Sarah Palin’s SNL stint
I didn’t see it live; I chose instead to watch the last few innings of the Red Sox game and see them win it and force the series to a seventh.
I watched the videos here, however (thanks Ace!), and I think Palin did well enough considering what she had to listen to and what they gave her to work with. And by the way, I did watch some of the last twenty minutes or so of the show, the non-Palin parts, and what an unfunny business it has become.
They should have consulted me. This is what I was hoping for when I heard Palin was going to appear—some sort of clever reprise of the Marx Brothers mirror act, only this time with Palin and Fey. Even their eyeglasses would have worked with this (and note especially the brilliant twirling bit at 1:37):
A mirror act would have been good, and I realized it when they walked past each other – same height, though Palin’s a little fuller. Canny resemblance otherwise.
I try to put partisanship aside for late-night, but Hindrocket raised a good point:
“The Saturday Night Live people are Democrats. That’s all there is to it, and they will never give Sarah Palin, or any other Republican, a fair shake.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/10/021813.php
Have a great week!
I was waiting for Palin to grab Tina Fey, peer into one of her ears and say,
“Oh, look! I can see Russia from here!”
I doubt that either Palin or Fey have the chops to pull off the mirror bit, but it is a good idea.
I was thinking more along the lines of Palin playing Fey on Weekend Update and interviewing Fey playing Palin.
I also missed the beginning because I was watching the game. And I thought she was going to be on next week for some reason.
Did you notice that Alec Baldwin never really looks her in the eye? He seemed to be avoiding acknowledging her presence as much as possible.
I didn’t care much for the rap sketch. I didn’t think it was very funny.
All in all, I think the appearance was good for Sarah. It shows her as a good sport.
“Did you notice that Alec Baldwin never really looks her in the eye? He seemed to be avoiding acknowledging her presence as much as possible.”
Yes, I noticed the same. If anything, it made HIM look very odd.
A comment at Ace’s place:
So funny neo. When I heard she was going to be appearing, I though EXACTLY the same as you: they have to be doing the mirror thing! What would be more natural?
Wrong! (Too funny? Too unpolitical?)
I never watch SNL, but watched for about 20 min. last night (I guess the wrong 20 minutes) — and it wasn’t funny. It was rather dumb. Anyway, I just figured I had gotten the night wrong, and went to bed. Guess I didn’t miss all that much.
Yes it would have been cool. No, I don’t think the libs at SNL or anywhere else have the humor or smarts to even think of it. Alec is getting an education at the hands of his liberal friends in Domestic Relations court. Give him extra time. He is a slow learner.
Yeah, they should have consulted you. Rickl’s idea was pretty good, too.
It is interesting when progressives in entertainment try to both spoof someone and be even-handed. They’re just tone-deaf. Garrison Keillor does the same each election, doing send-ups of the condidates and major figures. They try; some part of them wants to be fair. But they are locked into what the media conventional wisdom says are the important issues, foibles, and mannerisms of the people they’re spoofing. It often seems as if the entertainers are clever people who were born in a foreign country, trying to show off how much they get it about American culture.
You linked a month ago to Judith Warner at the NYT, who in turn linked to Jonathan Haidt’s research showing that conservatives understand liberals’ reasoning just fine, but we are somehow opaque to them. This SNL skit is further evidence of that.
The mirror routine is physical comedy that takes a lot of rehearsal time. And the movie makers can reshoot it as many times as they want.
Putting a routine like that on a live show is too risky. Although the flubs could be funnier than the script, they might not be.
SNL is written and shown in one week.
Also, the mirror routine is explicitly Marxist…
Fred: explicitly Marxist, yes, but only for those who are already familiar with Marxism (of the movie variety).
I agree about the rehearsal problem. But it needn’t have been perfect, or even remotely perfect, to have been funny. Much funnier than the stupid stuff they actually did.
OT: “racism” trumps sexism?
http://blog.pumapac.org/2008/10/19/not-acceptable-in-my-country/
A woman in Manhattan was attacked by an Obama supporter. He grabbed her political sign, broke it in half, grabbed another one and ripped that up, then beat her in the face with the stick.
A woman in Boston holding a sign not supportive of Obama was surrounded by a gang of young men who called her “bitch,” “whore,” and “puta.” They grabbed her sign and ripped it up. A veteran nearby came to her aid. No one else did.
A popular video on Youtube shows Sarah Palin being tackled and knocked unconscious (or worse) by a professional linebacker.
Sarah Bernhardt, a popular comedian in New York, warned Sarah Palin that she may be “gang-raped by my black brothers” if she dared to visit Manhattan. This line was very well-received by her audience. The youtube has been viewed over 370,000 times, with countless supportive comments.
A wealthy Democratic pornography producer has filmed a porn movie about Sarah Palin called “Nailin’ Palin.” In it, Sarah Palin is degraded with scenes of anal sex and a lesbian sex scene with Hillary Clinton and Condoleza Rice. One of the countless youtubes with scenes from the movie has been viewed 171,000 times, again with hundreds, if not thousands, of positive comments.
Today, a black woman and long-time Puma PAC supporter in Pittsburgh who does NOT support Obama was harrassed and threatened with arrest simply for attempting to hand out flyers to her McCain-supporting neighbor.
The Libs on SNL chose to give her lackluster lines – they didn’t want to make her look good. Fairness is a word that is not in their lexicon. But they had to let her on the show or the hypocrisy would have been too obvious. The US literary, journalistic, academic and entertainment worlds are private clubs – only liberals get the good stuff.
Hillary was trashed too by the same people though not as badly as Gov. Palin. Liberal feminists stood mute while Hillary was trashed and stay mute as woman is being treated as badly as Sarah Palin is.
Have you read this article regarding the Marx brothers?
http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2008/10/picking-up-hats-waiting-for-chico.html#links
You, Neo, have a sense of humour. Ideological fanatics cannot afford to have a laugh at their beliefs.