Gov. Paterson didn’t see the humor in a “Saturday Night Live” bit that mocked his blindness.
During the “Weekend Update” segment of NBC’s irreverent comedy show, actor Fred Armisen played Paterson, imitating his wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, self-effacing demeanor.
But Paterson and advocates for the visually impaired didn’t appreciate stock blind jokes that had Armisen pretending to be disoriented and wandering aimlessly.
“The governor engages in humor all the time, and he can certainly take a joke,” Paterson’s spokesman, Errol Cockfield, said today.
“However, this particular ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities.”
Although Paterson is legally blind and has aides help him with some tasks, the governor is rarely out of step with his surroundings and seems comfortable in virtually every setting.
After Armisen’s sketch with “Weekend Update” co-anchor Seth Meyers, the “joke” continued.
As longtime “SNL” player Amy Poehler was announcing her departure from the show to the audience, Armisen’s Paterson started wandering, as if lost, in front of the camera.
“Gov. Paterson . . . you’re in the shot!” a chuckling Poehler said.
The skit could leave viewers with the impression that blind Americans cannot be competent employees, advocates for the disabled said.
“When you have a perception problem like we have, you take these things a little more seriously,” said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind.
“We have 70 percent unemployment – and it’s not because we can’t work. Obviously, the governor of New York is blind, and he’s doing the job. Whenever you have a portrayal that calls the basic capacity of [blind people] into question, that’s a potential problem.”
Danielsen claims “SNL” has a long history of mocking the blind – going back to Eddie Murphy’s Stevie Wonder impression and, more recently, a “Weekend Update” one-liner that hybrid cars are dangerous to blind people because they can’t hear the engine.
Paterson said through his spokesman that “SNL” writers can do better than taking pot shots at the blind.
“The governor is sure that ‘Saturday Night Live,’ with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive,” Cockfield said.
“Knowing the governor, he might even have some suggestions himself.”
An NBC spokesman could not be reached for comment today.