Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy’s setting is inspired by the cultural phenomenon Saturday Night Live, a live sketch-comedy show that airs every week on Saturday night.

First introduced in 1975 by legendary producer Lorne Michaels, SNL has been a cultural influencer in America for decades, creating cultural commentary on politics, pop culture, and celebrity and launching numerous writers and actors to fame.

The show Sally writes for, The Night Owls, is modeled after SNL. Like SNL, The Night Owls is known by its abbreviated form, TNO, is filmed live every week with a new celebrity host and musical guest, and requires actors and writers to work round-the-clock during the week to make the live show happen. In the novel, the Lorne Michaels figure, producer extraordinaire, is Nigel, who, like Michaels, is notoriously mysterious and deeply supportive of his cast and team of writers. Comedy as an industry and professional culture is traditionally a very male space; a high percentage of stand-up comedians and comedy writers are men. Female comedy writers like Sally must work twice as hard to prove themselves among the men in their workplaces. SNL has launched the careers of men like Adam Sandler, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, and Eddie Murphy, whereas far fewer female stars (such as Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph) have become iconic and culturally influential in the same way.