March 2, 2008
Hillary on "Saturday Night Live."
I think Hillary does a pretty good job of delivering her lines (even if she reveals unfamiliarity with this show by getting the catchphrase "It's Saturday night" wrong). I've put up the video for the lead-in sketch too, but I only watched part of it. I tried to force myself for the purposes of this post, but I found it boring. It starts by having a character talk about how boring the debate is, but it's not funny to call something boring while just being boring. And the impersonations are all pretty bad. And it should be easy to make Tim Russert funny. The actual Tim Russert is funnier than that guy they have impersonating him. "SNL" is supposedly relevant again, but it's just not very good. They get one idea and run it into the ground here.
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31 comments:
"It's Saturday NIC Live!"
You forgot the Obama Files on TV Funhouse here
Don't you think there is more of a story there than pajama readings? Did he skip the Black Union Forum because he didn't want to be seen with the Dick Gregorys and Al Sharptons?
You can never go wrong making fun of yourself.
And remember that all humor is basically a fat man falling down.
Came across this in my crossword puzzle.
"If elected, I will win." OK, class, who said it?
rhhardin said...
And remember that all humor is basically a fat man falling down.
On a skinny guy!
TV Funhouse was pretty good this week. I love the cheesy 80s cartoon style.
Once upon a time there was a little black boy, and
his name was Little Black Barak
And his mother was called White Mumbo.
And his father was called Black Jumbo.
And White Mumbo made him a beautiful little Red Coat,
and a pair of beautiful little blue trousers.
And Black Jumbo went to the Bazaar, and bought him a
beautiful Green Umbrella, and a lovely little
Pair of Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.
And then wasn't Little Black Barak grand?
So he put on all his Fine Clothes, and went out into
the political jungle to campaign for president.
And by and by he met the
Hillger. And the Hillger said to him, "Little
Black Barak, I'm going to eat your lunch if you don’t drop out of this campaign."
And Little Black Barak
said, "Oh! Please Mrs. Hillger, don't eat my lunch
and I'll give you my beautiful little Red Coat."
So the Hillger said, "Very well,
I won't eat your lunch this time, but you must give me
your beautiful little Red Coat.
Red is my color and the color of my politics."
So the Hillger got poor Little Black Baraks's beautiful
little Red Coat, and went away saying,
"I'm the grandest beast in the Jungle."
And Little Black Barak went on, and
by and by he met the Billger, and it said to
him, "Little Black Barak, I'm going take your contributors!"
And Little Black Barak said, "Oh! Please Mr.
Billger, don't dry up my money, and I'll give you my
beautiful little Blue Trousers."
So the Billger said, "Very well,
I won't rob you this time, but you must give me
your beautiful little Blue Trousers. Blue is the color I remember best."
So the Billger got poor Little Black Baraks's unstained beautiful
little Blue Trousers, and went away saying,
"Now I'm the grandest Billger in the Jungle."
And Little Black Barak went on, and
by and by he met the Chelseger, and it said to
him, "Little Black Barak, I'm going to pimp you out!"
And Little Black Barak said, "Oh! Please Miss
Chelseger, don't pimp me out, and I'll give you my
beautiful little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles
and Crimson Linings."
But the Chelseger said, "What use would your shoes
be to me? I've got big feet, and you've got only
small ones;”
But Little Black Barak said, "You could wear
them on your ears and look like a real pimp."
"So I could," said the Chelseger: "that's a
very good idea. Give them to me, and I won't pimp you out this time.”
So the Chelseger got poor Little Black Baraks's beautiful
little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and
Crimson Linings, and went away saying, "Now
I'm the grandest Chelseger pimp in the Jungle."
And poor Little Black Barak went away crying, because
the cruel Clintons had taken all his possessions. He wandered through the
wasteland of the political jungle alone.
He made his way home, naked, hungry, dirty, and in despair.
Black Jumbo and White Mumbo asked him what happened to his finery.
Little Black Barak told them he met the Clinton family in
the political jungle and they did to him
what they were going to do to the rest of America.
