I liked it. I laughed. Sure. I also laughed last week, but I can't quite remember what was so funny. These specials are pretty forgettable, bleeding into my Saturday Night Live memory and then dropping into the recesses of my mind. Again, I understand the need to jump on the debate coverage as soon as possible, but I honestly could have held on until Saturday. Or maybe they were worried that everyone would be sick of Joe the Plumber by then. Well... too late.
Cold Open (Presidential Debate): I was surprised they didn't do anything with split screens, as I found that aspect more amusing than the candidates' exhaustive talk on Joe the Plumber. I liked Barack Obama's repeated pained smiles and this specific moment from John McCain (he was definitely blinking Morse), but they didn't even touch on either of those until "Weekend Update." The handling of the Joe the Plumber stuff they did choose to riff on was pretty hilarious. It was also good to see Chris Parnell return, although it makes me wonder if SNL is just sorely lacking authoritative-sounding white guys on the super-small cast, Darrell Hammond excluded.
"Weekend Update": Yes! Crazy McCain lady! I love/hate crazy McCain lady. I was waiting for Seth or Amy to snatch the mic out of her hand the way McCain did, but letting her aimlessly wander around until the end of the show was just as good. "We Liked It" was okay too, even though it was sad to see Seth and Amy fall into that excruciatingly frustrating snowball effect of stumbling over cue cards.
I spent a good five minutes laughing at the way Darrell Hammond's Jesse Jackson said, "Really?" He's also dropped a lot of the crazy eye business from that particular impression, which I don't really mind as I often felt like his bug-eyes were peering into my very soul.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-17-2008 @ 10:36AM
Jimmy said...
I missed last week's, but I thought this one was pretty good, even if it was a 30-minute promo for Obama.
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10-17-2008 @ 10:50AM
No1Dad said...
The guy who plays Obama is very good but it seems like his only job is to sit there while McCain acts like an idiot. They should give him more lines.
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10-17-2008 @ 11:08AM
Adam said...
McCain Lady was funny, but I couldn't help but wonder if people got it. The audience sure didn't! The fact that SNL is making fun of real people who make asses out of themselves during this campaign is bold as hell, and its definitely paying off. However, since the majority of people don't keep up with current events, the jokes usually fall on deaf ears. I'm still waiting on them to parody a Palin campaign rally. The should include the retarded fat woman from Ohio who said at a Palin rally that she is afraid an Obama win would cause "the blacks to take over." I also hope they make fun of Joe (real name Sam) the (tax delinquent and not really a) plumber.
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10-17-2008 @ 11:05AM
const said...
That was truly awful. The debate was fine, but the weekend update portion was really poor. Did they finish writing the script shortly before filiming? It appeared that way.
Under the fairness doctrine, the McCain campaign should receive 30 minutes of prime time from NBC. It was an Obama-love fest. But of course, it is NBC we're talking about...
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10-17-2008 @ 11:15AM
Jkmkay said...
Obama-sane and smart,McCain-crazy and stupid.I'd expect at least a pretense of fairness.It would be a lot funnier if they brought Obama into the mix.I guess there's nothing about him to make fun of in SNL's opinion.
I'm all for giving it to politicians,all of them,but come on at least pretend your not in the tank.
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10-17-2008 @ 2:53PM
Dan said...
Really? They make fun of him a lot...it's just that he's not as comedic because he's such a well-spoken, calm and collected politician. They make fun of that, but other than that, what can you make fun of? I agree that a Palin Rally would be a lot funnier than basically anything, but it's hard to do because of the offensiveness of some of those morons.
10-17-2008 @ 1:46PM
dan said...
you keep saying that these segments are forgetable, yet funny. and that "why dont they save it until saturday" well I for one think these half hours are great for a few reasons. 1. we dont have an SNL chock full of political humor. move some to thursday so we can have some normal skits and a great digital short. 2. when SNL has a week off, they want to be sure to cover the political stuff. they had a week off last week and I think thats the main reason they started these things.
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10-17-2008 @ 2:01PM
Han Solo said...
Frankly I had high hopes but it was really really really bad.
Other than a very half-funny opening debate parody with a total of TWO jokes repeated over and over, It was a 1/2 hour episode of "The weekend update" which even on the Sat show is usually not funny and full of stupid throwaway jokes.
The worst part was about 1/2 of the entire weekend update show was full of NON-POLITICAL jokes that were no different than the lame ones they use on Sat shows.
Its like they were told by mgmt at NBC to put a show on and they slapped together something with a half effort of writing in the hallway.
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10-17-2008 @ 2:45PM
belden said...
I don't understand why they aren't doing actually political humor on these Thursday shows. We get it, Joe the plumber. How is having McCain take about how he is invisible and three inches tall and sitting on the desk supposed to be relevant and biting? It was like they just needed a phrase from the debates to latch on to and any kind of policy discussion or jokes about the candidates weren't necessary.
The Update portion of it wasn't funny either. Maybe someone can tell me, do people actually find Kristen Wiig's acting funny? I can't recall EVER seeing her play the straight character in a sketch. All she ever does is dress up and play the woman with the wacky accent or the crazy eyes or something and I never laugh at it. And it might have been fine if she was just parodying the one moment from the McCain rally, but they had it go on for about 3 minutes too long.
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10-17-2008 @ 3:21PM
Peanut said...
I still miss the Daily Show reviews.
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10-17-2008 @ 6:43PM
belden said...
http://www.cliqueclack.com/tv/2008/10/17/daily-showcolbert-report-week-of-october-13-2008/