The January 21 episode of Saturday Night Live gave a shout-out to John Steinbeck during the weekly fake-news feature “Weekend Update,” further substantiating Steinbeck’s pop-culture standing and sending Of Mice and Men students back to the book to find out what George really says to Lennie at the end. Two-and-a-half minutes into the skit, faux news-anchor Colin Jost compares Barack Obama’s parting comment about Donald Trump (“it’s going to be ok”) with the assurance George gives Lennie before he shoots Lennie in the head. It’s a safe bet that the latest Of Mice and Men moment on TV will be seen by millions of schoolkids, and by hipper teachers too.
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I think it is interesting that there are writers for Saturday Nigh Live that know the Steinbeck literature and its meaning. I wonder who wrote that and whether they would be someone to get into the SteinbeckNow network. I am impressed. Always have been with SNL but this is really great.
Safe to say assume that most if not all SNL writers read the book in school or since. Chalk up another point for Steinbeck’s place in more the enlightened precincts of the American electorate.
Jost is a Harvard alum and obviously well educated based on his allusions to literature, both classical and popular.
Richard Rampell is the president of Rampell & Rampell, P.A., an accounting firm in Palm Beach, Florida. His daughter Catherine Rampell is a columnist for the Washington Post. Her op-ed today compares the Trump administration to a badly run business.
Hope it really does send them back to the book–and seems like a moment that could be very “teachable” in classrooms where the book is already under consideration.