Saturday Night Live has skewered US Presidents from the very beginning. From Chevy Chase’s loose but hilarious portrayal of a clumsy Gerald Ford to Will Farrell’s drop dead embodiment of G. W. Bush.
I can’t help but wonder which of today’s candidates will give SNL the biggest boost. It’d be easy to ridicule McCain for his age. But easy comedy is not always the best. Of course any ripping on Obama will have to be politically correct and not get too much into race.
Normally I wouldn’t have included the VPs, but I think the lovely Sarah Palin would be a great object of ridicule: the soon to be baby-momma daughter, a fisherman for a husband, her love of guns, etc. Biden? I can’t really think of anything funny about him, but in fairness I included him anyway.
What do you guys think? Which of the current candidates would be the best for SNL to skewer to boost its ratings?
Bob Dole was the best. I still remember when SNL did the parody of him falling off the stage and he stood up with his pencil stuck in the back of his head. F***ing great!
WTF is up with all the polls all of a sudden?!?
Someone get a new toy at Dvorak.org/blog?
I must day that Sarah would be great.
Too bad, Molly Shannon is no longer on SNL to do a ‘Sarah’ on a pageant tour.
I’m to vote the ‘dark side’ just for this remote possibility.
“Of course any ripping on Obama will have to be politically correct and not get too much into race.”
Sad but true. But in the early years of SNL political correctness was a non issue, as evidenced by many of the skits starring Garrett Morris. And they were funny.
I can’t remember the last time I watch SNL live. It must have been in the mid to late 90s.
#6: Same here. I keep wondering when NBC will either
1. get new writers
or
2. finally cancel it
# 1 Personality
Bob dole was great!
# 3 Dallas
“Too bad, Molly Shannon is no longer on SNL to do a ‘Sarah’ on a pageant tour. ”
Holy shit you haven’t watched it in a while huh? Sarah Palin looks just like Tina Fey except Tina left 2 years ago.
# 4 James Hill
“My understanding is that this may be the last year of the regular Saturday Night show, as they will be testing a move to a one hour prime time format later this year.”
Are you ill informed about everything? No James it is not the last year and no it is not moving to primetime.
# 5 RonD
“Sad but true.”
No! They have done stuff on him and racial stuff too. It is just that he doesn’t have any buffoon like behavior to mimic. Sarah Palin does and so does McCain. Biden and Obama are boring on that front.
# 6 Improbus
I agree it has its ups and downs. But skit comedy tends to be generational mostly because it is based on current events or attitudes.
# 7 OvenMaster
“2. finally cancel it”
They will cancel it when people stop watching it.
I voted for Sarah, because there is just soooo much material there. As for political correctness, perhaps they could get Eddie Murphy to guest star…he could get away with more than the regular cast. And do it quite well.
But the funniest thing I remember on SNL with a presidential candidate was Michael Dukakis riding up and down on the electric podium. That rocked!
Oh, and I think SNL actually started in the final days of Nixon.
They’d have to bring back Tina Fey.
Does anyone even watch SNL anymore? DVR and Tivo have helped it stay afloat, but otherwise it is boring.
The actor playing Obama would probably be Kenan Thompson. He’s the only black actor; he plays every black character on the show. Tina Fey would be best to play Palin, but she left the show.
They got Tina Fey to host the first episode this year. Announced days before McCain did? Weird huh!
Palin = “Sweet Jesus” with an AK47 !!! Comedic possibilities are endless !!!
I’m picturing McCain in his bedroom slippers yelling at kids to get off the Whitehouse lawn while ballbuster Palin shoots at DC community organizers from Marine One.
Hell, who cares if Obama has a thin skin? Makes him that much easier to skewer. I see a SNL skit about Obama blowing his top because of a parody SNL skit about him blowing his top from being skewered on SNL.
“Dana Carvey, Bush the First.”
Carvey did a great imitation Bush the first, no doubt. But it was too polite. It wasn’t a ribbing, a skewering, or a slam. It was an homage.
It think the reason Carvey failed as a comedian is that he was too nice of a guy. Comedy isn’t about protecting someone’s feelings or being a nice guy. It’s usually about being a prick.
Chase, Hammond, and Farrell all succeeded in their presidential slams because they weren’t afraid to be impolite.
If you really want to judge how funny the 4 candidates are – try to imagine their facial expressions as they strain against constipation or blow out diarrhea – that’s the gold standard.
#13 Aaron-
I don’t think that’s right. I heard Michael Phelps is hosting the first episode this year.
But maybe Fey will appear later in the show? They wouldn’t announce that, though.