They took everything he had and forced him to barely survive.
It was an onerous burden and he felt the pain.
Epilogue
Little Black Barak won the presidency by a major landslide.
He was beloved by people of all races, ethnicities, genders, and creeds.
The Hillger was humiliated. She lost because it was revealed
that she stole the little Red Coat she wore on the
campaign trail.
His first one hundred days in office were a whirl of bi-partisan activity.
He provided solutions to problems. The country survived.
There was just one last campaign issue to tackle.
His US Attorney General charged, indicted and finally got criminal convictions against the Clintonista crime family. It was a RICO case of massive proportions.
There were even charges of deaths on the campaign trail. Charges of political
cannibalism were never proven.
Charges were fraud, income tax evasion, treason, sedition, and
illegally doing business with countries whose interests conflict with the United States.
Hillger was impeached from the senate and is in a prison for the clinically insane.
She keeps repeating “I am the one, the anointed one, the inevitable one. I am the President”.
Billger is in a separate wing of a prison that is reserved for serial sexual predators.
Their vast hundred million dollar fortune was confiscated as fines and ill gotten gains to be used for the common good. It was used to fund a health care program for the poor. Their home was turned into a rehabilitation half way house for political prostitutes.
Chelseger was released on felony probation on the condition that she spend
her whole life performing community service.
She is currently writing a book about being a political pimp.
It is going to be titled Pimping and Pandering for Politics or What I Did For Love.
The End
Ah, for the days when Dan Ackroyd/Jimmy Carter talked down some poor soul on a bad trip by asking him... "Do you have any Allman Brothers?"
"They get one idea and run it into the ground here."
Heh. Just like the candidate.
Change
Hope
Visualize World Peace
[blech]
I thought the first clip improved tremendously after the boring start. It does strike me as an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. But then I agree that sometimes it's the bitches that get things done. To quote that best selling novelist of the mid-20th century, Frank Yerby, "The meek may inherit the earth, but the bitches are running it now."
Thank-you, Lord, for the Food Network™.
MCG
You ask who said, in presumably a Shermanesque parody: "If elected I shall win."
I think you mean who is attributed by his disappointed followers with the following saying:
"If elected I shall not win."
Almost 1,000 self-styled law profs signed a petition which indicated that Al Gore had been elected "by a clear constitutional majority of the popular vote" tho of course a "majority of the popular vote" doesn't count for beans in a Presidential election.
Inwood,
The quote is accurate. An actual candidate said it. "If elected, I shall win."
Hint: The candidate was not a professional politician.
One cAn always find amusing stuff on such programns but I note that in the blogs to the right of center the bloggers spend most of their time trying to belittle this or that possible Democratic candidate rather than turn for big laughs to the "conservative/liberal" candidate who is best remembered as kissing whatshisname that got us into an endless war and spent all the surplus we had. That is not funny too?
What's so great about the Food Network?
I never watched it?
Why, Inwood, do you compliment it so much?
Should I be watching? Am I missing something?
Don't you think there is more of a story there than pajama readings?
A story in a tired comedy show's over-exposed animation series? I think that's a stretch.
I agree with Ann. The Hillster did an okay job on SNL, but that show has (even with last week's temporary resurgence in ratings) been irrelevant.
I don't think there are any stories in shows like these. Maybe in the candidates who run to them in order to seek shelter and/or a friendly team of writers willing to make them look good.
Hmmm. Broomstick One is in a nosedive. The Mesiah is being revealed as an empty suit.
I feel good.
[Damn you McCain] Go McCain!
whatshisname that got us into an endless war and spent all the surplus we had.
We didn't start the war. We were attacked, 3000 of our civilians murdered.
That first video was awesome. They were tired of Hillary and they gave Obama the gimmes. And a nice touch with Det. Goren coming in the debate.
"(even if she reveals unfamiliarity with this show by getting the catchphrase 'It's Saturday night' wrong)"
I have to admit at least it was better than Nixon on Laugh-in: "Sock it to ME?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ItU6tkdF2A
TV Funhouse? That show with the puppets that had a short run on Comedy Central?
