This past week, John McCain canceled an appearance on David Letterman’s Show. This was because of a controversial choice by McCain to suspend his entire campaign until a resolution was reached on the economic crisis and some sort of resolution was drafted. (It worked great). This undoubtedly sent Letterman’s writers into a frenzy and messed up their show, but to keep it right wing, Keith Olbermann filled in for McCain.
But even as one of the most prominent satirical figures going right now, Letterman doesn’t really have much of an argument. He said McCain should have “let the campaign go on ashoulder to his vice presidential candidate.” McCain’s not going to do that, Dave.
I really can’t get by the fact that Letterman is doing this for the ratings, but it’s working. I listen to rap music though, and the stupidest rap beefs have been started like this. One guy makes something into a problem completely unprovoked, just to start something. This many diggs show their may be a method to his madness.
Regardless, this is not really the most respectful satire. Dave, you’re a comedy show and nothing but good things could arise for McCain from an interview with you. He did it for a bunch of other reasons, and yes, you were the uglier date.
But maybe i just really hate Paul Shaffer. God that guy’s obnoxious. And creepy.
This week’s Saturday Night Live brought us three new political skits, a sharp increase from one in both the previous episode. First off, we have Tina Fey reprising here highly praised role as vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin a.k.a. Seeruh Peelin in a skit spoofing her interview with Katie Couric:
Of course, I, like most of the world loved the skit. Sarah Palin is like a caricature of this ridiculous (yet increasingly important) election and I will continue to laugh at her until she becomes Vice President. Then things can, and will, get serious.
The best part about this weeks skit is that it lifted lines directly from her disastrous interview with Katie Couric and they were spot on. Here is a side by side comparison of these being giggled at by Wolf Blitzer:
This Thursday’s vice presidential debate is going to load the cannon for Fey, no matter how hard the McCain team tries to revamp her after her past screw-ups. Usually I catch these clips online on Sunday mornings, but this Saturday, I may stay in.
Next up is a skit on the presidential debate featuring former cast member, Chris Parnell as Jim Lehrer:
Okay so I will start with the good.
I really liked Parnell’s line “Also, throughout the debate, I will urge you both to look at each other up to and beyond the point it gets uncomfortable.” After watching the debate, I had a few criticisms to make about Lehrer’s moderating, especially about the awkward moment in the beginning where he asked them to look at eachother. Is this a debate or a modeling shoot, Lehrer? I think he just secretly wanted them to kiss. Aside from this line, even as a Parnell fan, I did not really see a reason for bringing him back for such a bit part. He is capable of so much more.
I really thought Obama’s line about “playign the race card,” was funny because it skewers ignorant critics who are always ready to point fingers at “playing the race card.”
And finally, I thought Hillary’s short appearance was spectacular, partially because of Poehler’s hillarious Hillary expressions and her general aura of patheticness.
So what didn’t I like, or more specifically what did I hate?
Fred Armisen as Obama was so annoying it made my skin crawl. And I realize this could be because it’s never great to see someone make fun of somebody you’re fond of, but I really thought this was an awful impression. He latched on to Obama’s concise, somewhat staccato linguistic style to the point of overkill. We get it. Aside from the race thing, Obama did not have one funny line. The writing wasn’t even good for most of the skit anyways.
The pie thing and the getting naked thing (shout out to Hartford), were just stupid. And, as I said before, I love stupid humor. Maybe I was expecting more after the excellent Palin skits and the relatively funny McCain one, but I was hoping for the return of the golden age of SNL (at least my golden age of SNL). Instead the only thing I am getting is an indication of how funny Tina Fey’s 30 Rock is.
And finally, Bill Clinton made a stop by Weekend Update:
I found this skit to be pretty funny, but without many real political weight. It adressed his steering around Obama’s name, jsut like Chris Rock did, but it is also a good example of a solid impression. This is Darrell Hammond’s best, aside from maybe his Sean Connery.
Overall I grade Tina Fey an A+, and Saturday Night Live a C.
Stand up comedians are often just as important watchdogs as journalists. Chris Rock, in my opinion, rarely loses a flow and is always funny. His political humor sees into the heads of our leaders and points out what their words really mean. He may be ridiculous but he makes some good points.
ANY VIDEOS YOU CLICK HERE WILL PROBABLY OFFEND SOMEBODY AROUND YOU.
So keep it down. That being said, here are some of Chris Rock’s political views with video linked if I could find it. They present logic that’s tough to argue with.
