Hey Saturday Night Live, Is Selling Women Really That Funny?

I haven't watched Saturday Night Live on a regular basis since Dana Carvey stopped doing Church Lady, and once the Spartan cheerleaders and Mary Katherine Gallagher were gone, I just about tuned out altogether. So I missed a Saturday Night Live skit centered around the sale of Russian mail order brides from earlier this year. The skit is old, but still so popular that it's starting to slip into Internet meme land. While SNL has certainly had its highs and lows, it's not known for being especially comedically edgy (enter Toonces, the cat who can drive a car). So does their making light of the sale of women into marriage mean that the issue has come so far into the mainstream, it's fair game for even the white bread comedy on SNL? And on a completely separate note, is it even funny?

Here's the skit, so you can draw your own conclusions. The basic premise is a man trying to choose between two mail order brides played by Megan Fox and Fred Armisen in a wig. The trick is, Fred Armisen is a little bit cheaper, and the man can't decide. My thoughts after the jump.

I'd be lying if I said this elicited absolutely no chuckles in my first watch. When Fred Armisen stands next to Megan Fox in that dress and wig, it's an amusing picture. And I laughed out loud when he sings "Get Into the Groove." But the central joke of the skit is not a comedian singing in a dress, it's the difference in price between two women and the fact that the less attractive, less sexually skilled woman is cheaper. For this skit to be considered funny (which it has been overall), the audience can't be too appalled or offended by the idea of two men discussing the purchase of a woman. That's Cause for Concern #1. Is the idea of men buying women so commonplace that it's the stuff of casual comedy now?

Cause for Concern #2 is the underlying statement that the more attractive woman is worth more money. As it turns out, the less attractive woman also has no interests and a heroin habit, but the primary joke comes from the physical difference between Megan Fox and a man in drag.

The third Cause for Concern here is that, throughout the skit, the man shopping for a wife reiterates that the cost of the woman he's buying is just as important, if not more important, than any qualities she possesses. It is the objectification of women to the umpteenth degree.

So what do you think? Is it funny? Does any part of this rub you the wrong way? Do you think that having a skit like this from Saturday Night Live spread across the Internet means the behavior in it is commonplace? Or is the idea of selling women a little bit funny?