Saturday Night Live: 30 scandals and secrets you didn’t know

11. Saturday Night Live mocks a blind politician

For years and years, SNL has been known for putting politicians on blast. They are fairly easy targets, and nearly every well-known politician has been satirized somehow on the series. In the cases of people like Sarah Palin and George W. Bush, this has been enjoyed by many of the fans who watch the show. But mocking one particular politician might have gone too far.

Former New York governor David Paterson is legally blind. This didn’t stop Fred Armisen from poking fun at him in an SNL sketch. It would be one thing if he were made fun of for some of the mistakes he’s made as a governor. But the real point of this portrayal was merely to make fun of his blindness.

In the skit, Armisen’s Paterson walks around as if he has no idea where he is going. He holds a chart upside down when presenting it. Later on the show, he even wanders into another sketch. You know, because he’s blind and apparently can’t find the exit. Making fun of people is okay, but at this point it was becoming more cruel than funny. Paterson himself said the sketch was a “third-grade depiction of people and the way they look.”