Althouse: "Just do the 9 and plop."

May 8, 2022

"Just do the 9 and plop."

63 comments:

David Begley said...: Did SNL do a skit about KBJ’s inability to define a woman?; 5/8/22, 7:38 AM
Brian said...: Just do the 9 and plop.

Doesn't science tell us that that's what can happen if someone has sex? It's not like magical fairy's are running around waving wands over women's heads and making them pregnant.

On Mother's Day SNL was reducing Mom's to people who just took a 9 month shit.

Happy Mother's Day.; 5/8/22, 7:48 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Sorry, but it wasn't funny.; 5/8/22, 7:58 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/8/22, 8:10 AM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: I got to 1:27. Not even a chuckle.
I'm an old white guy, not the target audience, but I have a lot of disposable income.
Sad.; 5/8/22, 8:16 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Why wait nine months when you can just open the southern border, or better yet, place an order to Russia.

Oh wait. Russia is not good right now. We’re in a Cold War with them again.

Just do the nine.; 5/8/22, 8:22 AM
66 said...: It’s very interesting watching culture being formed by elite liberals. Amy Coney Barrett is a dorky, out of touch, rich white person with weird beliefs so she doesn’t really count as a woman. The other Justices in the majority opinion are old men. Result: the opinion has no legitimacy— feel free to riot in response to it.; 5/8/22, 8:35 AM
Godot said...: SNL has devolved into a parody of a parody of themselves.; 5/8/22, 8:39 AM
Howard said...: Kate is the #1 LILF; 5/8/22, 8:41 AM
Lurker21 said...: Why "conservative justice"? Why not just "justice"?

Stopped listening at "jazzed and juiced."; 5/8/22, 8:47 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: How ironic would it be if it turns out we have to thank Dr Fauci (vaccinate or else) for the return of abortion to states legislatures, after we have accused him of the worst crimes against humanity? (funding gain of function research lab which sprung a leak)

"Life, uh, finds a way."... or halleluiah!; 5/8/22, 8:53 AM
robother said...: If Leonid Brezhnev did a standup routine, it would look a lot like this. Clunky, one punchline, over and over and over, like a boot on the human face.; 5/8/22, 9:00 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Doesn't science tell us that that's what can happen if someone has sex? It's not like magical fairy's are running around waving wands over women's heads and making them pregnant."

There is rape and other coercion.; 5/8/22, 9:06 AM
Ann Althouse said...: My posting this doesn't represent an opinion that it's funny or that it works successfully to make the political point. It means look, this is what "SNL" presented as funny and to make a political point.

I'm pretty sure if you're anti-abortion, you won't find this funny, in which case, I would suggest talking about whether it's a problem that other people believed this was funny and whether it accomplishes the intended substantive argument or not.; 5/8/22, 9:08 AM
Ann Althouse said...: SNL is trying to make "Do the 9" a catchphrase.; 5/8/22, 9:09 AM
wendybar said...: Hilariously unfunny. Sick, and twisted, yes funny?? NO.; 5/8/22, 9:09 AM
Gahrie said...: Happy Birthing Person Day; 5/8/22, 9:15 AM
66 said...: It’s just so depressingly predictable that SNL would go after ACB. As a woman, she is the most dangerous justice for liberals on this issue. Unless they can somehow persuade you that she is not worth listening to, there is always the danger that some women will.; 5/8/22, 9:18 AM
Ampersand said...: Part of the reason why the skit flops for me is that it furthers the very dangerous misperception that the decision will prohibit abortion. The draft opinion takes no position on how abortion should be regulated, other than to state that the regulatory scheme is not found in the Constitution.
Note that it does not find that a 34 week fetus, quite sentient, is a person whose killing warrants some form of moral justification or due process. The rights of such beings are ignored. Happy Mother's Day.; 5/8/22, 9:22 AM
JAORE said...: I'm (reluctantly) pro choice because I can not live the experience of a pregnant woman.

But continuous tossing of rape and incest into the argument is a red herring of sorts. (Like the "What about the people born with dual sex organs.) Sure they occur. Tail wagging the dog. But suppose an iron clad law was passed outlawing abortion except for rape and incest (throw in whatever low percentage issues you find necessary). Think many would say, "Whew, that takes care of that thorny issue"? I think not.; 5/8/22, 9:27 AM
John Borell said...: “There is rape and other coercion.”

