In my late teen years, I started watching SNL (or, actually, on VHS delay so that I could get my beauty rest). One of my favorite sketches in the late-90’s, Mike Myers / Dana Carvey / Adam Sandler era featured a Japanese punditry show that emulated the arguing talking heads format of “The McLaughlin Group”, “The Arakawa Group.”

Leveraging Mike Meyers’ sense of random, absurdist humor (stolen whole cloth for pretty much every 15^th second of “The Family Guy”) and supported by the comedic delivery of Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and Rob Schneider, the panel discussion follows a pugilistic talking-political heads format and then breaks à la Meyers’ “Sprockets” with a random non-sequitur (“Now we dance”) as Meyers-san bellows: “SHOW ME THE MONKEY.” Thus is shown a monkey salaryman in a suit falling over (it seems). Arakawa-san et al. are then shown wiping tears of mirth away as the cut ends and they utter in Engrish: “He sray me” etc.

At the time of airing, I found random jump and meta-meta spoof (more on that later) he-high-larious, but, looking back, it’s a cringe-o-rama of dated stereotypes, racism, and laaaaaazy writing that dodges the charge of unfunnyness by appealing to cheap racial stereotype.

It’s. Just. So. Bad.

And while I don’t believe we should go back and shame/re-evaluate the humor of yesteryear in light of current mores or “cancel” people over it (we all make mistakes that are bonded to the cultural moment in which the mistakes surface), that this ever got out the door and got Carvey / Hartman to stake their well-established bona fides on it is surprising.