Saturday Night Live-Did They Go Too Far?
Hawaii’s lieutenant governor and some in the state’s tourism industry aren’t laughing over a “Saturday Night Live” skit they fear could deter people from visiting the islands.
The four-minute skit, an exaggerated portrayal of how annoying and frustrating it can be to deal with tourists, depicts a pair of disgruntled locals who sing and dance for mainland visitors.
What do you think?
March 16th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I think that it was funny and was kind of true what they said because we do think of tourists like that, and we, the Hawaiian people do have to work for the tourist. That is another sign that they think they are better than us. It is like they come, take us over, and make us work for them.
I also think the Lieutenant Governor is overreacting because he is only thinking about tourism and not about the natives. All he cares about is how much White people come and spend money.
I also think it has an upside and a downside. The downside is that the tourism industry is a big percentage of the money we get, so if the tourists stop coming, then we might not get a lot of money for ourselves.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Personally, I don’t think it is that offensive to Hawaii because most of it is true. Sometimes we try to make the restaurants down at Waikiki seem like it is paradise with all the grass skirts and the hula dancing. But it’s not, it’s just a normal place with poor homeless people, like what the first dude said about living in an old pick-up truck in a junkyard. There are people who live like that. If you really think about it, it may hurt the tourism business but if it was offensive to the Hawaiian culture, there would probably be a ton of complaints from Hawaii because most of the Hawaiians love their culture and don’t want it to be teased. I think that most people knew it was a joke because everything SNL does is a joke. They are never serious.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I think they were funny even though they where making fun of the Hawaiian culture. Our government is getting mad because they said a few things about Hawaii that may be true or not. I think the government is also getting mad because they say our tourists and their money is will go away, and it seems that we are saying we only care about money, not Hawaii.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I thought it was funny and telling the truth. The white tourists think that it’s just a nice beach and there’s peace and “aloha”. I liked this skit because they could make it funny and tell the truth. That’s a key thing in plays.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I though that a lot of it was funny. One part that I thought was funny was when the Rock said “our biggest export is coffee, but our biggest import is fat white people.” I found that funny because what he said is true. The reason lots of people find that funny is because it’s true.
One thing I also find funny is the part when the white tourists are saying “you’re just so lucky to live here, it would be paradise if we could live here” and the Rock and the other actor said “yeah, we are living in a truck while you and your husband are living in your beachfront hotel room.
I didn’t think that it was offensive at all because it’s actually stating the truth. It’s actually right like how some people who work in the restaurants don’t get paid very much. They get paid minimum wage to dress in grass skirts, and dance around singing jibberish words in Hawaiian.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I think it was hysterical!
It can always give you a good laugh even if you have seen it before. But sadly it was kind of insulting :’( . I think the part that was most insulting was the part when The Rock 
and Danny Garcia said “…drive through the town, make a right at the meth lab, and you’ll see a 15 year old girl who got pregnant by an out of town businessman, then ask for her brother, that’s me…” I think that was the most offensive part. But then I don’t know why Duke Aiona made such a big deal out of it. Everybody knows that SNL does that to everybody and they are just playing around, just like they made fun of Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Also, it is kind of true because tourists only see one side of Hawaii, the side with beautiful beaches and hotels. They don’t see any other place.
If you want to watch the video, click on my name.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I think that the video was really funny and partially true but it might have went a little too far in the part when they said “turn right at the meth lab and you will see a pregnant 15 yr. old girl.” But, it is true where they have the locals who only get paid 7 dollars an hour and work for the haoles.
Also, I think that the Lieutenant Governor is overreacting a lot. All he cares about is money, money, and more money. If he actually mentioned the native people or what the haole did to us, then I would agree with his argument. It is just a skit. It isn’t going to stop tourism completely. It might affect it a little bit but not a whole lot.
I don’t think that it is such a big deal, it is just a skit. They do that to everybody including barrack Obama, Sarah Palin and John McCain. It isn’t going to stop all the tourists from coming, they are still going to come.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I personally think that it was kind of disrespecting our culture and making us look bad. But other than that, yeah it was totally awesome. I agree that we have to work our butts off when the tourists just relax. Well, then again, that is what they are here for. I wonder if they ever think how much we have gone through and what our history is like. I wonder why our economy relies on tourism and why we have to lie about what happened in our r to make people from other countries come. Sure the amount of tourists might go down and stuff, but don’t you think that people will understand and act a bit more respectful to us?
March 16th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Personally, I don’t think they went too far at all! First of all, it’s just a joke and Saturday Night Live does a lot of things like that. It’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!!! What did you expect? They always do things like this.
Why would anybody get mad at this? Even if the economy is not going that well, it’s probably not going to affect anything. I just think that our government is going too far.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
My opinion about this Saturday Night Live skit was that they made it look like the Hawaiians were bums and bad people:-&. I can see why Lieutenant Governor Aiona could be mad at like this because tourists are the main source of how are economic society survives. Also, it’s not private to everyone and anyone can see it. People will probably think there are bad Hawaiiian waiters so they won’t want to come to Hawaii. We’ll lose more money and go into a worse economic crisis.
I didn’t think it was hilarious of them making fun of Hawaiians like they are on drugs and other stuff, but we are not like that. We are normal people just like them. How about we turn it around and they are the ones that take drugs and were the normal people? How would they feel? So just do the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I personally think that it was really funny, but it wasn’t that offensive because wouldn’t the tourists want to come more if they watched that video. If they did that to Japanese people, I bet they wouldn’t get offended.