What percentage of abortions are due to rape or “other coercion?”

And what is “other coercion”?

That’s like an exception for the life of the mother vs. the “health” of the mother, when “health” includes sadness or other depression.

Since “other coercion” is all but impossible to define, are we left with abortion with no restrictions up to birth?

I appreciate the argument at a few weeks, it’s just some cells, but at 39 weeks, it’s a baby. And because of Roe, there are actual babies getting murdered.; 5/8/22, 9:29 AM
Never-Biden Never-Putin said...: Is rape all that common? I mean - probably at our southern border where the Biden admin is letting drug dealers and human traffickers run wild.

The biden administration would be wise to let abortion happen near the southern border.; 5/8/22, 9:34 AM
Joe Smith said...: These are the same people who mourned on the air when Hillary lost.

Fuck them all...; 5/8/22, 9:36 AM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: There is rape and other coercion.
If the pro-abortionists agreed to limit abortions to rape, coercion, and I'll throw in physical danger to the mother, there would be no controversy.
The anti-abortion absolutists (No abortion no matter what) are a tiny fraction of the pro-life community. They would be shouting on street corners, with no audience.
I don't know what percentage of the pro-abortionists are in favor of allowing abortion up to parturition, but they have all the bandwidth on that side of the question.
Remember, the MS law at the center of the current SCOTUS controversy is still more liberal than France's current law.
Every pro-abortion advocate in American society wants to preserve abortion as the ultimate means of birth control- Plan C.
I'm expecting that the final SCOTUS decision will be that RvW stands, but that the MS law is OK as the outer bound of acceptable limitations.
Satisfying no one, and setting up another 50 years of arguments, fund raising, and division.
Once again, I hope I'm wrong.; 5/8/22, 9:41 AM
Farmer said...: I'm pretty sure if you're anti-abortion, you won't find this funny, in which case, I would suggest talking about whether it's a problem that other people believed this was funny and whether it accomplishes the intended substantive argument or not.

I'll bite.

Most of the people who will find it funny probably don't need convincing. I'm not sure this will work on those on the fence. I think a lot of the traditional arguments in favor of Roe don't resonate with people who grew up with abortion as a constitutional right. If it's true, (and it's not, but whatever), that we're going to return to the days of back-alley abortions performed with coat hangers, how do you convince people of that when it's something of which they have no memory? It sounds terrifying, but will anyone actually believe it? Growing up in the 70's and 80s, I DID believe that was the norm pre-Roe. It was close enough that people who were alive and aware of what was happening pre-Roe led me to believe it was so. Now those people are dead, or elderly and nobody listens to old people.

But maybe the biggest obstacle is transgenderism. If you say" women," a lot of your potential allies get pissed off. But if you say "pregnant people," you become self-parody and turn off many actual women. And you also make it much harder to come up with pithy slogans. "Pregnant People's Rights" doesn't have the same ring.

It's probably a wash. The gains are minimal, and they're probably erased by the people who see this skit as shameless propaganda.; 5/8/22, 9:42 AM
Bob Boyd said...: My commenting that it's not funny doesn't represent an opinion on the abortion issue.
To me the skit came across like something you'd hear if you sat at a lunch table with a mean girl's clique in high school.
I don't really see an argument being made in the skit, just an appeal to vanity and insecurity. The skit says, people who are anti-abortion are stupid, ignorant, heartless and loathsome. Don't be associated with that. Facts don't matter, only being in the right group matters. Be in the right group.; 5/8/22, 9:58 AM
ConradBibby said...: "SNL is trying to make 'Do the 9' a catchphrase."

First of all, the relevant time period isn't really 9. The Mississippi statute would outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which normally is 39-40 weeks. So even in Mississippi, birthing people who miss the deadline are only being told to "do the 5 and a half" additional months to childbirth. However, given that many abortion advocates want to protect abortion up to the moment of childbirth, it could even be "do the 1 day."

