WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.660 Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:08.460 Yes. It is. Well, it's a sentence that on the 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:11.179 surface seems completely redundant. I mean, of 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:13.259 course he is. Exactly. It's one of those phrases 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:15.859 that if you just heard it without any context, 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:18.219 you think, well, thanks for the update, Captain 00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:20.699 Obvious. Right. But we are diving into this today 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:24.019 because, as our sources show, those six words 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:26.379 are so much more than just a statement of biological 00:00:26.379 --> 00:00:30.010 fact. They really are. It is arguably one of 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.670 the most enduring catchphrases to ever come out 00:00:32.670 --> 00:00:35.200 of Eric in television. But beyond that, it's 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:37.420 a really fascinating piece of meta commentary 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:39.939 on the news business itself. I love that we're 00:00:39.939 --> 00:00:41.899 doing this. We're doing a deep dive into a joke. 00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:44.380 A very successful joke. Right. But not just a 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:46.799 joke. A joke that ended up in the Oxford Dictionary 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:49.039 of catchphrases. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.299 for a late night sketch. So for you listening, 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:53.799 we're looking at the origins, the mechanics of 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:56.299 why this worked and how it managed to survive 00:00:56.299 --> 00:00:59.539 for decades. It pops up in everything from serious 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:02.320 financial journalism to social media Twitter 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:05.000 storms. And I think the mission here is really 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.200 to understand the why. You know, why did a dark 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:11.060 gag about a Spanish dictator's illness in 1975 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:15.939 evolve into this shorthand for media obsession? 00:01:16.299 --> 00:01:18.159 Because it tells us a lot about how we consume 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:22.079 information, even today. Absolutely. So let's 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.280 set the scene. We have to go back to 1975. Late 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:27.980 1975, to be precise. Right. The setting is the 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:30.219 media landscape of the United States. But the 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:33.489 subject is in Spain. General Francisco Franco, 00:01:33.730 --> 00:01:35.849 the fascist dictator who had ruled Spain for 00:01:35.849 --> 00:01:38.730 decades, was in failing health. And when you 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:40.510 say failing health, this wasn't just, you know, 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:43.250 he's got a bad cold kind of situation. No, no. 00:01:43.329 --> 00:01:45.950 It was a prolonged, drawn -out decline. He was 00:01:45.950 --> 00:01:48.829 in his 80s battling Parkinson's, heart failure. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.739 Pretty much total system collapse. Wow. But because 00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:53.659 he was a dictator, the regime was completely 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:55.560 terrified of the power vacuum his death would 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.040 create. So doctors were keeping him alive by 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:00.439 any means necessary. And meanwhile, the American 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:02.819 media, specifically NBC News and the other big 00:02:02.819 --> 00:02:05.000 organizations, had essentially set up a death 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:06.879 watch. Exactly. You have to imagine the energy 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:08.819 in these newsrooms back then. Just waiting. Right. 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:10.539 They have correspondents camped out in Madrid. 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.939 They have the obituaries written. The archival 00:02:12.939 --> 00:02:15.520 footage is totally prepped. Everyone's just waiting 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.400 for the headline. Four weeks. The sources note 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.680 that the presumed imminent death of Franco was 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:24.759 a top headline story for weeks on end. But the 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.539 problem was he kept not dying. He kept not dying. 