition to same-sex marriage)

With North Korea's brinkmanship and belligerent rhetoric the top story of the past week or so, it's no surprise that Saturday Night Live would decide to make fun of the Young General. In this past week's cold open, Kim Jong-un speaks to his politburo and the nation, joining most Democrats and some Republicans in endorsing same-sex marriage, among other things.

It was a fairly funny piece, though you'd think they'd try a little bit harder for some authenticity. Instead, Bobby Moynihan (who plays KJU) seemed to be speaking in a mixture of Japanese and gibberish. Okay, so it would be hard for a non-Korean speaker to do a bit several minutes long solely in Japanese, and his nonsense syllables didn't sound like "ching chong" or anything like that, but why did he have to use Japanese? Moynihan keeps starting his sentences with Watashi-wa ("I ...")

By the way, there have been some brilliant bits in past SNL seasons where they attempted an entire segment in Japanese, earning extra kudos points for the effort. Things like the original original inspiration for The Office...



... and this 1994 (the golden age of SNL) Mike Meyers skit of a Japanese game show:



That, my friends, is called trying. And it's not as if there aren't a kajillion Korean speakers in the Tri-State area from which you could get some useful training to at least get your Kim Jong-un character to say Chŏ-nŭn... before the voiceover drowns out the rest.

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