Lorne Michaels and his top writer at Saturday Night Live hit the media trail to deny the show is in in Hillary Clinton's pocket, despite three straight weeks of front-loaded sketches (including an overt endorsement by guest host and former writer Tina Fey-- and a cute appearance by Hillary herself) that not only placed the candidate in a sympathetic light but apparently helped her reverse her freefall.
Michaels and Jim Downey claim they're equal-opportunity satirists, but one admission in The New York Times throws all denials out the window:
Both men suggested that Mrs. Clinton benefited from being portrayed by Amy Poehler, whom Mr. Downey called our charm machine.' But Ms. Poehler resisted one aspect of the portrayal in the first sketch on Feb. 23. Mr. Downey had written a moment when a tear was supposed to come to Mrs. Clinton’s eye, and the debate hosts were going to hammer her for "turning on the water works again.”
Mr. Downey acknowledged, “Amy wasn’t crazy about that. She said that was not fair.” The tear was cut from the live show.
Not fair? Hillary's weeping tactics have been debated and satirized for months. Sounds like the show's stars have more power than the writers, which is no surprise but also not promising for the show, which has dropped in quality exponentially from its surprisingly consistent return from strike hiatus.
Stop whining! You Obama supporters have no sense of humor. You love it when comics joke about McCain's age or Hillary's icy demeanor, but freak out if anyone dishes a little at Barack (as proven by your whining about Jon Stewart's "Tittler" joke at the Oscars). Barack is in the big leagues now, so you best learn to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. We've already seen Hillary can take a punch in the face - and so can McCain. These are tough people. We still don't know if Barack can deal with a hangnail. And it's looking doubtful.
ReplyDeleteAgree to both posts above. Obama's 20 year connection to the America-hating pastor Wright is something he's not gonna be able to slip out of. His goose is cooked, and his wife is as bad as the pastor. This is their belief system. His (reported) charm won't save him now. That said, they're all lousy choices this election.
ReplyDelete