Thanks to constant media coverage of the Ebola outbreak in western Africa and the reports of cases found in Texas, the public is on high alert where the deadly disease is concerned. The CDC has said that there is a very low chance of an outbreak here in the States, but still fear and paranoia has exist. Of course, topical comedy is always common in cases like this, which is how we’ve come to the Saturday Night Live sketch above.
Featured heavily in this fake trailer, comedienne Sarah Silverman was the host of last night’s live show, following up Chris Pratt’s work on the season premiere last week. Here she is starring with SNL regular Taran Killam and together make a cute little parody trailer for The Fault In Our Stars 2: Ebola In Our Everywhere.
Obviously the main gag here is that Taran Killam’s character really wants to be nowhere near the girl who has just admitted to having Ebola, but I’m honestly surprised that this wasn’t taken to a grosser place. Those of your who have done your research – or at the very least have read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston – know that Ebola is a terrible disease with a very notable symptom: lots of hemorrhaging blood. Sarah Silverman’s character starting to gushing red stuff might have escalated this trailer a little bit more and perhaps better illustrated the Ebola joke. And it’s not like Saturday Night Live doesn’t have a great history with blood-related jokes:
Wouldn’t have all of Sarah Silverman’s lines later in the sketch been funnier if she was bleeding profusely from her face, thus allowing Killam’s reactions to get more extreme? Perhaps it would have ended up being a little too much, but it would have gotten a chuckle out of me.
Of course, Ebola isn’t the only topical subject being parodied here, as it won’t be long until The Fault In Our Stars will be available on Blu-ray and DVD. After coming out this summer and making more than $300 million at the global box office – a nice boost for stars Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Nat Wolff - the Josh Boone-directed film will be arriving on home media September 16th.