Looks like the same kind of animation and humor.
Is it a demotion or promotion to be on SNL?
“They get one idea and run it into the ground here.”
That is the essence of comedy these days. You have premise, a set up, and a punch line. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. See the Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, The Simpsons, The Family Guy, and the Clinton campaign.
whatshisname that got us into an endless war and spent all the surplus we had.
We didn't start the war. We were attacked, 3000 of our civilians murdered.
I see Fen subscribes to the "One Arab is as good as the next" theory. For those who also have trouble distinguishing between Osama Bin Laden (the Saudi destroyer of the World Trade Center and black sheep son of good friends of GHW Bush) and Saddam Hussein (the cruel Iraqi tyrant who liked to torture his own citizens, but (un)fortunately never had any WMD), this parable may be enlightening:
W. was crawling about on the sidewalk under a lamppost at night.
A Rational Human Being Officer came up to him and inquired, "What are you doing?"
W. replied, "I'm looking for my car keys."
The RHB looked around in the lamplight, then asked the W., "I don't see any car keys. Are you sure you lost them here?"
W. replied, "No, I lost them over there", and pointed to an area of the sidewalk deep in shadow.
The RHB then asked, "Well, if you lost them over there, why are you looking over here?"
W. looked at him and said, "Because the light is better over here."
...she reveals unfamiliarity with this show by getting the catchphrase "It's Saturday night" wrong.
How utterly out of it do you have to be to get that wrong? Is she running for president of Mars?
Prof A
I liked the SNL skit. I agree that Russ is self-parody on steroids, but the comedian got his finger pointing down & the other guy was dead on with the sonorous B. Williams, &, more important, the comics had Hill & Barack down well.
It may not have seemed funny because it was so true & the real-life persona are getting to be sleep-making.
MCG
I knew that you were serious. I was just using your quote to hit robotic law profs who signed a mindless petition.
Since no one will play your game, let me try: Will Rogers, Mr. Dooley, G. B. Shaw, Kin Hubbard, Yogi Berra. Or some character of Evelyn Waugh.
How about this faux answer to show off my vast learning or, maybe just to show what a pain in the a** I can be:
Roger Clemens
If elected to the BB HOF, he will have won vindication.
How utterly out of it do you have to be to get that wrong? Is she running for president of Mars?
Less than five percent of households watch SNL. About five times as many people watched "Friends", for example, and it wouldn't be that weird if a candidate couldn't name the characters on that show.
Rev misses the point.
SNL is in its 4th decade. But in its first decade it was the hottest, hippest thing around. In the '70s, it was part of the cultural zeitgeist. People who didn't know what SNL was might be caught talking about "land sharks" and "wild and crazy guys".
I haven't seen the show since Phil Hartman was on and I stopped watching regularly when Aykroyd and Belushi left, but surely into my dotage, I'll remember how that show opened.
Anyway, my guess is that she knows and just stumbled. She seems...awkward for someone who's lived her life in politics.
former student: I see Fen subscribes to the "One Arab is as good as the next" theory.
Gee, an Obama-fan dodges foreign policy questions and accuses the questioner of racism. Imagine that...
Fen subscribes to the "One Arab is as good as the next" theory
No. I subscribe to Bernard Lewis's theory: there are people in the West [like you] who have consigned arabs to tyranny because you believe they "are incapable of running a democratic society and have neither concern nor capacity for human decency". So please stop projecting your bigotry onto me. You're akin to a fashion consumer who doesn't care that his clothes are made in a sweatshop. You want your cheap oil economy and free health care, and if 25 million arabs must suffer brutality to enable your gluttonous lifestyle... oh well, you've got your Liberty, screw them.