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:30.360 The waiting game. And you have to remember, news 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.159 anchors have time to fill. This is the era of 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:36.259 the nightly news broadcast. You can't just have 00:02:36.259 --> 00:02:39.479 dead air. You really can't. So on slow news days, 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:42.780 you have these incredibly awkward updates where 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:44.460 newscasters would essentially have to report 00:02:44.460 --> 00:02:47.939 update. Franco was still alive. Which is painfully 00:02:47.939 --> 00:02:50.479 boring television. Oh, completely. Breaking news, 00:02:50.699 --> 00:02:53.099 nothing happened. It's the definition of a non 00:02:53.099 --> 00:02:56.080 -story. And that boredom, that endless repetition, 00:02:56.439 --> 00:02:59.939 created the perfect environment for satire. Enter 00:02:59.939 --> 00:03:02.520 NBC's Saturday Night. Which we all know today 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:04.840 is Saturday Night Live or SNL. Right. But back 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.039 then, it was brand new. This was season one. 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:09.080 And they had a segment called Weekend Update, 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.520 hosted by Chevy Chase. And we have to give Chase 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.340 credit here. He wasn't playing a clown. Right, 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:15.240 he played it straight. He was playing the role 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.699 with the suit, the tie, the serious cadence of 00:03:18.699 --> 00:03:21.159 a real anchorman. Which makes the satire hit 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:24.580 so much harder. So eventually, the inevitable 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:28.419 happened. November 20, 1975. Franco actually 00:03:28.419 --> 00:03:31.439 dies. So Chevy Chase finally gets to make the 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.819 real announcement on Weekend Update. And the 00:03:33.819 --> 00:03:36.539 way he handled it wasn't exactly solemn. Not 00:03:36.539 --> 00:03:39.000 at all. He read a statement from former President 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.500 Richard Nixon. Okay, just as a quick aside for 00:03:41.500 --> 00:03:44.080 you listening. Whenever we get into the political 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.199 content from our sources, whether it's Nixon 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:48.460 or left wing and right wing Spanish politics 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:51.340 later on, we are remaining totally impartial. 00:03:51.419 --> 00:03:53.280 We're not taking any sides here. Exactly. We 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.020 are strictly reporting what the source material 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:56.919 highlights. Just laying out the facts of the 00:03:56.919 --> 00:03:59.680 joke. Right. So the setup is crucial here. Chase 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.120 reads the Nixon statement, which says, General 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.300 Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:07.120 States. He earned worldwide respect for Spain 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:10.500 through firmness and fairness. Firmness and fairness. 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:14.280 A glowing eulogy. And then came the visual punchline. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:17.399 As Chase is reading this incredibly respectful 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:20.800 statement about a loyal friend, the graphic displayed 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:24.019 behind him isn't a dignified portrait. It's a 00:04:24.019 --> 00:04:27.279 photograph of Franco standing alongside Adolf 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:31.660 Hitler giving the Nazi salute. Talk about an 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:33.360 ironic counterpoint. You're hearing fairness 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:37.160 and seeing, whoa, Hitler. Exactly. It completely 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.120 undercut the diplomatic politeness of the statement. 00:04:40.259 --> 00:04:42.779 It really did. But here's the thing. If the joke 00:04:42.779 --> 00:04:45.180 had ended there, just on the night of his death, 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:47.199 we probably wouldn't be talking about it today. 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:49.800 Right, because usually when the new subject dies, 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:52.620 the story is over. You bury the lead, literally. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:55.620 But Chevy Chase and the SNL writers decided to 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.240 do something different. They realized that the 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.259 media's obsession with the death was actually 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:02.740 funnier than the death itself. Yeah. So they 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:04.800 decided to keep reporting the story. The twist. 