Saturday Night Live is, first and foremost, supposed to be a funny TV show — but it was difficult to laugh at most of its recent sketch, "Beppo," about an astronaut monkey who learns he might not be able to return to the planet. As his giant, yearning eyes begin to tear up, Beppo presses buttons on his communications soundboard to ask mission control's John Mulaney: "Beppo … go … home?" Pained, Mulaney wonders how to explain death to Beppo.
Sweet Beppo forces us to remember the naive animals who have indeed been sent to space — especially the beings who went there believing they'd come home safely, but did not. When asked for his last words, Beppo presses a button that delivers a simple message: "help." Would Laika the space dog have had any last words? What about Gordo the squirrel monkey? Laska the mouse? Would they have been the same as Beppo's?