On Gun Control: “Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn’t have any innocent bystanders.“
On Gay Marriage: “Gay people got a right to be as miserable as anyone else.”
On Hillary: “My wife, we’ve been married 10 years, but if she got on stage now, y’all wouldn’t laugh at all.”
On Reverend Wright: “Have you ever met a 75-year-old black man in this country that wasn’t angry? I mean, they have a few reasons…”
On Obama: “We’ve never seen a black man so cool who wasn’t in the music business…”
On McCain: “We don’t need a president with a bucket list. Who’s going to be his VP? A nurse?” (This joke was made months before Sarah Palin’s selection, drawing even more sexy nurse parallels).
Here is a very interesting piece Rolling Stone did on Chris Rock’s significance in the times of an election.
Bill Clinton was on Letterman the other night as well as “The Daily Show,” and I really think he gives a great interview. Clinton is obviously a smart guy who is really trying to do what’s best for his party, and in turn his country.
Couldn’t he be faking this? Clinton has reason to be bitter against Barack Obama. If you’re trying to get your wife elected against this guy for an extended period of time, you have spent plenty of time focusing on what you don’t like about him. Here is a site that examined some of his attacks on Obama and their “thruthiness.” Unfortunately, when the party did not select Hil-dog as their candidate, the Clintons have to do a full 180 and extol Obama’s virtues. This is like when Spiderman and Venom have to join forces to take out Carnage (Nerdy but true). Just not as violent (unless John McCain has anything to say about it).
So Bubba is not exactly happy about Obama beating up on his wife, but he’s got to grin and bear it if he wants any future credibility with the Democrats or he shall face a fate similar to Joe Lieberman. He goes onto talk shows and explains why he thinks Obama is the best choice for the next President quite eloquently:
Then the next guest, Chris Rock, almost negates Bill’s support:
“Is it me or did he not wanna say the name Barack Obama?”
After all the great things Bill said about the economy and his party support, I ask you this: Which video is circulating the web faster?
Charles M. Blow of the New York Times agrees with me and goes just a little further to say, maybe the Clintons don’t even want Obama to win because that would up their chances in 2012.
In the end, here we have another example of a comedian being the whistleblower. Who is wearing the jester’s cap these days? The politicians or the comedians?
I have decided to review each week’s SNL. I haven’t really loved the show since Will Ferrell and company ran it, but it shows promise every once and awhile, mostly with political material. Also, it is the political satire that reaches and appeals to the broadest audience, so I think it’s fair to say it might have the most effect on the election.
This weekend Saturday Night Live opened with a skit showing a recording for a John McCain ad. It features Darrell Hammond as John McCain, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis as McCain campaign strategists, and a great performance by Bill Hader as the voice over guy for political ads and the man with “the most sarcastic voice in Hollywood.” First of all, that voice was dead on and his body language and general persona made him a great character.
The skit starts out with John McCain talking to the two campaign strategists about why he’s here, to record a new “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.” He explains that he is afraid that the tape spools are getting worn out. The old guy jokes are more there to make fun of McCain for being out of touch and not necessarily for being old, but it seems to me that they get a little cheap sometimes. They were just way funnier at the beginning of the election, but by now McCain has given us enough material that they seem like gimme’s. But hey, I laughed.
This skit functions as a commentary, not so much on the state of politics, but more on the state of political ads. Attack ads are really ridiculous and that voice really doubles it, but they are almost always stretches of truth.
Now onto Darrell Hammond’s McCain. I don’t like it. I mean it’s okay and it does capture his soft-spoken side that comes across in interviews, but he’s just okay as this guy. I loved Hammond’s Bill Clinton and Al Gore, but this impression does not seem like it gets deep enough into what makes McCain a smart business move for Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Lorne Michaels to vote for. I think this will evolve over time though, as Hammond is on his fourteenth year at the show and will not let his McCain become as forgettable as George W. Bush after Will Ferrell.
Finally, after this skit aired, reports surfaced over the possibility that senatorial candidate and SNL-alum Al Franken had some involvement in its writing. Turns out, he did. His old friend Lorne Micahels called for input on the attack ads recording and head writer Seth Myers later followed up. Franken claims he didn’t know the talks were for a skit because that would be a gaffe. I don’t see too much wrong on SNL’s side. Lorne Michaels called the person who is probably his closest friend in politics. Franken should realize that he is running for a senatorial seat though, and this is not going to be perceived well. His well established liberal audience probably is fine with it but that kind of thing does not attract the undecideds.
