This one’s been circulating under the radar for a little bit now, but it wasn’t brought to my attention until WTF podcast host Marc Maron tweeted about it, writing, “Whoa, sh*t! The path of truth right out of circulation.” He’s referring to an “SNL” sketch that aired on March 14, 1998, and never again: “Conspiracy Theory Rock.”
The “Schoolhouse Rock”-spoofing clip, written by Robert Smigel, is about media deregulation; it shows a Mickey Mouse-headed octopus eating the ABC logo, with lyrics about how PCBs from GE are killing us but you never hear about it because the electric giant owns NBC. The most unsettling line: “Let them dump toxic waste where the young ones play/GE made the bullets that shot JFK.” What would Jack Donaghy think about that?
Lorne Michaels cut the clip out of syndication because he claimed “it wasn’t funny.” That’s only a half-truth, of course, considering “SNL” airs on NBC. Check out the clip below and decide whether it’s amusingly satirical or whether you’d just rather see something, or someone, get pooped on.