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:07.740 In the weeks following the funeral, Chase treated 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:10.439 the fact that Franco was dead as if it were still 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:12.920 a breaking top of the hour story. And this is 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:14.560 where the catchphrase comes in. He'd start the 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:17.120 segment with that breaking news urgency. This 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.839 breaking news just in. Generalissimo Francisco 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:23.500 Franco is still dead. It's so simple, but it's 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:26.180 so funny because it mimics the cadence of actual 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:29.399 news perfectly. It really does. It's that breathless, 00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:32.399 we have to tell you this right now tone applied 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:35.040 to something that literally hasn't changed at 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.519 all. And he kept it fresh, too. He didn't just 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:40.160 say the same phrase every single time. He would 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:42.300 vary the wording to make it sound like there 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:44.259 was some sort of new development in the state 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:46.500 of his death. I found one of the variations in 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:48.060 the source materials that just cracked me up. 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:51.750 He said, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still 00:05:51.750 --> 00:05:54.470 valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead. 00:05:54.709 --> 00:05:57.829 Valiantly holding on. It frames death as this 00:05:57.829 --> 00:06:00.810 active struggle he's somehow winning. It's completely 00:06:00.810 --> 00:06:03.250 absurd. And we can't talk about this without 00:06:03.250 --> 00:06:05.490 mentioning the other layer of the gag, the hard 00:06:05.490 --> 00:06:08.290 of hearing bit. Oh, absolutely. This was a recurring 00:06:08.290 --> 00:06:10.769 segment involving Garrett Morris. Garrett Morris, 00:06:11.050 --> 00:06:13.709 legendary cast member. He played the head of 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:15.250 the New York School for the Hard of Hearing. 00:06:15.769 --> 00:06:18.930 And the joke was pure physical comedy mixed with 00:06:18.930 --> 00:06:21.290 this repetitive headline. Paint the picture for 00:06:21.290 --> 00:06:24.509 us. How did it work? So Chevy Chase would read 00:06:24.509 --> 00:06:27.910 the news item. General Bellissimo Francisco Franco 00:06:27.910 --> 00:06:30.449 is still dead. And then Garrett Morris would 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:32.550 appear on screen, usually in a smaller circle 00:06:32.550 --> 00:06:34.810 or next to him. He would cup his hands around 00:06:34.810 --> 00:06:37.410 his mouth and just scream the exact same sentence 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:39.430 at the top of his lungs. Just shouting, our top 00:06:39.430 --> 00:06:42.990 story tonight. Exactly. And this gag. combining 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:45.329 Chase's deadpan delivery with Morse's shouting, 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:50.189 ran until early 1977. 1977. That's nearly two 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:52.569 years after the man died. Which is an eternity 00:06:52.569 --> 00:06:56.149 in TV time. But it cemented the phrase in the 00:06:56.149 --> 00:06:58.430 audience's mind. It wasn't just a one -off sketch 00:06:58.430 --> 00:07:00.949 anymore. It was a ritual. It's interesting because 00:07:00.949 --> 00:07:03.790 while SNL made it famous, the sources mentioned 00:07:03.790 --> 00:07:06.889 that this phenomenon, the media refusing to let 00:07:06.889 --> 00:07:10.899 a death story go, wasn't entirely new. No, and 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:12.800 this is where we get into the John Garfield still 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.980 -dead syndrome. The John Garfield still -dead 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:16.660 syndrome? That sounds like a medical condition. 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:19.220 It's a media condition. John Garfield was a famous 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.500 actor who died of a heart attack in 1952. Okay, 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:24.879 1952, so well before SNL. Right, and apparently 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.420 the newspaper coverage following his death and 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.899 funeral was so extensive, so relentless, that 00:07:30.899 --> 00:07:33.079 people started noticing it. Just churning out 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:36.139 stories. Exactly. The papers were churning out 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:39.100 stories long after there was absolutely anything 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:42.079 new to say. Just milking the funeral for content. 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:45.279 Yes. Selling papers. And this was defined as 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.600 the practice of just generating stories about 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.319 a deceased celebrity for as long as possible. 