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How Satire's Relationship With The War In Afghanistan Has Changed — And How It Hasn't

The SNL stage on  display during a media preview on May 29, 2015, at the Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition, celebrating the NBC program's 40-year history. (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
The SNL stage on display during a media preview on May 29, 2015, at the Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition, celebrating the NBC program's 40-year history. (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

The war in Afghanistan inspired countless cultural artifacts, from movies to television to music. One in particular — a sketch from Saturday Night Live shortly after Sept. 11 that skewered pro-war elites — was recently portrayed on social media as actually being pro-war itself.

NPR’s Arts Desk reporter Andrew Limbong looks at how satire’s relationship with the war in Afghanistan has changed, and how it hasn’t, through the lens of one sketch.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.