For those who also have trouble distinguishing between Osama Bin Laden ...and Saddam Hussein ...this parable may be enlightening:
I didn't think you were this simple-minded. Let me water it down into smaller bits for your mind to manage:
1) terrorist cells, suicide attacks, jihad
2) NBC proliferation [nuclear, biological, chemical weapons]
3) State sponsors of terror orgs [Iraq, Iran/Syria, North Korea]
We invaded Afganistan after 9-11 not only to get Al Queda, but to destroy the Taliban leadership who gave them aid and sanctuary. Terrorists are much more lethal when supported by rogue nation states.
You see, there are two reasons why our enemies haven't launched unconventional [NBC] suicide attacks against us: they either don't have the NBC material [terrorist cells] or they don't want to risk retaliation [rogue nation states].
We then woke up to the realization that the combination of 1, 2 and 3 meant that our enemies would acquire the capability to attack US soil with NBC, using terror orgs as proxies to remain anonymous. So, we're in a race to disrupt that triangle before we suffer a nuclear 9/11. To do so, we must attack all three legs of the triad:
1) discredit the jihad, marginalize the radical extremists.
2) pressure the international community to prevent NBC weapon proliferation
3) overthrow the governments of rogue nation states that support terrorist orgs.
1 and 2 will take some time. 3 requires a multifaceted approach, depending on the country. With N Korea, we are establishing a multilateral diplomatic engagement with nations in the Pacific Rim to rein in Korea. With Iran, we are supporting the rebels and hoping [naively, I think] for an internal revolution. Iraq was the only rogue state that could be overthrown with force, so we liberated it. We stayed to rebuild it because a free and democratic Iraq, by example, will also help us marginalize the radical extremists [so liberating Iraq is a two-fer, it helps achieve our 1st and 3rd goals].
And spare me the "no WMD in Iraq" bullshit. We didn't find stockpiles, but Saddam had a history of pursuing and using NBC material. And even your own experts [who opposed the liberation of Iraq] admit that Saddam intended to restart his WMD programs as soon as sanctions were lifted.
BTW fls, I apologize for damaging your self-esteem with my foreign policy questions. Perhaps next time, you'll be able to handle the discussion without knee-jerking into personal attacks, calling your opponents racists. Maybe we should spot you some Affirmative Action debate points, like we do with Obama?
And here is the rest of the Lewis quote for you. He's talking about the bigotry of the West, he's talking about you:
"There is some justice in one charge that is frequently leveled against the United States, and more generally against the West: Middle Easterners frequently complain that the West judges them by different and lower standards than it does Europeans and Americans, both in what is expected of them and what they may expect, in terms of their economic well-being and their political freedom. They assert that Western spokesmen repeatedly overlook or even defend actions and support rulers that they would not tolerate in their own countries.
...there is nevertheless a widespread [Western] perception that there are significant differences between the advanced Western world and the rest, notably the peoples of Islam, and that these latter are in some ways different, with the tacit assumption that they are inferior. The most flagrant violations of civil rights, political freedom, and even human decency are disregarded or glossed over, and crimes against humanity, which in a European or American country would evoke a storm of outrage, are seen as normal and even acceptable.
...The underlying assumption in all this is that these people are incapable of running a democratic society and have neither concern nor capacity for human decency."
The Crisis of Islam, Bernard Lewis, p104
/left out a key point
We then woke up to the realization that the combination of 1, 2 and 3 meant that our enemies would acquire the capability to attack US soil with NBC, using terror orgs as proxies to remain anonymous. This outflanks the deterrence [MAD] that protected us during the Cold War. So, we're in a race to disrupt that triangle before we suffer a nuclear 9/11. To do so, we must attack all three legs of the triad:
Rev misses the point. SNL is in its 4th decade. But in its first decade it was the hottest, hippest thing around. In the '70s, it was part of the cultural zeitgeist. People who didn't know what SNL was might be caught talking about "land sharks" and "wild and crazy guys".
I don't think I've missed the point. As you yourself note, the last time Saturday Night Live was hot, hip, and culturally relevant, so were bell-bottom jeans. In other words, you're faulting Clinton for messing up a catchphrase from the 1970s, not a catchphrase that people today actually pay attention to or care about.
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