So I’ve actually added Saturday Night Live to tivo, though historically I’ve tended to scan through and maybe watch the Weekend Update news piece and seek out that maybe one funny bit. My biggest problem is the obvious, the skits aren’t funny, what’s mildly funny is dragged into a long ongoing series of no longer funny skits, most of the guest hosts are painful to watch as they read from their cue cards, and I don’t even listen to most of the bands they have on.
There was a decent amount of buzz around its return after the strike and its ability to excel in a pre-election climate. They can poke fun at politics by playing the politicians in a way that Stewart or Colbert for example can’t. They are in fact planning some special weekly Thursday updates just prior to the election. I will have to say that although I found the first pass amusing, I just don’t know that its keeping my regular attention.
Amy Poehler does a fantastic Clinton. Fred Armisen is alright as Obama, though he captures the stiff, he misses that x-factor that’s what Obama seems all about. And McCain, well McCain hasn’t had a lot going on yet so he’s about as boring on the show as in real life.
There has been some talk about whether SNL has a bias, it’s seemingly pro Hillary skits paired with Tina Fey’s quite funny Bitch is the new Black opinion piece in the news were pretty good. They’ve certainly taken stabs at others and had Tracy Morgan do a little Obama opinion rebuttal piece that unfortunately just wasn’t as spot on.
My problem is more the problem that I have overall, the repetitive nature of the jokes. For example the whole ‘folks take it easy on Obama’… Funny at first, and then they need to bring something fresh to it. Will they keep being able to fill Saturday night’s as well as four Thursday night episodes? We’ll see. Maybe in tonight’s debate Obama will call people bitter again and Hillary will talk more about sniper fire.