00:07:50.810 --> 00:07:53.610 So in the 50s, it was newspapers trying to sell 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:56.649 the morning edition. In the 70s, it was TV news 00:07:56.649 --> 00:07:58.930 trying to keep viewers hooked before the commercial 00:07:58.930 --> 00:08:02.069 break. It's the exact same impulse, just a different 00:08:02.069 --> 00:08:04.810 medium. SNL just gave us the perfect vocabulary 00:08:04.810 --> 00:08:06.810 to make fun of it. So let's fast forward a bit. 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:09.889 The 70s end, Chevy Chase leaves the show, but 00:08:09.889 --> 00:08:11.790 the phrase, generally, Simo Francisco Franco 00:08:11.790 --> 00:08:15.149 is still dead, doesn't die. It enters the lexicon. 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:17.879 It stops being just a quote from a comedy show 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:20.699 and starts becoming a tool for journalists. Which 00:08:20.699 --> 00:08:22.980 is highly ironic, considering it was designed 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:25.480 to mock them. Well, the best satire usually gets 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.199 adopted by the people it's satirizing. Serious 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:30.819 journalists started using the phrase as shorthand. 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:32.899 Give us an example. How does a serious writer 00:08:32.899 --> 00:08:35.940 use this? Well, take James Toronto. He wrote 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.840 the Best of the Web Today column. He would use... 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:41.860 Generalissimo, Francisco Franco is still dead, 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.840 as a tag for headlines that were stating the 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:48.200 obvious. Like, sun expected to rise in east tomorrow. 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:51.259 Exactly. Or headlines that imply something is 00:08:51.259 --> 00:08:54.419 ongoing when it's actually just settled. It's 00:08:54.419 --> 00:08:56.620 a way of flagging redundancy in the news cycle. 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:58.659 I see. It's a way of rolling your eyes at a headline 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:01.259 without actually rolling your eyes. Precisely. 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:03.299 And you saw it pop up on television news, too. 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:05.919 NBC News overnight used it occasionally in the 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:08.360 early 80s. Keith Olbermann used it on Countdown. 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:11.679 But there is one specific moment in 2007 that 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:13.860 I think perfectly captures how this phrase evolved. 00:09:14.220 --> 00:09:16.679 2007. Who are we talking about? Anna Nicole Smith. 00:09:16.940 --> 00:09:19.600 Oh, right. Talk about a media frenzy. February 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.730 8, 2007. The day she died. The coverage was wall 00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:27.529 to wall. CNN, specifically the Situation Room 00:09:27.529 --> 00:09:30.009 with Wolf Blitzer, was covering it nonstop. I 00:09:30.009 --> 00:09:31.649 remember that. You couldn't turn on a TV without 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:34.049 seeing it. It was helicopter shots of ambulances 00:09:34.049 --> 00:09:37.090 and panel discussions about, well, nothing really. 00:09:37.409 --> 00:09:39.970 And in the middle of this, Jack Cafferty, who 00:09:39.970 --> 00:09:42.309 is a commentator known for being a bit curmudgeonly, 00:09:42.309 --> 00:09:45.870 a bit old school, turned to Wolf Blitzer and 00:09:45.870 --> 00:09:48.070 asked a question that cut right through all the 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:51.039 noise. What did he ask? He asked, Is Anna Nicole 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:54.620 Smith still dead, Wolf? Wow. Direct hit. It was 00:09:54.620 --> 00:09:57.740 biting. He was using the old Chevy Chase joke 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:00.100 to criticize his own network saturation coverage 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:03.059 in real time. Right to his face. Yeah. He was 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:04.860 pointing out that there was no new news, just 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:07.240 the same tragic fact being repeated over and 00:10:07.240 --> 00:10:10.250 over to fill airtime. That really shows the power 00:10:10.250 --> 00:10:12.669 of the phrase. It acts as a reality check. It 00:10:12.669 --> 00:10:15.009 does. It's a way to snap the audience and the 00:10:15.009 --> 00:10:17.769 producers out of the trance. It's asking, why 00:10:17.769 --> 00:10:19.549 are we still talking about this if nothing has 00:10:19.549 --> 00:10:21.909 changed? But it's not just used for celebrity 00:10:21.909 --> 00:10:25.009 deaths and media criticism, right? I saw in the 00:10:25.009 --> 00:10:26.909 notes that the Wall Street Journal, arguably 00:10:26.909 --> 00:10:29.110 one of the most serious papers in the country, 00:10:29.309 --> 00:10:32.009 has used it for political headlines. Yes, and 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:34.330 fairly recently, too. They used it on the front 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:38.019 page in 2009 and again in 2015. The Wall Street 00:10:38.019 --> 00:10:40.419 Journal using an SNL catchphrase on the front 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:43.080 page. That feels like a crossover episode. It 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:45.759 fits their style, actually. Yeah. In March 2009, 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.620 the headline was Generalissimo Francisco Franco 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:52.519 is still dead and his statues are next. Ah, so 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:54.860 using the literal death to talk about the legacy. 