So funny we don't know when to laugh

On NBC's Saturday Night Live, there are those unfunny skits that go on for another ten minutes, as Krusty the clown would say. And then there are the unfunny skits that go on for another ten minutes that they inexplicably bring back for more performances. And so it is with "Top O' The Morning,", a supposed morning TV show on RTE 2 (bizarrely specific, that little detail) that we have now seen twice on SNL. In the most recent performance, the two hosts of the show, the Fitzpatricks, were joined by the father of one of them, also a Fitzpatrick, played by Dan Ackroyd. Fitzpatrick Snr had 19 kids. The kids were drinking. The hosts were drinking, and fighting, and punching holes in walls. It's not even that this stuff is offensive -- we think most Irish have stopped caring about these stereotypical portrayals, because there was no visible sign that they were actually doing the country much harm, and readers of the Irish news on any given day might think that there is really something to that drinking and fighting stereotype anyway. But we're still lost -- are we supposed to be laughing at the simple phsyical comedy, at the over-the-top Irishness, or at the irony of a comedy routine based on century old images of Irish people? Is one of the players acting out their own little grudge against Ireland -- perhaps arising from dealing with an overly glib flight attendant on Aer Lingus on his flight over? (we'd understand that, having experienced that species ourselves). Or is the audience just cracking up (as they seem to be doing) because they know that, after all, it's SNL, it must be funny? We really want to know.