Except that's also not really true. What women in places like Mississippi are actually being advised is "do the [x period of time] OR grab a flight to Chicago or D.C. or any of the other jurisdictions that will continue performing abortions regardless of what the court says." Obviously, this court decision will only prevent a woman from getting an abortion IN CERTAIN STATES. Obviously, that'll make it more inconvenient for a lot of women, but it's hardly the calamity the pro-abortion contingent is making it out to be. (It should be noted that it's ALREADY quite inconvenient for women in many areas to get an abortion due to the limited number of providers in the areas where they live.)

If "do the 9" is being set up as a catchphrase, I predict it'll be no more successful than "don't say gay" as a tool of persuasion. Like "don't say gay," it's just not sufficiently factual to make an impact.; 5/8/22, 10:05 AM
Christopher B said...: Clapter. It's a thing.; 5/8/22, 10:07 AM
retail lawyer said...: SNL did not even try to mimic ACB's mannerisms, like they did with Dana Carvey doing his impression of Janet Reno. Sad.; 5/8/22, 10:07 AM
Ice Nine said...: >Ann Althouse said...
I'm pretty sure if you're anti-abortion, you won't find this funny,<

I'm not anti-abortion and I didn't find it funny. Perhaps it might have been funny if SNL (pardon the oxymoron) had presented a remotely plausible impersonation of ACB or an even slightly accurate representation of her beliefs...; 5/8/22, 10:08 AM
Never-Biden Never-Putin said...: Do the 8 and kill it at 9.; 5/8/22, 10:15 AM
RoseAnne said...: I'm pretty sure if you're anti-abortion, you won't find this funny, in which case, I would suggest talking about whether it's a problem that other people believed this was funny and whether it accomplishes the intended substantive argument or not.

There is a difference between not finding something funny and being offended by it. Also whether the reaction comes from a response to abortion issue or to treatment of women who may voice a different opinion.

I don't think the "intended substantive argument" had anything to do with abortion but was to create and sustain a narrative about conservative women. On the latter, I have no doubt that it will accomplish the goal.; 5/8/22, 10:24 AM
Mary Beth said...: There is rape and other coercion.

The other coercion could also include coercion to have an abortion to hide the fact that the woman is being forced to have sex. (Especially if it's a boss, teacher, or family member who would have continued control over the victim.)

It might be better in the short term for the woman to abort, but better in the long term if the evidence is obvious and the man can be stopped from victimizing her or others.; 5/8/22, 10:33 AM
Robert Marshall said...: SNL is trying to equate "Do the 9" with "do the time."

So, women are being 'punished' by pregnancy, seems to be the message. Just like serving time, for robbery or assault.

They should be able to do whatever they want, including abortions in the birth canal, is what the Dems say. Evacuate those 'products of conception.' And if the abortion doesn't work and the products of conception manage to live after delivery, then put them in the corner and hope they don't make too much noise. Nice.

Dems need to come to grips with the idea that they will have to appeal to voters who don't share their grotesque, 'all-the-way' abortion agenda.; 5/8/22, 10:34 AM
What's emanating from your penumbra said...: I watched it all. I didn't find it funny, but if someone else did I'm not sure I should care.

It's preaching to the choir so I don't think it will be effective. My guess is that having to "do the 9" is not the biggest concern for people who are not already entrenched in their opinion, even if on the whole they have a tendency to be empathetic with fertilized egg-bearers facing a tough decision. 9 months of sacrifice as compared to killing a human? It's not obvious that's any more of a hardship than is faced by unwilling dads having to "do the 18."

Notice that it wasn't all coat hanger humor. An honest family planning advocate should acknowledge all of the ways in which this problem has gotten easier, but they can't do that for obvious reasons.; 5/8/22, 10:37 AM
Hey Skipper said...: @Ann: "There is rape and other coercion."

There are roughly 6.3 million pregnancies per year, 32,000 due to rape. There are about 1.1 million abortions/year.

So, about 99.5% of the time, Brian is right: it's not like magical fairies are running around waving wands over women's heads and making them pregnant.

While we are having fun with numbers, assuming all pregnancies due to rape are aborted, that leaves over a million abortions that amount to murders of convenience.

Per year.; 5/8/22, 10:42 AM
AlbertAnonymous said...: When I see clips of SNL now, all I see is Henry Winkler in water skis…

I’m fine with political jokes that bash on the right if they’re funny. But SNL hasn’t been funny for years.

