Archive for the ‘snl’ tag
How Political Satire Got So Flabby #
With a title like that I had to read Troy Patterson’s piece. The problem?
“pseudo-satire,” which is cynical and shallow and treats politics “like an infection” and stands in contrast to the real satire that, for instance, Jon Stewart offered on the subject of the botched joke and the way it was spun: “After an election in which the GOP has been beaten up by, let’s say, reality, the party has rediscovered a winning issue: the has-been’s faux pas.” Where O’Brien’s pseudo-satrical joke trivializes the political process, Stewart’s engages it by laughing at that very trivialization. The distinction isn’t simply a matter of what’s funny; well-constructed pseudo-satire often deserves more laughs than preachy satirical jokes. It’s about the fact that comedy can perform a watchdog role and seems more ready to shirk it than Judith Miller. “By avoiding issues in favor of personalities,” writes Peterson, “and by ‘balancing’ these shallow criticisms between conservatives and liberals, late-night comics are playing it safe but endangering democracy.”
Playing Obama in ‘Honeyface’ #
Aside from being a barely passable imitator of the man, SNL’s Fred Armisen plays him in “honeyface.” Given the amount of stink that was raised about Angelina Jolie maybe wearing makeup in A Mighty Heart, I’m surprised this was the first I’d heard of it.
‘SNL’ Claims No Pro-Clinton Bias #
Something I, having suffered through three weeks of the less-than-funny show, have to doubt. Nonetheless, Lorne Michaels had this to say:
“I’m sensitive to the suggestion that we’re in the service of Hillary Clinton this year,” he said. “That obviously is not the case.” He added, “We don’t lay down for anybody.”
SNL Needs a Fauxbama #
Finally back on the air, the show has no one to play the most popular politician in America.
So far, the only time SNL has featured Obama in a skit was a cameo performance by the man himself, just before the writers’ strike began. Now that the strike is settled, the show, three days from airing, finds itself with no clear candidate to play the Democratic front-runner. … Which is why Kenan Thompson, SNL’s only black cast member at the moment, was often mentioned as a possibility. But apparently producers have wisely decided that would be like asking William Hung to play Chiyo in Memoirs of a Geisha, and, yesterday, the Post announced that Lorne Michaels was holding auditions outside the cast for the role.