First Got Horny 2 U

SNL's leading ladies divulged some very personal information about their first parasocial relationships in a music video last week, First Got Horny 2 U. In the hilarious skit, the women tell viewers about their first celebrity crushes who first "ignited [their] flames, who opened [their] eyes, and who first taught [them] how to be truly horny." Watch it here.

Karniol (2001) discusses the importance of adolescent females forming parasocial relationships with  inaccessible celebrities. She points out that "finding a love-object toward whom one can safely direct newly-acquired cravings" is both very important and very safe if manifested in parasocial relationships (Karniol, 2001, pg. 62). Practicing relationships and feelings of longing seems to be a health aspect of adolescence.

"You lit a spark inside of me, you set my teeny tiny boobies free. We never met, and we never will, but I thank you still. Cause I first got horny to you."

Karniol points out the importance of adolescent females' perpetuating their new desires into bedroom decor, that "posters of pop stars that are hung in one's bedroom," allowing them to "cope with newly developing feelings at the point of transition to sexuality" (Karniol, 2001, pg. 62, 74). SNL writers apparently remember these kinds of feelings from their own adolescence.

"I was in 7th grade watching TRL when I had a feeling I had never felt. It was Carson Daley in enormous jeans and the blackest nails I'd ever seen. I got up on the couch and I knocked my first one out."

Further, because young girls get to practice their sexual feelings through these parasocial relationships, it only makes sense that they would begin to learn new things about themselves and their sexuality. SNL points out a key factor in exploring sexuality through media figures - learning of sexual feelings, such as homosexuality, that may only be seen through media and not in the home or real life activities.

"1996, I first heard Mbop. Started getting sweaty in my thermal top. Taylor Hanson's lip and his long blonde hair, the most gorgeous woman anywhere. And that's how I could tell that I was gay as hell."

Idolization and parasocial relationship creation of adolescent girls can have many positive outcomes, of which can be hard to find in SNL's skit. Experimenting relationships with potential types of men or women that could bring this new sexual feeling is a physically and emotionally safe way to learn about oneself before joining the real and risky world of dating.

Karniol, R. (2001). Adolescent females' idolization of male media stars as a transition into sexuality. Sex Roles, 44(1/2), 61-77.