And they used to bash whoever was in office; 5/8/22, 10:44 AM
stlcdr said...: Ann Althouse said...
"Doesn't science tell us that that's what can happen if someone has sex? It's not like magical fairy's are running around waving wands over women's heads and making them pregnant."

There is rape and other coercion.

5/8/22, 9:06 AM

Unfortunately politics has made some (not so grey) areas to be completely swept aside. All or nothing. One extreme or another.; 5/8/22, 10:53 AM
jaydub said...: "There is rape and other coercion."

Yes, and practically every country where abortion is a legal, but time limited option makes special allowances for abortion in cases of rape and incest and other forms of coercion. Might some slip through the crack? Perhaps, but this is a specious argument. Other countries with laws similar to that of Mississippi, i.e., almost the totality of the civilized Western world, accommodate exceptions to the rule instead of shoehorning the exceptions into every aspect of the law. Why should anyone believe that if a woman is raped she must do "do the nine?" In countries where abortion is not a radical feminist religion like it is in the US, reasonable accommodations are made reasonably, and abortion laws are not a political divide. Unfortunately, in the US radical feminists are anything but reasonable.; 5/8/22, 11:01 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'I'm pretty sure if you're anti-abortion...'

If the left is allowed to use the phrase 'pro-choice,' isn't the conservative side allowed to use the phrase 'pro-life' and not be labeled 'anti-abortion'?

If you want to use anti-abortion it's up to you, but at least then use pro-abortion when referencing 'pro-choice' folks...; 5/8/22, 11:24 AM
William said...: Alito wrote the opinion. Interesting to note that the Justice they chose to dump on was ACB.....I recently read a profile on her in The New Yorker. She truly is an accomplished and admirable woman. The writer of The New Yorker article would dearly have loved to point out something negative about her private or professional life, but ACB performed all the duties and challenges she undertook as a mother and as a justice competently and conscientiously. The SNL skit states that her ambitions and accomplishments were due to class privileges and nothing more. If you are wrong on the abortion issue, then everything about your life is wrong. There is nothing to celebrate or admire in her achievements. She's wrong about abortion. Burn the witch.; 5/8/22, 11:36 AM
n.n said...: "There is rape and other coercion."

Rape... Choice, rape-rape... force.

A woman, and man, have four choices, and self-defense through reconciliation. Women and men are equal in rights and complementary in Nature/nature. The Constitution does not exercise liberal license to indulge diversity [dogma].; 5/8/22, 11:50 AM
n.n said...: On Mother's Day SNL was reducing Mom's to people who just took a 9 month shit.

Happy Mother's Day.

She's pregnant. It's a girl. 9 and plop a negotiable commodity, a secular detritus. Comedy gold.; 5/8/22, 11:54 AM
Bunkypotatohead said...: I've watched every episode of SNL since Chevy Chase fell off the stage 47 years ago. Last night was one of the least funny ever. The only laughs came at the end as Chloe Fineman served as the intern to the rest of the players.

The Democrat cast spent the whole night cooing happy mother's day wishes to their own moms. Simultaneously they complained they may not be able to kill off their own kids at the moment of birth. I doubt any of them were aware of the contradiction.

Plus the execrable Arcade Fire. Yech.; 5/8/22, 12:25 PM
n.n said...: SNL should do a skit with a juxtaposition of a Pro-Choicer and [wicked] witch of myths past, present, and progressive that captures children: boys and girls, aborts them, cannibalizes their profitable... tasty parts, and their little dog, too.; 5/8/22, 12:32 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Rape and other coercion. How quaint. That was insinuated back in the 70s, as I recall. Some 64 million ago. Pushing for Stalin's numbers, are we?; 5/8/22, 12:36 PM
Kevin said...: SNL is trying to make "Do the 9" a catchphrase.

Because SNL is just doing comedy, right?

When people point out the inaccuracies in their skits, then "Hey, it's just a joke," right?; 5/8/22, 1:00 PM
Two-eyed Jack said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/8/22, 1:26 PM
Two-eyed Jack said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/8/22, 1:28 PM
Levi Starks said...: Hiding your moral values behind rape victims.; 5/8/22, 2:58 PM
Chris Lopes said...: "Unfortunately politics has made some (not so grey) areas to be completely swept aside. All or nothing. One extreme or another."