Duke Aiona didn’t like this video because he thought that the tourists were not going to come to Hawaii because of this video. Plus, he said that Hawaii wasn’t going to get a lot of money because of the drop in tourists. I think that the government thinks too much about money.
Saturday Night Live usually does this all the time. People are already used to these kind of things, so we shouldn’t get that offended about it.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I think that the skit was funny. But for all the people who think that this is all about the tourists, it’s not, because the people that you should be mad at are the people who don’t live in Hawaii who buy big hotels and resorts. Most of those hotels are ones the people who live in Hawaii can’t afford to stay in, so the tourists come and stay in those resorts. The offshore investors who own the hotels, resorts, and big houses provide jobs for some people, but like in the skit, entertainers at the big expensive places usually show people who don’t live in Hawaii what they think Hawaii is like, but it’s not, which they sort of showed in the skit.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
The first time I saw this, I thought, whoa that is hilarious!
But then, I thought about all the people who hate Hawaii because of how the locals treat Tourists. This video portrays that all Hawaiians are like that when we’re not. 
What if tourists stopped coming? Tourism is the #1 economy boost in our islands. Think about all the hotel workers. They would lose their jobs. 
All the maids, room servers, cooks, bellhops, they would all be searching for jobs. Also, in my dad’s property, most of the people there work in hotels or restaurants. How are they supposed to pay their rent?
My point is, it IS funny,
but you have to look at the big picture. It is cool 
if you enjoy this, but I think we need to look at the aftereffects. 
March 16th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
This was the first time I ever watched Saturday Night Live before and it was hysterical. I don’t know how you couldn’t think this four minute skit was funny especially with The Rock in it.
People think about the tourists. I mean is that the only thing that Duke Aiona can think of. I bet that Duke Aiona doesn’t want to show that skit on T.V. because then he might think that tourist aren’t going to come to Hawai`i. 
What I am trying to say is that Duke Aiona doesn’t like that skit just because it won’t attract tourist. I mean there is more to Hawai‘i than just tourists! First, it was Duke Aiona’s partner Governor Linda Lingle with the ceded lands, now it’s Duke Aiona and Governor Linda Lingle with a Saturday Night Live skit.
Isn’t it so weird how all these things connect to Hawaiians. An example is the ceded lands which is supposed to be the Hawaiian’s land. Now there is a skit about Hawai`i and what it is like. Isn’t that just strange!
March 17th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I thought the Hawaiian hotel skit was hilarious! But it was pretty insulting to tourists because in one part, the Rock said to a tourist that they call people like them garbage. But to kids, and I am pretty sure to some parents from Hawaii and tourists, it was funny. I can kind of understand what Duke Iona is saying that it was sort of an insult to Hawaii but I think Duke Iona is overreacting about a funny skit on SNL.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
In my opinion, I think that the four minute skit on Saturday Night Live was very offensive to the Hawaiian people and Hawaiian culture. Although most of the things they said were true, it is an insult to the state of Hawaii. But, I think Duke Aiona went overboard saying it might hurt our tourist business and economy.
Besides, I think the skit from Saturday Night Live would attract more tourists because that skit was way above H I L A R I O U S ! I think Duke Iona is just being a little weird being so sensitive. Well, let’s just see what happens.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I thought that the skit Saturday Night Live did was actually funny.
I think that the goverment only cares about money. Since tourism is a big part of the money Hawai’i gets, they care abou what will affect tourism. The goverment probally thinks that it was offensive to Hawaii. But they are wrong. I thought it was funny and it was not offfensive to me. They told the truth.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
What I think about this act is that it wasn’t that bad, they do have to weird things like dance like a monkey, but we wouldn’t actually tell the customers the things the skit people told the other people. I also wouldn’t think that the skit would scare away people, i think it would more of attract them here because that skit shows that we have a sense of humor which you can a little of. I don’t know why the tourist guys think it would drive away tourists. They also don’t think about the hawaiians. You know what really gets the people to come here? The culture. It’s unique. Thats what it makes it good! Without our culture, Hawaii would be just like any other state. I think Saturday Night Live went a little too far.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hawaii is not only about tourists. You need to have a little fun. Right?
March 18th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
It was funny and beat some of my favorite YouTube videos because of the act. It was funny for everybody except the Lieutenant Governor and the tourist industry. They have to loosen up. Some of it is the truth, there are many Hawaiians that are homeless, sick, or dropped-out from some schools.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
I think people are taking the skit way too serious. For years Hawaii has had a pristine image as a paradise. Just like many other islands outside of the Pacific there is a brutal truth that everything is not surfing and mai tais. Theres drug problems, poverty, etc. As someone who works in the industry the getting “lei’d” joke is heard daily and to hear someone make fun of it is pure comedy. I think SNL has many other skits that are a lot more controversial. Im almost positive that Ive struck an ignorant stereotype when travelling myself. So lets lighten up and laugh a little.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Heh Dane Ku, mahalo for linking the video on your post! I had not seen the 4 minute clip so appreciated the fact that you placed it right at my fingertips.
I enjoyed reading your class reactions. Some of you are circulating around the important issues of why Hawaii is so dependent upon tourism but I think the bigger issue is HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS?? In the past, Hawaii was never dependent upon tourism or even OIL for that matter! We had a totally sustainable and thriving island ecosystem.
I enjoyed our discussion on Thursday morning with all of you. Remember I asked, Where is the Joseph Nawahi in you? How can you and others become effective agents of change for Hawaii? If no one does anything to change the status quo, your own sons and daughters will grow up to do the same things the SNL skit makes fun of. Is that what you want?