In 1998, Robert Smigel created an animated video called “Conspiracy Theory Rock.” This skit was part of a March 1998 “TV Funhouse” parody segment for the NBC show Saturday Night Live.
This skit only aired once, it was removed from all subsequent airings of that particular SNL episode. In other words, they scrubbed it completely from syndication.
When asked why SNL decided to remove the skit, Lorne Michaels — the executive producer of SNL — claimed it was removed because it “wasn’t funny.”
Smigel’s film is a scathing critique of corporate media ownership, which included NBC’s ownership by General Electric/Westinghouse at the time.
It’s amazing how much a cute little animated video could reveal so much truth about corporate greed and control of the media. We need more videos like this in our classrooms and on prime time TV.
