Dakota Johnson’s ‘SNL’ ISIS spoof stirs outrage online
Ad depicts daughter who joins terror group after dad drops her off at airport
A “Saturday Night Live” commercial spoof is stirring outrage online over its depiction of a female high school graduate who leaves her family to join the Islamic State militant group also known as ISIS.
The ad, starring “SNL” host and “50 Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson is a spoof of the Toyota commercial that portrays an Army-bound daughter being dropped off at the airport by her father. In the “SNL” version, though, the daughter is being picked up by Islamic militants in a Toyota pickup truck.
“You be careful, OK?” says the father, played by Taran Killam.
“Dad, it’s just ISIS,” she replies.
When a teary-eyed Killam instructs one of the militants, played by Kyle Mooney, to “take care of her,” he replies, “Death to America.”
As the truck drives away, a voice-over assures Killam: “ISIS: We’ll take it from here, Dad.”
While the studio audience seemed to laugh, plenty of viewers at home didn’t find it so funny.
Absolutely floored that anyone would find the #SNL ISIS skit funny. Nothing funny about it, it was tasteless.Desensitized much? #OrangeRoom
— Rebecca Rhine (@becca76) March 1, 2015
Actually offended by the ISIS sketch... Is that seriously all you could come up with? @nbcsnl #SNL
— Liv Amato (@liv_amato) March 1, 2015
I say this as a life long #SNL fan. The ISIS commercial was in poor taste. Scratch that. Horrible taste.
— Martin Hendrickson (@MCHinBoise) March 1, 2015
Just saw maybe the most unfunny #SNL piece of all time. Is ISIS really a good subject for humor? #nbc And I've loved SNL for decades.
— Ed Tate (@edwardtate) March 1, 2015
Very distasteful of #SNL making fun of the Isis crisis on tonight's episode
— Morgan Uber (@Morgan_Uber) March 1, 2015
Horrible, Inappropriate......... #SNL joke about #ISIS with #DakotaJohnson #notEvenFunny
— Maxine (@Maxinerunner) March 1, 2015
Wonder how many peple turned off #SNL after the first skit? We did. #ISIS is not funny.#NBC#Tasteless #Writers #Suck
— Chrissy Hartmann (@crhb4) March 1, 2015
SNL ISIS skit also draws a moral equivalence between ISIS murderers and the U.S. Military (based on the spoofed commercial), that is wrong.
— Steven Bucci (@SBucci) March 1, 2015
Can't be serious. Isis skit? Like going to college? When so many people are being kidnapped and killed? Depraved. #SNL
— Raine LaChance (@rainelachance) March 1, 2015
Depraved? Perhaps, but the premise isn’t entirely inconceivable.
Last month, a 19-year-old Colorado woman was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiracy to support the terror group after admitting she wanted “to become an ISIS bride.”
The woman, Shannon Maureen Conley, was arrested at Denver International Airport, where she was attempting to board a one-way flight to Turkey. Conley’s parents tipped off FBI investigators after her father reportedly caught his daughter communicating with her terrorist “suitor” on Skype.
