Page 24 - MidWeek - July 21, 2021

24 MIDWEEK JULY 21, 2021
ASaturday Night Live segment that aired in 2017 fea- tured a faux commercial for a fictional virtual assistant called the Amazon Echo Silver — created specifi- cally for the greatest gen- eration, because “the latest technology isn’t always easy to use for people of a certain age.”
PATERNITY WARD D. L. Stewart
Asking Age-old Questions Of Alexa. Or Is It Odessa?
grumbles. He tries again. “Amanda.”
Still no response.
“These kids bought me a
But as a member of a generation that freely laughs
at its own inability to cope with the latest technology, I think one of the few benefits of aging is learning not to take ourselves too seriously.
To illustrate, actor Kenan Thompson, costumed as a person of a certain age, tries to use it.
non’s turn. Gray-wigged and huddled under a blan- ket, she asks, “Allegra, what is the weather outside?”
busted machine again,” he mutters.
“Odessa!”
He gives up.
Then it’s Kate McKin-
“Alexa,” he asks the gad- get, “what time is it?”
“Huh?”
“It’s 74 degrees.” “Where?”
“Outside.”
“What about it?”
Three more scenes de-
pict people of a certain age struggling with technology and, as a registered person of a certain age, I thought it was one of the funniest SNL bits of this century when I reviewed it on YouTube last week. Maybe the only funny
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There’s no response.
While virtual assistants Echo and Echo Plus are real products of Amazon, the Echo Silver — the subject of a 2017 Saturday Night Live skit — is not. Still, the faux product and skit left the author in stitches. AP PHOTO/ELAINE THOMPSON
of ageism.
“Ageism, it turns out, is
“What the hell is wrong with this blasted thing?” he
one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination,”
“It is 74 degrees and sun- ny,” a voice answers.
SNL bit of this century.
But in a recent column in USA Today, it was cited as one more appalling example
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