Don Roy King | Expedition / 2016 [TV (SNL) episode]

comedy breaks into history

by Douglas Messerli

 

Colin Jost, Rob Kelin, and Brayn Tuckered (head writers), Don Roy King (director) Expedition / 2016 [TV (SNL) episode]

 

“OK class settle down,” insists the school teacher of the Saturday Night Live May 21st, 2016 broadcast. She has just witnessed a scenario from the Albany Education Theater Festival at a local Italian restaurant, a truly serendipitous meeting—given the fact that she has recently been attempting to teach her students about “the Western expansion”—which involves the exploits of the famous duo of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, led by the Indian female Shoshone Indian guide Sacagawea. What an opportunity, to watch performers recreate the historical events right before her student’s eyes!

 

   Over the years from its 1975 premiere with the utterly unforgettable skit of John Belushi’s attempt to teach his foreign language students to “feed their fingers to the wolverines,” Saturday Night has presented hundreds of some of the most notable comic sketches on television along with thousands of empty-minded, quite boring skits—the last, a word producer Lorne Michaels abhors.

     “Expedition,” the name of this sketch. is one of this endless TV-series’ bests, as the trio of comics Fred Armisen, Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney present their version of the never-before imagined travels of Lewis and Clark from the Missouri River into the wilds of Idaho, Washington, and directly to the Pacific Ocean, permitting Thomas Jefferson to justify his Louisiana Purchase.

     Both men are clearly attracted to the Indian “squaw” Sacagawea, but imagine their relationship to her through the lens of their own homoerotic desires, being both, and Lewis describes themselves, “athletic outdoorsmen,” Lewis obviously being more attracted to his partner “slave  owner” Clark, while he, somewhat more resistantly, is sexually drawn to him. Lewis imagines himself as top to Clark, with the Indian guide under, while Clark imagines a slightly different configuration.

     The students, all but one suddenly very interested high school boy, are confused; but as they enact their sudden Pacific Coast joys, Lewis topping Clark on a nearby desk with Sacagawea suggesting they both simply look into her eyes, the  school-bell rings for the close of the day.

     One might never have imagined that this comic trope might actually be an issue in historical studies, but, as Thomas A Foster notes, writing in 2017, “Their [Lewis and Clark’s] sexuality is recently fraught in our culture.”

 

“Last summer, We Proceed On, the scholarly journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation came under significant fire after historian and archivist William Benemann published two essays that speculated on the homoerotic nature of the bond between the two men.

     As Mr. Benemann explained in his introduction, ‘So intimately are the two men linked in the popular imagination that they have no independent identity. Clark lived on for thirty-two years after completion of the journey to the Pacific, serving as governor of the Missouri Territory and as Superintendent of Indian Affairs under every president from James Monroe to Martin Van Buren, and yet any mention of a post-expedition William Clark inevitably requires the designation ‘of Lewis and Clark fame’ or the average reader will not make the connection. These two men have been paired in a conjoining that is unique in American history. Certainly the nature of that coupling deserves careful analysis."

    These are strange times, when a comedic sketch can reflect actual gay cultural history, which almost any historian might describe as simple nonsense. But it’s a lovely imaginative coupling, isn’t it?, thought up evidently by the always ridiculous comic minds of the SNL cast, writers, and then director Don Roy King. As the actors recognize, they have at least finally reached out to one of the students to whom they have sought to explain their vision of history, along with the clearly confused lesbian teacher; I’d argue: “Go for it!” even if the other students run out of the room with the end-of-the class-bell with disgust.

     “I'm not invested in Benemann's interpretation of Lewis and Clark,” writes Foster, “but as I have done in past, I will similarly defend the intellectual and political legitimacy of posing questions about their relationship and even their personal desires.” Finally, I’d argue, Saturday Night Live has reached their true intellectual audience, or the audience has become truly attuned, I’d argue, to the hilariously absurd world of SNL. I can only wonder, accordingly, why I might be accused of reading into gay history!”

 

Los Angeles, February 4, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 4, 2025).