I was bored on the Internet this morning when I realized that I hadn’t heard anything from one of my favorite stand-up comedians, Patton Oswalt, in a while. Oswalt is a comedian best known as Spence on “The King of Queens,” the voice of “Ratatouille,” and for his raunchy, pop-culture-infused brand of stand-up that is especially harsh on the current Bush Administration. Here is an example, but be warned, this is not for young ears:
So I go on his website just checking for new material and I find this posting on his blog. Oswalt explains it as a chain mail his father forwarded to him:
“Let me see if I have this straight…
-If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.”
-Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
-If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
-Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.
-Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
-Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well-grounded.
-If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
-If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
-If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
-If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
-If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
-If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.
-If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
-If you’re husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now!”
This is obviously dripping with liberal bias, so that isn’t something I am even going to dissect because it’s just too blatant, but must be said before I feel the wrath of O’Reilly. But this does not necessarily need to be seen as a criticism against McCain/Palin, but more as a criticism against media bias targeted against Obama/Biden. But wait? Isn’t this a world of liberal bias? I thought the conservatives got the bulk of the bullshit. This Newsweek article explains how the McCain camp is the one benefiting from the media.
In my opinion, as always, this isn’t a black or white area, but a gray one. All of the stuff the author iof this chain mail talks about, are not things I would really listen to. Did McCain really ditch his sickly wife for a new, hotter, healthier one? Maybe, but that is not the kind of issue you can’t take at face value. All relationships are way more complex. (I hope). The only way to fight bias is with skepticism and fact-checking. Unfortunately, those who listen to that kind of garbage have a vote too.
This is a new story on The Onion. It addresses the criticisms against picking Sarah Palin because it was pandering directly to a demographic. For a lady who has had every joke possible made about her over the last few weeks, The Onion manages to write a hilarious article with some elements of truth. The short article ends in a traditional style of many Onion articles, over the top: “Palin has a campaign stop scheduled next week in Texas, where she is expected to introduce her stepsister Linda, a $35 barrel of offshore-drilled crude oil wrapped in an American flag.”
This particular article does more with its headline than most do. As somebody who is now on the www.moveon.org mailing list because I’m a sucker for free stickers, I know those guys e-mail you so much, you have to just mass-delete their e-mails from your box. This article is especially funny because it takes a website controversial for its extreme liberal politics, and makes fun of them for e-mailing you so much. Sometimes, in satire, the most obvious jokes are the most true, and most funny ones. Note the picture that reads, “Explore Barack Obama’s personal e-mail account.” I thought this was particularly humorous in light of Sarah Palin’s hacked e-mail account.
Though this is a great article because, in the world of Obama satire, the most frequently used joke is about his God-like status because it is ridiculous but not controversial to make fun of. This is where The Onion comes in to address an area that is side-stepped by so many satirists: race relations:
This was an article from earlier this year when Obama-mania was in full swing. Everyone was so excited about this man and were interested in his messages of hope and change. The Onion didn’t now what to believe, but it knew race would play some role in this country’s perception of him. So, they brilliantly take the word Obama had built an entire campaign around and make it mean spare change. Some of the best lines from the piece:
“I’ll be honest, when that black guy said he would ’stop at nothing’ to get change, it kind of scared me,” local mechanic Phil Nighbert said. “Just leave me alone.”
“I’m a hardworking American who pays his taxes, and the last thing I need is some guy on the street demanding change from me,” said William Overkamp, a Springfield, IL gun-shop owner. He added, “What he really needs is a job.”
Finally, how does this publication take on McCain? They make him seem like an insane cartoon character:
This joke, though not exactly used for the first time, is so absurd that it’s funny. It makes John McCain seem like an old Vietnam Veteran who has lost it. But, at the same time, it touches on the budget cuts McCain loves and treats the Secret Service as just some more government pork.
I love The Onion because it appeals to my sense of humor directly. There have been so many times when I am sitting on my computer with friends around and am just reading out headline after headline. They usually don’t think they’re as funny as I do but that’s probably just because of my delivery. The Onion is a unique brand of satire that thrives on absurdity, yet still points out more about issues than meets the eye.