We could have spent the last 50 years working out a middle ground on the issue where no one is completely satisfied, but everyone accepts the fact that they won't get everything they want. That's not what happened, because one side saw no reason to compromise. They won their victory with Roe, so it was just a matter of kicking the pro-life nuts in the teeth at every opportunity. That doesn't leave much room for compromise.; 5/8/22, 2:58 PM
Iman said...: “Do the 9 and then do teh Kid… Amirite?; 5/8/22, 3:43 PM
madAsHell said...: And what is “other coercion”?

No, I promise!! This time I'll pull out.; 5/8/22, 4:14 PM
Blair said...: The rape and incest exception is stupid. The fetus is either a human being that you're murdering, or it isn't. It either has rights, or it doesn't. If you make those exceptions, you're giving the game away - you're saying that the circumstance of the mother is the ultimate consideration, in which case, why are you banning abortion at all? Believe one thing, or believe the other, but there's no logically consistent way to straddle the fence on that.; 5/8/22, 4:44 PM
Wince said...: Men have to do the 252 (12mo x 21 years).; 5/8/22, 5:25 PM
Robert Cook said...: "There is rape and other coercion."

There is also birth control that fails.

Oh, of course. Women should never have sex if they absotively posilutely do not want a baby.; 5/8/22, 6:59 PM
Narayanan said...: Most of the people who will find it funny probably don't need convincing.
=========
Most of the people who will find it funny find giving birth to be funny [hence call for abortion]; 5/8/22, 11:03 PM
Bitter Clinger said...: Robert Cook said..."There is also birth control that fails.

Oh, of course. Women should never have sex if they absotively posilutely do not want a baby."

So I guess you're okay with men deciding that they don't feel like paying child support? Or is there one standard for men - don't have sex if you aren't ready for consequences - and a different one for women - abort the baby if you don't feel like dealing with the consequences of sex?

This seems like an incredibly sexist frame of mind. Men should be expected to think ahead and be held accountable for their actions, but we can't expect that of women. And if we can't expect women to think ahead and consider consequences, then how can we allow them the right to vote or the right to own property?; 5/9/22, 8:28 AM
Bitter Clinger said...: There will be exceptions for rape and incest in any of these laws. This presents a loophole through which a Mack truck could pass. How, exactly, does one prove that a woman was not raped when she claims she was? Expect the reported rape rates to increase to account for the fictitious rapes used to justify abortions.; 5/9/22, 8:31 AM
Brian said...: There is rape and other coercion.

Oh jeez. This is like arguments back in college with weed heads who would always talk about how hemp is such a great material for rope so smoking weed should be legalized.

I'm curious now though (and I notice you haven't answered other requests). What defines "other" coercion? Or it sounds like you were trying to pad the list with "other". Just another weed head that likes super-rope. At least be honest.

It means look, this is what "SNL" presented as funny and to make a political point.

It's insulting and we should think they are insulting a lot of mothers on Mother's day because they can't stand to lose their argument. It doesn't persuade anyone.

I would suggest talking about whether it's a problem that other people believed this was funny

Yes it's a problem that they think this is funny. It's a problem that you think this is funny. That's what I was talking about when you threw your "well what about hemp rope" argument at me.

SNL is trying to make "Do the 9" a catchphrase.

SNL should try writing jokes.; 5/9/22, 9:04 AM
GRW3 said...: SNL preaches to the choir. Their lack of comic diversity, despite the obvious low hanging fruit on the left, cuts off a significant amount of the potential audience. You can't influence people who never see your presentation.; 5/9/22, 9:32 AM
Robert Cook said...: "So I guess you're okay with men deciding that they don't feel like paying child support?"

Not at all. But, unfortunately, there are men who do decide they don't feel like paying child support. I almost added a remark about this, but I assumed it went without saying.; 5/9/22, 10:56 AM
gadfly said...: “You hit one, you hit nine. You hit nine, you hit them all.”

Whatever that one-liner is supposed to mean.; 5/9/22, 3:21 PM