Sunday, February 05, 2012

Foul but not funny

Channing Tatum hosted Saturday Night Live last night and he was an excellent host. Too bad the regulars weren't up to the task. And the opening skit was everything that is wrong with SNL and why the FCC and FEC should step in and halt the program.


Saturday Night Live

That's a spoof of Newt Gingrich and his moon colony pitch.

Herman Cain and Mitt Romney were spoofed. Newt was spoofed. Already it's more than we ever saw of Barack Obama. Remember, he existed as a debate head only during his primaries of 2008. Hillary we could see in curlers in the middle of the night in bed. But Seth Myers, who contributed cash to Barack's campaign and semen to the mattress he humped each night while dreaming of Barack, refused to allow Barack to be spoofed.

And also off limits was Michelle Obama.

But there was Callista Gingrich suggesting open marriage. Callista Gingrich is Newt's wife. He has previous wives. He and his second wife are in conflict over an allegation she took public. It had nothing to do with Callista Gingrich. It was not an allegation Callista Gingrich made.

For a show that never, NEVER, spoofed Michelle Obama's 'for the first time in my life I'm proud of America' (let alone Barack's claim to have visited 57 of the states in the US with one more to go), it was really curious that they they found it okay to go after Callista Gingrich for something she never said.

Fair is fair and Saturday Night Live demonstrated in the 2008 Democratic Party primaries and in the 2008 general election that they would not play it fair. Instead, the show was used to ridicule Republicans while fawning over Barack Obama.

The 43 minute program stretched over 90 minutes is supposed to be a variety show not an in-kind contribution to the Obama campaign.

Along with being completely unfair, it wasn't that funny, there was also Kristen Wiig. "Acting."

Hint to a minor TV celebrity who got lucky that women banded together across the country to make her so-so comedy a hit: You're still not a star.

And turning every Republican woman into a joke not only will turn off Republican ticket buyers, it'll also turn off independents and a number of Democrats who just don't think that you ridicule a woman over and over because her politics are different than your own.

Along with turning off people via politics, you also run the risk that future ticket buyers will say, "The new Kristen Wiig film? Nah. She does the same thing every time. Like her Michele Bachmann. Rember how she'd give Michele 'crazy eyes'? And then she did Newt's wife and did her the exact same way but in a blond wig? It's like she's not that talented and just repeats the same old tricks. Pay money to see that? I don't think so."


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Added by Ava and C.I. Sunday night after this published: And Kristen better really worry. We went to see Carnage tonight starring Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet. One of the trailers was for Jennifer Westfeldt's Friends With Kids and there was applause for Maya Rudolph, Adam Scott and Jon Hamm but everytime Wiig was onscreen, there was hissing and booing (hissing the first time she was shown, loud booing every time after). And, no, we weren't booing and hissing. We actually like Kristen Wiig. It's time for Wiig to seriously worry and stop listening to an echo chamber that's all about trashing Republicans and not at all about building a career for her. She might want to grasp that if all the press love of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin meant a damn thing, the show 30 Rock would have been a ratings hit that year instead of still struggling in the ratings before shifting to last year's even lower ratings. Wiig needs to worry.