
First, I see from search engines that this program was taped on 12/17/2006, so when I saw Justin Timberlake host Saturday Night Live last night, it really wasn't "live" as I first thought. Indeed, there were plenty of Christmas lights around, although in a wintry mix with Valentine's Day pink.
I'd love to see this program live some day. But this episode deserves some special attention.
Timberlake prances in, singing, doing his post-boy-band act. Now I had attended an 'Nsync concert in the Minneapolis Metrodome June 24, 2001 (a Sunday, as Pride Day in Loring Park was winding down) ... and had noticed how the five boys had to perform athletic, high wire acts with military precision. The favorite song then was "bye ..." and the best video was the clip where they pretend to become toy soldiers in a Target checkout line, maybe to make fun indirectly of "don't ask don't tell."
Justin's appearance has changed since those glory days of virility, even his Larry King Live appearances at 19. Now, he is bulked up, almost to the point of looking a tad chubby-- Lance Bass had already found out that bloggers could say that about him, too. But Justin (despite the not-so-secret accumulation of tattoos, leading up to "Alpha Dog"), is buffed, as his forearms are obviously shaved, as is his chest when he does the drag show skit half way through the show. Yup, Justin in drag actually plays the part of buxom beautease from those 50s burlesque movies at the Pix Theater in downtown Washington during the Eisenhower years. This episode could have been a kickoff for Atlanta pride. I hadn't thought of SNL as an overdressed drag show, but in a sense it is. Bahze had talked about the transformations of drag in his globe-trotting non-fiction adventure
Damages, going back to his origins in the Balkans.
In fact, the week before, Justin had looked more like his old virile self playing piano for the Grammy's, so this episode was a surprise, until I saw that it had been taped two months earlier. (Previous blog post).
Now the remaining skits on this SNL episode were wicked. They talked about barbie dolls and shaved parts, about the Amish and real blackberries (their tragedy had happened not too long before the taping). about the president's throwing up inside his mouth. They had two clones of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, and he is hairy) pretend to be a New Jersey gay couple enjoying a civil union. (Remember Sacha's scatalogical acceptance speech at the Golden Globes?) And Justin, still buffed, joined the Hip Hop Kids in an appeal to stop truancy, but in a place called the Mineshaft (well known as a NYC leather bar, with premonitions of the Connection Disco in Berlin, Germany). Lou Dobbs (where have all of America's jobs gone, and the War on the Middle Class) was spoofed, as was Nancy Grace, with her takeoff on Nifong, and her poking fun at made-up-rape-victims (remember that a student at a Connecticut college was censured for a similar editorial in the college paper, considered offensive and politically incorrect).
It does seem that the days of the boy band, as a fad, are over. The boys have gone their separate ways.
Remember, most cross-dressers are straight, and psychologically masculine.
Note well, also: Britney Spears has shaved her own head. Not much to say, other than, is there some kind of connection?
Update: 2/28/2007Rapidly maturing movie actor Jake Gyllenhaal ("
Jarhead", latest film "
Zodiac", also "
Donnie Darko") appeared in drag with a wig (hairy chest intact) on Saturday Night live Feb. 24. The skit was rebroadcast on ABC Good Morning America on Feb. 28. Remember the moral lesson of "The Rocky Picture Horro Show" -- everybody has to do drag at least once, and that apparently includes Justin Timberlake. Does anyone know that in original Dutch, Jake's last name would be pronounced with a long "a" -- that is what doubling a vowel does in Dutch. Jake is supposed to host SNL on March 3.
Picture: RCA-GE-NBC building in NYC, where I worked as a computer programmer analyst for NBC 1974-1977, when they had Univac mainframes.)