This was funny [incl. video] - but my lord, this was even funnier. Right up there with some of the great Saturday Night Live skits from the old days... and though Obama is a secondary target, and Clinton a (very) tertiary target, the hardest bladed jab isn't aimed at Clinton, or Obama - it's the American media's "unsafe at any speed" product.
The time away has obviously been good for the writers. As a general rule: if you, as a candidate are in a parody this good, and are a target in any way, you'd better have been onstage yourself (note to McCain campaign: book stage time now, for after the convention). Otherwise, you've got trouble - and this one is going very viral on the net. Just spoke to a friend in Vermont, f'rinstance, who has been getting automated phone calls for the primary on the 4th - he says Obama's make him laugh now, because the opening recording's tone et. al. reminds him of the SNL skits.
The satire has also struck home with some in the media, as Jennifer Rubin reports. Will it make a real difference? We'll see. Meanwhile, Matthew Sheffield has some very worthwhile points to ponder for conservatives re: SNL and 'the new politics.'
Refresh my memory, folks: has SNL ever materially changed a US Presidential contest? Thanks to YouTube, the blogsphere et. al. as a new secondary distribution channel, we may be on our way to a first. Even if we're not, there are growing signs that the reflexive media scrutiny blogs have made their bones on may be starting to go mainstream. If so, it can only be good news for the country.
Some said that SNL affected the 1976 election - that Ford was just too hard to take seriously after what SNL did to him - but I never went looking for poll numbers on the subject.
Some said that SNL affected the 1976 election - that Ford was just too hard to take seriously after what SNL did to him - but I never went looking for poll numbers on the subject.
I recall the SNL item about the press conference at the beginning of the Gulf War I - when the correspondent from the Baghdad Times asked the briefer about passwords the troops in the field were using. The press didn't recover from that one, well, even now.
Al Gore's debate performance was brutally parodied in 2000 - such that his staff made him watch it.
It's nice to see SNL with some fresh material. I think that's the funniest skit I've seen them do in more than 10 years.
Lockbox.
I've always been a bigger 'Daily Show' fan, mainly since the spend so much time on live video of smaller politicians and congressional hearings. The stuff that comes out there often doesn't even need parody.
As humorous as this skit may have been to some (although I found it unoriginal and mean) there's already a large and well-funded cadre of influential people who make it their #1 job to belittle Democrats. I don't think adding SNL to that group does anything other than contribute to this already over-polluted political atmosphere. After all, they appear on Jack Welch's NBC network, which has revealed itself to be a reliable ally of the Right wing.
Let's see what they can come up with for McCain...he's every bit as rich a source of ridicule as the Democrats.
Jack Welch's NBC network, which has revealed itself to be a reliable ally of the Right wing.
I know, right? Remember 'The West Wing'? They should have called that 'The Pat Buchanan Lovefest Hour'. Or the way they gave Fred Thompson a job? Nobody should be on primetime tv except centrists like Alec Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Richard Belzer.
Alan: You crack me up.
Celebrim....I'm sure you were filled with gaping fissures long before I arrived on the scene.
Alan, I've hammered your arguments and style, but I don't think anyone here had insulted you the way you just did.
So you need to make a fast decision about sticking around here or not.
If you do want to stick around, the secret word is "apology" followed by "won't do that again".
I'd strongly suggest you think hard about what you're doing here. I welcome strong opposing arguments and voices; not so much people who gainsay and call names.
A.L.
You really got a problem with humor, AL.
Why don't you ask celebrim whether he took this as an insult or not, because for my part it was nothing more than an attempt to be playful with words.
Maybe I should try to use emoticons more often? ;-)
I took it as an attempted comeback.
Mostly it made me laugh. Mainly, because of the attempted part.
Unlike A.L., I'm pretty much past the point of taking these sorts of things seriously.
"As humorous as this skit may have been to some (although I found it unoriginal and mean)..."
This is the guy who will later tell A.L. that he has a problem with humor.
"...there's already a large and well-funded cadre of influential people who make it their #1 job to belittle Democrats."
As opposed the even more well-funded cadre of even more influential people who make it thier #1 job to belittle Republicans? Please, the number of comics who lean to the right is tiny. Even local comedy clubs list to port.
"I don't think adding SNL to that group..."
Wait a minute? Did SNL drop political satire at some point and are only now picking it up again? Because, correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't political satire SNL's primary shtick since... well, forwever?
"...does anything other than contribute to this already over-polluted political atmosphere."
So, exactly what do you think that you contribute to the atmosphere of this community?
"After all, they appear on Jack Welch's NBC network, which has revealed itself to be a reliable ally of the Right wing."
LOL. I suppose, compared to CBS, that you might be inclined to say that. But since CBS's politics run just to the left of Soviet's Pravda, that's not saying much. The last time a Republican was portrayed in a semi-sympathetic style on NBC was 'Family Ties', and even then only by presenting the character as an earnest but misguided buffoon. That desipte that, Alex still ranks as one of the most sympathetic Republicans characterizations on any television program is all that need be said on the matter.
Anyway, my problem with you is not that your insulting, which doesn't bother me. Insulting I can handle. It's the lack of ... introspection that bothers me.
"Let's see what they can come up with for McCain...he's every bit as rich a source of ridicule as the Democrats."
I'm sure. If he wins the election, I'm sure you will be treated to alot of it. And I bet your first thought won't be that the jokes are unoriginal and mean, even if its simply an update on some of the old Reagan skits.
Comedy club comedians and Alex on Family ties? Now you got me laughing, celebrim. If that were the extent of the problem, you'd have a point. If this is your view of the Left-Right representation in the media, we're done talking.
Lack of insight trumps lack of introspection any day.
Take a break, Alan. See you after March 18.
A.L.
"Let's see what they can come up with for McCain...he's every bit as rich a source of ridicule as the Democrats."
Well, there's the NBC cop show that portrayed an ex-POW Arizona politician as a cannibal.
It's original.
So the national media believes criticism from a SNL satire but not from legitimate media analysis? I guess now we know the problem: journalists are navel-gazing idoits.
"Lack of insight trumps lack of introspection any day."
This is a little off-topic, but I disagree. Insight arises from introspection - introspection leads to insight about humanity, and it makes one more sensitive to the behavior of others. Having insight into the REASONS for others' actions is of utmost importance, because this leads to understanding of the rationale for differing viewpoints, giving a broader, more INSIGHTFUL view of the entire situation, and arming you with even better defenses of your own opinion.
I have heard it said that "enlightenment is the recognition that we all see the world from a localized point of view." Introspection, however, and the insights that result from it, make some of our points of view a bit less "localized" than others.
Sorry for going off-topic.
Hee hee. I win!