So, is there a bias? I would have to say no for this one. There have been a lot more headlines about Obama but that could be because The Onion feels that it is some sort of duty of theirs to bring the worshipped figure to the same level of laughabilty as the easier target, McCain. An often, the articles reveal more about America than the candidates.
I could go on picking issue after issued that are lampooned to perfection by The Onion, and probably will come back to it. The point is, if you haven’t been reading The Onion, get on it.
Tina Fey made a return to Saturday Night Live the other night for the first time since she left it to go on an actually funny show. The AP called it a “viral hit,” the internet being something SNL has to embrace if it wants to survive. People don’t want to see Michael Phelps read off a teleprompter. They want to get right to the good stuff, and luckily Tina Fey brought it. With the direction SNL has been going in, I thought we were going to be stuck with Kenan Thompson playing Palin, but fortunately the show realized the uncanny resemblance between her and Fey.
Content-wise, the skit definitely was far harsher on Palin than Hillary Clinton, played by Amy Poehler. I am quite alright with that because right now, Palin is the relevant one and is going to have to get used to being scrutinized and lampooned. Hillary has gotten her fair share in the past year. They really emphasized her complete lack of experience, which I was happy to see because her sudden rise to prominence probably overshadows this. Saturday Night Live, being a more mainstream show, is a good venue for this criticism that is not obvious to all. And that Fargo accent…
Highlights:
“And I can see Russia from my house”
Clinton: “I don’t agree with the Bush doctrine”
Palin: (Between Laughs) “I don’t know what that is”
“I was a small-town mayor of Alaska’s crystal-meth capital.”
One type of political satire that has been around since the 1720’s is the political cartoon. They are often telling and offer much insight into what’s going on in the world around them. Their influence has undoubtedly diminished over time with a much wider array of competition, but they often still make a point that can incite public opinion.
But, I chose to focus on the election. In this tense of a political climate, when a stutter can be considered a gaffe, the sad events of 9/11 can be used as just another political stepping stone to the White House.
Some of the comics simply state that sentiment:
Others show these ugly ways, including my favorite which points out the absurdity of the events going on in such a climactic time for the United States:
As the pictures continue, you can see that 9/11 is a time when mockery is nonpartisan:
When it comes down to it, these politicians know there is way more to 9/11 than to point fingers at the other side. They know that now is the time to point fingers at both sides.
With the 2008 presidential election in full swing, I, like many of my collegiate peers, turn to Comedy Central to watch the news. Sure, you can see a talking turd on South Park if you tune in a minute or two early but really, you see the same on network news all day. That being said, Jon Stewart and his team at “The Daily Show,” make news far more digestible for a college audience than the other hip, young anchors like Lou Dobbs. They are consistently being extolled for their ability to call out bullshit as they see it and are creating a generation of cynics who are increasingly fed up with the political scene. “The Daily Show,” has earned its stripes, especially considering the amount of political speeches they have to watch to find the best clips.
That being said.
This program is worshiped by college students who feel like they’re watching a show on Comedy Central and not the news, but influence is not going to step aside because of what channel the show’s on. It is clear to me that to figure out the truth, one must look at all 500 sides of the argument, and be equally receptive to them. Critics have accused Stewart of running a show with a distinct liberal bias. Though Stewart has been open about his more liberal views, he maintains that they don’t go soft on the left. Let’s take a look at “The Daily Show’s” coverage of the presidential candidates’ convention speeches, more specifically the spoof videos of the candidates’.
Obama’s video wasn’t up on Youtube and WordPress won’t embed flash videos that Comedy Central uses, so here’s the link.
Now here’s McCain’s:
These videos are very different and focus on two very different aspects of the candidates. Obama’s focuses on the fanatical response this politician gets from people (the Oprah part being especially ridiculous), while McCain’s focuses on his blatant hypocrisy since 2006. Both are very funny videos that were put together well, but Obama’s clearly goes easier on him.
So we have to ask ourselves why? It could very well be that it is just harder to dig up dirt on Obama. He has made fewer mistakes and has eaten his words fewer times than McCain but has been in the public eye just a fraction of the time. Is this a liberal bias? I would have to argue no, because it’s just satire that focuses on the predominant absurdity of Obama supporters and the predominant absurdity of McCain’s hypocrisy. That being said, this should call for conservatives to use satire to get their point across too. My politics usually agree with Stewart’s but there needs to be a more conservative Daily Show for fair, satirical coverage of candidates. If my age group is going to use this program for their news, then they need to make sure they’re getting the full story.
