The opening sketch was weak and one-sided, which I'd expect of anything written by Franken. But I have to admit, they had a great sketch later, in which the editor of the NY Times called in 30 reporters who were being assigned to go to Alaska and dig up dirt on Sarah Palin. None of them had ever been anywhere except Manhattan, so they called in someone who'd worked in Alaska to answer questions. They were all things like, "I need access to at least two qualified psychiatrists" or "I'm a pre-operative transsexual; are there any gender-reassignment clinics in Alaska?" They were asked to identify pictures of things like a snowmobile ("Is it some sort of Baptizing machine?"). Gradually, they all fled in horror at the thought of being among normal Americans (several left when they found out Alaska doesn't have Thai food delivery).
The sketch ended with only three reporters going. We were informed with graphic cards that one was eaten by a polar bear, one humorless feminist reporter sued an Alaska town for $70 million for sexual harassment after a school board member called her "sweetie," and the third won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative story on unproven, yet not disproven, incest in the Palin family. They were all presented as incredibly arrogant, provincial, elitist snots without the slightest regard for the accuracy of their slanderous reporting.
Best sketch of the year, so far.
In the first Gulf War, SNL did a stupid press skit about the press covering the war. A general came out for a press conference, and warned that since there were ongoing operations, he couldn’t answer all questions, and laid the ground rules for what he could answer. The press then completely ignored the rules, and kept asking more and more ridiculous questions that would obviously endanger troops. The most over the top question was when a nervous Arab looking reporter in a foreign accent asked what frequencies the US pilots were using and what passwords they had.
HHFi,
You are wrong. This one hits a whole bunch of deep cultural buttons. And the way most people will know about the SNL skit will be by word of mouth, and via political attack ads, not seeing it.
What do you think Republican political ad makers can do to the Democrats given the Frankin connection to the SNL skit, the bottom of the gutter sexism involved, and the reputation that Obama campaign has for using overt sexism to beat Hillary?
Hell, imagine how Rush Limbaugh is going to use it in his opening monologue on Monday!
At a minimum, SNL just made sure that the Republican evangelical vote will exceed 2004 both in total size and voting percentage going Republican.
This is one where silence by the Democrats will be damning.
Democrats have about 36 hours to disown Frankin in every sense of the word or they become the party that has sexism as one of it’s core values.
The Franken bit was lame and humorless (but I repeat myself...it was 'written' by Franken). I think the one we discussing right now was written by Seth Meyers (who, along w/Fey and Poulin, wrote the openning last week). I think Mr. Meyers will be leaving SNL for greener pastures...he is too funny for them.
Perhaps it was going after the press, but when you have a 17 yr old girl pregnant in the joke, it ain’t funny. Even SNL should know when they are over the line and this is miles over that line.
Most of us don’t watch that piece of garbage. Most of their audience is crackheads and drunks. Shouldn’t comedy shows make you laugh every decade or so???
Pray for W, Palin and Our Troops
That sounds hilarious. I hope somebody Youtubes that.