SNL's "Weekend Update" and Bumble: “Gen-Blend”/Age-Gap Relationships Are Rising

On Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" (s49e05), Michael Che reported, "The dating app Bumble says that next year, they expect to see a surge in relationships where one person dates someone considerably older." Then Che joked, "Because those student loans ain't gonna to pay for themselves."

Alexandra Klausner and Tracy Swartz elaborated on Che's reporting in their New York Post piece "Leo was right all along? Age-gap relationships to surge in 2024, Bumble says" (Nov. 16, 2023). Klausner and Swartz wrote that 63% of Bumble's 26,800 users shared that "age isn’t a defining factor in dating", and 35% confessed that they don't look down upon age-gap relationships. 

Cross-generational relationships — also known as “gen-blend” relationships — are expected to surge next year, Bumble reports as part of its annual dating trends forecast.

63% say age isn’t a defining factor in dating [...] according to a global survey of over 26,800 Bumble app members conducted in September.

35% of women confess they are less judgmental about age-gap relationships. 

Source: New York Post

The Mirror's Gemma Strong reported in the piece "Age-gap relationships are set to boom in 2024 - dating expert explains" (16 NOV 2023) that Toby Ingham, the psychotherapist and author, posited to there is no perfect relationship age-gap range.

"There used to be an idea that, as a rule of thumb, half your age plus seven was the guide to the younger age a partner should be," he said. "That may now be outdated [...] Now, the [societal] accent being on inclusivity and normalising difference might eradicate such ideas."

Lastly, Klausner and Swartz went on to write that "[a]ge-gap relationships aren’t new, of course." And they referenced "Leonardo DiCaprio, 49, and Vittoria Ceretti, 25"; thus, providing more evidence that it appears that DiCaprio does have an ideal age-gap range, which, is his case, is 25-years-old or less. 

SNL | THE SOUND OF MUSIC''s "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"

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John Mulaney hosted episode 14 of season 5 of Saturday Night Live. And in the first skit, Mulaney played Rolfe in a parody of The Sound of Music's "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" that was referred to as a Turner Movie Classic "Fiddler on the Roof for WASPs".

The skit opened with 16-year-old Liesl (Cecily Strong) informing Rolfe that her father, the captain, made her, "[...] sing in a night gown in front of all his friends."

However, Liesl confessed, "[....] papa says I'm too young to be in love. But I think I love you [Rolfe].

In line with the original lyrics, Liesl shared that she's "16 going on 17", and she assumed that Rolfe was "17 going on 18", but Rolfe informed Liesl, "Actually, I'm 33."

Subsequently, Rolfe asked, "Do you know what statutory means?

Liesl replied, "No."

"It means, I looked it up, and we're on the right side the cusp."

"Aww, I don't know Rolf. It's a pretty big age difference."

Then Rolfe informed Liesl, "[...] I am 38. I've had some birthdays since we started talking."

"38? I thought you said you were 33."

"Oh let me explain. I am 33. Next month I'll be 39. Baby I'm 41."

Later, Rolfe asked Liesl, "Can I help it that I'm attracted to you? You're so mature and sophisticated."
"But I still don't know how I feel about dating an older guy."
"Oh Liesl, age is just a number that the government keeps track of. For example, I am 46."

"That's older than my father."

"Damn, how sexy is that?"

"I do like attention."

Eventually, Maria commanded the police, "Oh, just arrest the perv!"

To which the captain asked his wife, "Hey, how old are you - by the way?"

To which Maria slyly replied, "I'm old enough, but it's still kind of dicey."

Rolling Stone's Ryan McGee summed up the skit well when he wrote:

Rolf’s catfishing of Liesl is played for laughs, but like much of Mulaney’s stand-up, there’s a darker undercurrent running throughout. He changes information about his age and background so quickly that Cecily Strong’s teenager essentially just surrenders by the end. Even when Maria shows up with the Captain to rescue Leisl, she admits that their own respective courtship is “still kinda dicey.”

SNL & Pocahontas: A (Pre)Teen and Two Johns

John Rolfe and Pocahontas

Here's Pop Culture's plot summary of SNL's "First Thanksgiving": 

A controversial Saturday Night Live skit on this weekend's show [11-23-19] ended with a kind of apology from host Will Ferrell, but fans were still upset by it. The sketch in question showed Ferrell, Melissa Villaseñor, Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen playing Native Americans. If that were not enough, the skit was about politics at Thanksgiving.