00:10:55.179 --> 00:10:57.399 Right. But the really clever one was in August 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:00.100 2015. They ran a headline that said Generalissimo 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:02.879 Francisco Franco is still dead, but for some 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.659 not dead enough. Not dead enough. That sounds 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:08.139 ominous. What was the context there? And again, 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:09.879 just reminding you listening, we're just analyzing 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.500 the source text here, not taking political sides. 00:11:12.759 --> 00:11:15.759 Of course. The context was a massive shift in 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.279 Madrid's city council. The conservatives had 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:21.179 lost power after 24 years, and the new left -wing 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:24.179 critics were calling to enforce a 2007 anti -Franco 00:11:24.179 --> 00:11:26.600 law. This is about the historical memory, right? 00:11:26.659 --> 00:11:29.169 Exactly. For decades, Spain had this unwritten 00:11:29.169 --> 00:11:32.169 pact of forgetting regarding the Civil War. But 00:11:32.169 --> 00:11:34.370 in 2015, the new council wanted to rename streets, 00:11:34.690 --> 00:11:37.330 take down plaques, and remove statues that still 00:11:37.330 --> 00:11:39.529 honored the dictatorship. So in that context, 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:41.929 the headline was brilliant. Franco the man is 00:11:41.929 --> 00:11:44.330 still dead, but Franco the symbol, the street 00:11:44.330 --> 00:11:46.970 names, the statues was still alive enough to 00:11:46.970 --> 00:11:49.509 be a political issue. It takes the joke about 00:11:49.509 --> 00:11:52.909 his biological death and flips it to talk about 00:11:52.909 --> 00:11:55.909 his political afterlife. It shows the versatility 00:11:55.909 --> 00:11:58.830 of the phrase. It can mean, this news is boring. 00:11:59.090 --> 00:12:01.950 Or it can mean, the past isn't done with us yet. 00:12:02.149 --> 00:12:04.370 Speaking of the past popping up, social media 00:12:04.370 --> 00:12:06.990 has also had its fun with this. Oh, the internet 00:12:06.990 --> 00:12:10.590 never forgets. In 2013, there was a brief resurgence 00:12:10.590 --> 00:12:13.129 of the phrase on Twitter and Facebook, but it 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:15.450 was actually due to a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding. 00:12:15.629 --> 00:12:18.110 Yeah. A Spanish filmmaker named Jesus Franco 00:12:18.110 --> 00:12:20.669 died. He was a cult horror director, totally 00:12:20.669 --> 00:12:23.090 unrelated to the dictator. Oh, I see where this 00:12:23.090 --> 00:12:25.669 is going. People saw the name Franco and the 00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:28.669 word dead trending in the obituaries, and suddenly 00:12:28.669 --> 00:12:32.179 the old joke was revived everywhere. Generalissimo 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:34.960 Francisco Franco is still dead. Just a new jerk 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.379 reaction. It's a mix of confusion and people 00:12:37.379 --> 00:12:39.519 just seizing the opportunity to use the classic 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:41.799 line. It's like a reflex. You see the name, you 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:44.379 say the line. It proves that the phrase has a 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:46.700 life of its own, completely separate from the 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:49.179 actual historical figure. I'd bet a lot of people 00:12:49.179 --> 00:12:51.259 tweeting that... Didn't know much about the Spanish 00:12:51.259 --> 00:12:53.899 Civil War, but they definitely knew the punchline. 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:55.960 And we can't talk about the modern era without 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:58.720 mentioning the SNL 40th anniversary special. 00:12:58.820 --> 00:13:02.100 This was in 2015. A huge event. And they did 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:05.000 a massive in -memoriam segment paying tribute 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:07.399 to all the cast and crew who had passed away 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:10.360 over the decades. Which is usually a pretty somber 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:14.340 moment. It was. But then Bill Murray came out 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:17.799 to close the segment and he had one last update. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.480 What did he say? He said that he had some breaking 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.240 news that just came in from Spain. And he delivered 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:25.159 the line one more time. Bring it at full circle. 