Saturday Night Live Sketch 'The Dudleys' Shows How Social Media Ruins Sitcoms

We live in an age where anyone can weigh in with their thoughts about a certain show or sitcom thanks to social media. Yet the real tragedy for new shows isn't that people can shout into the void with their precious, precious opinions, but the fact that TV executives actually listen to them.

Because it means a constant, and impossible, juggling act of trying to get it right so that everyone is satisfied—and it just never works. Which is why this Saturday Night Live sketch starring Woody Harrelson which spoofs the whole affair is so welcome.

In it a fictitious sitcom, The Dudleys, gets called out for not being diverse enough, so they introduce gay characters. But then the characters are too camp, so they get toned down. But then they're toned down too much, so they get toned up again.

And blah-blah-blah, yadda-yadda-yadda the yo-yoing goes on until the show's eventually back where it began. Ergo futility.

It just goes to show something that we'll all very well aware of—no one should ever listen to what anyone has to say on Twitter.