A Parody within a Parody

My wife, Kimberly, and I watch Saturday Night Live religiously.  As in, we probably haven't missed a single episode since we started dating more than 12 years ago.  And in fact, we both watched our fair share of SNL before we had even met, going back to our teenage years.

We were catching up on SNL's 42nd season premier late this past Sunday night, after putting the kids to bed, when I was excited to see a hilarious sketch/parody of Mr. Robot.

If SNL is my oldest TV favorite, Mr. Robot is certainly my newest!  Just wrapping its 2nd season, it's a brilliantly written, flawlessly acted, impeccably set techno drama series on USA.  I'm completely smitten, and the story seems to be just getting started!

Okay, so Kim and I are watching a hilarious sketch where Leslie Jones asks Elliot to track down the person who recently hacked her social media accounts.  And, as always, I take note of what's going in the background on the computer screen.  It's just something I do.  I love to try and spot the app, the OS, the version, identify the Linux kernel oops, etc., of anything on any computer screen on TV.

At about the 1:32 mark of the SNL/Mr.Robot skit, there was something unmistakable on the left computer, just over actor Pete Davidson's right shoulder.  Merely a fraction of a second, and I recognized it instantly!  A dark terminal, split into a dozen sections.  A light grey boarder, with a thicker grey highlighting one split.  The green drip of text from The Matrix in one of the splits. A flashing, bouncing yellow audio wave in another.  An instant rearrangement of all of those windows each second.

It was Byobu and Hollywood!  I knew it.  Kim didn't believe me at first, until I proved it ;-)

A couple of years ago, after seeing a 007 film in the theater, I created a bit of silliness -- a joke of a program that could turn any Linux terminal into a James Bond caliber hacker screen.  The result is a package called hollywood, which any Ubuntu user can install and run by simply typing:

$ sudo apt install hollywood
$ hollywood

And a few months ago , Hollywood found its way into an NBC News piece that took itself perhaps a little too seriously, as it drummed up a bit of fear around "Ransomware".

But, far more appropriately, I'm absolutely delighted to see another NBC program -- Saturday Night Live -- using Hollywood exactly as intended -- for parody!

Enjoy a few screenshots below...

Cheers!
:-Dustin