Former Navy SEAL Crenshaw And Davidson Take High Road
By now as everyone is well aware, last week on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, one of the actors during the “Weekend Update” portion of the show, made a particularly tasteless joke at the expense of Congressman-elect Pete Crenshaw.
Crenshaw a former Navy SEAL lost an eye in combat and was shown in a campaign photo as he was running for office. Davidson poked fun at his appearance with an eye patch in the skit, and said that “viewers might be surprised he’s not a hitman in a porno movie.”
As is poking fun at a man’s appearance because he suffered war wounds wasn’t enough, Davidson then mentioned that he was a war veteran and finished with a dismissive …”whatever”. The outcry, especially from the veteran community was huge and the weekend before Veterans Day was especially bad timing. SNL producer Lorne Michaels is famous for saying that they don’t apologize for their jokes but they have in the past and did again.
Because the outrage wasn’t just confined to the Republicans…which Crenshaw is from the state of Texas. Crenshaw stated that he didn’t think that SNL didn’t need to apologize but made a video where he removed his eyepatch and showed a glass eye with a Navy SEAL Trident, stating that the terrorists can’t take this from me. And the perception for him and wrongdoing did to him grew.
SNL stepped over the line…way over the line and rather than sweep it under the rug or issue some-kind of inane apology where they double down on the bad joke, (which has been done before), they did it right.
The show opened with Davidson, apologizing while poking fun at himself.
“In what must be a huge shock for people who know me, I made a poor choice last week,” Davidson said. “I made a joke about Lt. Com. Dan Crenshaw and on behalf of myself and the show, I apologize… I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero and he deserves all the respect in the world. ”
Davidson added, “If any good came of this, maybe… it was for one day, the left and the right finally came together to agree on something: That I’m a dick.”
From off-camera, a voice was heard to say…”Ya think?” It was Crenshaw, who was invited on the show and in typical SNL fashion, he had to slam Davidson including his appearance very similar to what Davidson did to Crenshaw on the episode the week before. “This is Pete Davidson,” Crenshaw said of the blue-haired Davidson. “He looks like if the meth from Breaking Bad was a person.”
Davidson then again apologized for his jokes the week before, which Crenshaw shot back, “Thanks for making a Republican look good. And SNL added a touch of irony as they played what was supposed to be Crenshaw’s cellphone ringtone, which was an Ariana Grande song, “Breathin,’” in a slam at Davidson’s high-profile breakup with the singer. “Do you know her?”, Crenshaw cracked.
Crenshaw closed out his appearance with a heartfelt speech about remembering both military heroes and those who died on September 11th – like Davidson’s firefighter father – on Veteran’s Day today.
“There’s a lot of lessons to learn here. Not just that the left and right can agree on some things, but also this: Americans can forgive one another,” Crenshaw said. “We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other.”
Crenshaw stated that it was Veterans Day weekend and encouraged people to say “never forget” to veterans, in lieu of “thank you for your service.”
“When you say ‘never forget’ to a veteran, you’re implying that as an American, you are in it with them,” Crenshaw said. “Not separated by some imaginary barrier between civilians and veterans, but connected together as grateful, fellow Americans. We’ll never forget the sacrifices made by veterans past and present, and never forget those we lost on 9/11 — heroes like Pete’s father,” Scott Davidson, a New York firefighter who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“So I’ll just say, Pete, never forget,” with that the two shook hands and Davidson could be heard whispering in Crenshaw’s ear, that he was a good man.
So, the aftermath of the entire episode was that both parties got it right. SNL and Davidson realized they made a huge mistake, and they owned it and made the attempt to extend an olive branch. Crenshaw could have reacted much differently to the entire episode but he didn’t. He took the high road and perhaps this is just a very small beginning on bringing this country back together.
On Monday morning, Crenshaw appeared on the “Today” show and spoke about how he was at first hesitant but decided to appear and how it all came to be.
“But in the end we decided to do it because what better platform to give a united platform for the country, talk about forgiveness and talk about veterans? And they let me do that last part, and we got a little serious and I was able to give the message about what I think it means to connect with veterans and how to bridge that gap between civilians and military.”
Comics and shows like SNL always are pushing boundaries. Sometimes they’re going to cross them. But recognizing that and acting the way both parties in this did is encouraging. Crenshaw was right, we have to have the ability to forgive one another as well as listen to each other when we do.
This country is as divided as we’ve ever been lately. Neither side of the aisle has a monopoly on the good or the bad. Crenshaw’s message is let’s remember what made this country great and get back to doing those things…together.
Photo/Video: Saturday Night Live