Here in the Hudson Valley, we do a fair bit of complaining about tourists- the traffic, the garbage, the condescension. So perhaps we had this coming.
A sketch in the premiere episode of this season’s Saturday Night Live took aim at our region’s most well-known autumnal activity for day-trippers: pick-your-own apples. The format is a television commercial hosted by two sisters (Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon), the owners of “Chickham’s Apple Farm,” which is “located in the part of New York State that has confederate flags” where “for just $45, you can bring home $10 worth of apples.”
Host Woody Harrelson plays a stock backwoods-type character; a “troubled,” dentally-challenged farmhand who “came with the land.” He gets at least one good line: “Our apples are best in a very specific window of time, and whenever you come, you just missed it.” A sad petting zoo and deranged hayride also make an appearance.
The tone is gentler than the last time Upstate New York was skewered on national television in April, when The Simpsons made light of opiate addiction and economic decline. (Although on that second point, SNL couldn’t help posing the question every city visitor has: how the heck do people make a living up here?)
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