Saturday Night Live and the Old Testament

It’s just a funny little thought.

When I was a little kid, my dad would love to joke around and say and do silly things to make us laugh. When I became an adult, I started watching some reruns of old Saturday Night Live episodes. Much to my surprise, I discovered that many of the funny things that my dad said or did, like calling himself “just a wild and crazy guy” while doing a silly version of the twist, came from this comedy series, that bit in particular performed by Steve Martin. I was actually a bit shocked. I thought my dad was an original, that every kooky thing he said and did came spontaneously from his own mind. But some of them came from somewhere else. I told him about it and he said, “You found me out” like he had just been busted. Then this itself became a funny joke in our family.

You may be wondering about the title of this post. Bear with me. I’m making the effort of reading the entire Bible from cover to cover. (When I say reading, I mean that I am listening to an audio edition of the Bible, read by David Suchet. It’s the NIV, so missing a few books, but still the Bible.) I knew that there would be sections of the Torah that would sound familiar, wisdom that Jesus would repeat in His earthly ministry, like “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Even “Do onto others as you would have them do unto you.” But I didn’t realize how much of the Old Testament Jesus took from.

And yes, that reminded me of my father and Saturday Night Live. Of course, there is a big difference. Jesus wasn’t borrowing another person’s material. If my dad had been the writer for Saturday Night Live then it would not be shocking to discover that the lines I heard as a small child were from that show. He would be the author of those jokes, after all, using them as his own because they would be his own. Jesus — being God — is the true author of the Bible, inspiring those who wrote the Bible to write what they wrote. So when Jesus told His disciples something that came from Hebrew Scripture, God in the flesh was simply telling them something that God had already inspired to be written there.

Jesus is the Word of God Incarnate, God-made-Man, so all wisdom comes from Him and belongs to Him. He can quote and use as much of the Old Testament as He wants because it’s His Testament. There is no borrowing.

My dad, on the other hand, did and does indeed borrow from Saturday Night Live as well as other skits and comedic bits. Don’t we all in one way or another? Some famous author, I forget who, once said that there is nothing original in literature. We all borrow, knowingly or unknowingly, from other works, and every good story is a reflection of real life anyway. Writers like me simply try to bring some personal perspective or understanding through individual works. My dad does the same thing with comedy. He makes good use of other people’s jokes. And no matter what, he will always be a wild and crazy guy.

© 2023 Christina Chase

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Feature Photo by Asit Khanda on Unsplash