The skit was called "First Thanksgiving," and it was set in the 1600s. Villaseñor played Pocahontas, while Beck Bennett played John Smith — with a subtle nod to the fact that these real historical figures were about 12 and 30 years old respectively.

Here's the relevant dialogue from the skit:

(Fred Armisen): "So, John. Pocahontas tells us you're turning 30 soon."

John Smith: "Yup. Yeah. [In a] couple weeks."

(Maya Rudolp): "And you do know she's 12 - right?"

John Smith: "Yeah. I do. I do."

In a letter to Queen Anne of Great Britain, John Smith described Pocahontas as "a child of twelve or thirteen years of age". The skit gives one the impression that John Smith is attempting to marry Pocahontas, but the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas was platonic.  

However, in 1614, (approximately) 17-year-old Pocahontas married John Rolfe - an approximately 30-year-old tobacco exporter.

Surprisingly, no one seemed to have a problem with John Smith courting a 12-year-old, but unsurprisingly, a lot of people seemed to have a problem with whites playing native Americans. 

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: "Meaningful" PreTeen Sex

On the 2011 Saturday Night Live season premier,  Alec Baldwin played Texas Governor Rick Perry in a skit titled "The 7th or 8th GOP Debate". 

When asked if he could speak for ten seconds without alienating his base. Rick Perry (Alec Baldwin) replied:

“Now the conservative vice needs to know that Rick Perry stands with them 110%. I believe we need to lower the corporate tax rate. I believe we need fewer regulations. I believe all ten-year-old girls should be vaccinated for HPV, so they can enter into meaningful sexual relationships. 

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: "Uncle Roy" Candid Polaroids of [Pre] Teen Nieces

Saturday Night Live: Uncle Roy Sketch

I learned about Buck Henry's Saturday Night Live (SNL) Uncle Roy sketch from a footnote in Rosen's Beaver Street: A Modern History of Pornography. On season 4 episodes 5 (November 11, 1978) and 20 (May 26, 1979) of SNL, Uncle Roy bamboozles his nymphet nieces, Tracy (Gilda Radner) and Terry (Laraine Newman), into searching his pockets for "candy", exposing their panties for candid Polaroids, and participating in a bit of BDSM e.g., spanking and bondage.

In a 2009 episode of Archive of American Television, Henry reflected on the sketches by saying that Tracy and Terry were between the ages of 8 and 11 and that:

"The great thing about the sketch [...] the best thing about the sketch [...] they really liked, they really loved each other [...] So, when I asked them to throw down their little panties and let me take pictures of them standing on top of the coffee table [...] the giggling and the show of affection would just increase."

Henry further rationalized the sketches by sharing that they were written by not one but two women - Rosie Shuster and Anne Beatts. 

And he hoped that the sketches would start "interesting conversations in families across America about who was the Uncle Roy in their family."

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Chucky Lee Byrd | The Poet of Old\Young Teen Love

The subtitle on Saturday Night Live’s YouTube channel from last night’s (S43E12) "Chucky Lee Byrd" skit reads: “The songs of Chucky Lee Byrd (Will Ferrell) have a disturbing theme.”

In the skit, the “incomparable” Chucky Lee Byrd, The Poet of Teen Love, sings “gems” and “hits” from his five-disc boxset that “[…] will bring you back to a simpler time in music. A time of innocence [and] purity."

Here’s a list of songs with some lyrics from the A-side:

“Beauty Queen”: “She’s my little beauty queen. And she’s only seventeen. But she’s my beautiful – beautiful beauty queen.”

Candy Baby”: “And she’s sugar, sweet and clean. What should I get her for her sweet sixteen?”

“Farmer Girl”: “She grows corn. She grows beans. Her daddy hates me, ‘cause she’s only fourteen. Fourteen. Fourteen. That’s her age. She’s fourteen”

“My New T-Bird”: “She purrs so fine. She’s fresh off the line. I wanna make her mine. And this song is about a girl who’s thirteen. A thirteen. OK, she’s twelve.”

Here’s a list of songs on the B-side:

1. “Cruising in My Windowless Van”
2. “Girl Scout Cookie”
3. “I Left My Heart Across State Lines”
4. “Simple Girl from Across the Street”
5. “Our Love Is a Crime”
6. “First Day of School … Ever!”
7. “Baby You Can Drive My Car If I’m In the Passenger Seat Because You Only Have a Permit”
8. One and One Equals Eleven”

A number of people wrote in the comments that Chucky Lee Bird is an allusion to Jerry Lee Lewis whom married Myra, his 13-year-old cousin.