"Chippewa word" in Saturday Night Live

In this week's Saturday Night Live (airdate: 2/5/11), Bobby Moynihan as Jersey Shore's Snooki visits Dana Carvey as the Church Lady. The Church Lady views everything about Snooki with disdain, including her name:"Snooki," of course. From the Chippewa word that means "drop your shorts, we don't have much time."Right, because any strange word like "Snooki" must be an Indian word. In particular, a short Indian word that stands for a long concept, such as "place where a thousand buffalo cross the stream without getting their feet wet."

It's a subtle way of reinforcing the message that Indians are different from the rest of us. And it's not as if the context is anything good. According to SNL, Snooki is as promiscuous as the Chippewa, who are so promiscuous they have a special word for sexual quickies.

Blackhawks logo

The show also opened with a Wayne's World segment featuring Wayne (Mike Myers) in a Chicago Blackhawks sweatshirt--same as in The Dilemma. Really? No one thought putting a stereotypical image of an Indian "brave" on screen for five minutes might not be a great idea?

Imagine if you broadcast an image of an African spearchucker or a greedy Jew for five minutes. Does anyone think no one would notice that? For the umpteenth time, it's the same thing, people.

For more on the subject, see Kesha Goes Tribal in Saturday Night Live and Indian Curse in Saturday Night Live.