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:27.759 It was the perfect callback. It honored the history 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:30.100 of the show while acknowledging that this specific 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:33.240 joke is just part of the show's DNA. So let's 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:36.759 unpack this. Why does this specific joke stick? 00:13:37.019 --> 00:13:38.720 I mean, there are thousands of SNL sketches. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.159 Why is this the one in the Oxford Dictionary? 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:43.740 I think it's because it identified a fundamental 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:46.000 truth about the news business that has only gotten 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.889 more true over time. The idea that the news needs 00:13:48.889 --> 00:13:51.570 to keep moving, even when reality has starved. 00:13:51.649 --> 00:13:54.289 Exactly. The 24 -hour news cycle was just in 00:13:54.289 --> 00:13:57.149 its infancy in the 70s. CNN didn't even exist 00:13:57.149 --> 00:14:00.889 yet. But Chevy Chase and his writers saw where 00:14:00.889 --> 00:14:02.570 things were heading. They saw the writing on 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:04.759 the wall. They saw that news was becoming a product 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:07.539 that had to be manufactured constantly, regardless 00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:09.340 of whether there was actually anything new to 00:14:09.340 --> 00:14:12.200 report. It's the illusion of update. That's a 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:14.460 great way to put it. The illusion of an update, 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:17.860 saying Franco is still dead, gives the viewer 00:14:17.860 --> 00:14:20.299 the feeling of being informed, the dopamine hit 00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:22.779 of knowing, without actually informing them of 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.480 anything. And that resonates today because, well, 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:28.399 look at our phones. We live in an era of constant 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.679 push notifications, developing story. Breaking 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:33.940 news. How often do you click on a notification 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:36.179 only to find that the article says exactly the 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:38.179 same thing it said two hours ago? All the time. 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:41.279 We are continuing to monitor the situation. Officials 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:43.480 have no new comment. That is the modern equivalent 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:47.059 of he is still valiantly holding on in his fight 00:14:47.059 --> 00:14:50.340 to remain dead. It's content for the sake of 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:52.779 content. It's funny. We started this deep dive 00:14:52.779 --> 00:14:55.899 thinking about a dictator in 1975, but we're 00:14:55.899 --> 00:14:57.720 ending up talking about our own attention spans. 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.279 And that's the power of good satire. It holds 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:03.980 up a mirror. The joke wasn't really about Franco. 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:06.740 He was just the prop. The joke was about the 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:09.360 machine that was watching him die. And that machine 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.919 is louder and faster than ever. It certainly 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:15.120 is. The delivery mechanisms have changed from 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:19.019 newspapers to TV to Twitter to TikTok. But the 00:15:19.019 --> 00:15:21.480 John Garfield syndrome is stronger than ever. 00:15:22.049 --> 00:15:24.629 So as we wrap up this deep dive, we always like 00:15:24.629 --> 00:15:26.730 to leave you with something to chew on. We've 00:15:26.730 --> 00:15:29.450 talked about how this phrase exposes the absurdity 00:15:29.450 --> 00:15:32.230 of the breaking news culture. So here is our 00:15:32.230 --> 00:15:33.870 question for you to think about next time you're 00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:35.909 doom scrolling or watching the ticker tape at 00:15:35.909 --> 00:15:38.309 the bottom of the screen. In a world where every 00:15:38.309 --> 00:15:40.909 single event is framed as a crisis and every 00:15:40.909 --> 00:15:44.389 update is breaking, what is the story right now 00:15:44.389 --> 00:15:47.679 that is arguably still dead? Yeah. What is the 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:49.779 topic that the media is keeping on life support, 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:51.879 feeding you updates that aren't updates just 00:15:51.879 --> 00:15:53.860 to keep you watching? What is your Generalissimo 00:15:53.860 --> 00:15:56.700 Francisco Franco today? It's worth thinking about 00:15:56.700 --> 00:15:59.259 before you click that next link. Thanks for diving 00:15:59.259 --> 00:16:01.600 in with us. We'll see you on the next one.