I posted this elsewhere:

Let’s say that Saturday Night Live did this tasteful tribute to Phil Hartman after he was killed. Let’s say the actors all gave passionate speeches about him, shed tears, and appeared on-camera not as characters in a sketch, but as people who knew Phil Hartman.

One could criticize SNL, saying they exploited Phil’s death for ratings, shouldn’t have run a show about it, etc., but one could also say they used the format they’re given to honor the man.

Now let’s say that Chris Parnell gets this crazy idea that he’s going to fake his death for the purposes of a comedy skit on SNL. That on its own, while probably dumb and not funny, is not inherently wrong or distasteful.

But then let’s say they dedicate an episode of SNL to memories of Chris Parnell, emulating precisely the format they used for the Phil Hartman tribute, including having the actors appear, with tears in their eyes, sharing memories of Chris. Not as characters, but as real people who knew Chris Parnell. This would all be for the purpose of furthering this comedy skit.

Can you see what I’m saying now about how that exploits the death of Phil Hartman? Chris Parnell’s death skit may be one thing, but to draw its foundation from emulating the tribute to a real person’s death is disgusting.

The analogy isn’t perfect, but it’s the best I could come up with. But you can be sure that if SNL did that, there would be major repercussions within NBC.