Letters to the Editor
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Moldy Act
on a moldy show.
Is it not clear enough yet that Clinton is no different from Bush? That both want the US to be a police state?
Elsewhere on Salon today are all the links posted showing B Clinton sought the same police powers Bush has successfully implemented.
Why would anyone vote for that willingly? Does this make you enablers who are equally culpable and guilty of being traitors to America?
Thank GOD she is a has-been. HER type (BC) has ruined this country enough already. IT is no wonder I cannot stand media anymore when malicious clown acts like Miss Hillary are lionized.
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SNL
Personally I find SNL's pro-Clinton cheerleading to be a bit baffling. But I thought she did fine in her appearance. Her comic timing was quite good.
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Someone needs to tell Hillary...
Desperation is a stinky perfume.
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She was all right but SNL bombed.
When you combine the portrayal of Obama as a stammering incompetent, the pushing of the "he's one of them" theme with the picture and hussein reference on Weekend Update and then the Smigel cartoon outright racist portrayal of Obama, Jackson and Sharpton (who actually leans toward Clinton)I'd be ashamed to be associated with SNL if I was a self-respecting liberal Democrat.
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I watched SNL just to see this, and then was sorry I did
Hillary Clinton was all right in her brief cameo. She said "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" very enthusiastically. She looked very upbeat, as in, "Hooray, I am on SNL just in time to promote myself in the election!" Wheee!
So Hillary Clinton did a nice job. But the show itself still sucks. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who thinks that SNL was best when I was in high-school/college and juvenile enough to appreciate it. I am more than ready to regress so I can enjoy it. The show sucks.
The main part I saw was a reprise of their parody of the Clinton/Obama debates. Why they reprised it is anybody's guess, since it wasn't funny the first time. Amy Poehler's impression of Hillary Clinton is empty; it doesn't seize on any of Hillary's traits, positive or negative, to caricature. The guy who was playing Obama is terrible: Is that a white guy in blackface, or a black guy in whiteface? His impression of Obama was about as good as mine would be.
The "joke" of this sketch was the same as last week, with the questioners throwing Obama softballs and being tough on Clinton. I don't get it. Did we see the same debates, or didn't Tim Russert beat Obama over the head with that Farrakhan nonsense?
SNL is a show that has been content to ride on autopilot for decades now, with most of its top talent moving on as quickly as they can. Maybe Lorne Michaels should get his ass down to the Groundlings or Upright Citizen Brigade or Comedy Store or wherever and find some new talent.
I'll be watching Clinton tonight on The Daily Show. I am sorry to see that Obama hasn't booked any big comedy appearances, but I understand that's because he's busy campaigning for public office.
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Darn!
When I first saw it, I was sure it said that ELAINE PAGELS was going to host SNL ..... and I actually spent a bunch of time trying to get someone to invite me over to see that show.
But it was just some teenager.
I WOULD have watched if Elaine Pagels was the host, though. But not to see the vapid Amy Poehler wear the same dress as HRC.
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sermonizing
Did SNL ever mock Hillary's sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama a while back, when she did that bizarre black Southern accent from the pulpit?
Suzanne Pleshette RIP.
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sermonizing
Did SNL ever mock Hillary's sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama a while back, when she did that bizarre black Southern accent from the pulpit?
Suzanne Pleshette RIP.
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Speaking of southern accent
I watched some excerpts of Hillary speaking in Ohio yesterday and she was, strangely, speaking in what appears to be her "Texas twang." I guess she can't keep her accents straight during all these campaign stops in different states.
It seemed like every "ing" came ou "in" to the point where it was distracting -- people comin' home from work, walkin' into situations, tryin' to get by, lookin' for affordable health care, wantin' a doer, not a talker ...
Why can't ALL the candidates just talk in their own voice, no matter where they are. This is a big diverse country; we are OK with people from one part of it talking differently from people from another. John Kennedy never tried to pretend he could pronounce an "r" the way everybody else did, and he got along just fine all over the country.
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not inspired is an understatement
I thought it was a cringeworthy performance. I think SNL would score more points if it actually threw a few punches at Hillary. It's not the Dukakis Bush debate after all.
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What's so funny about torture?
I'm more curious about the uncritical treatment of Giulliani, given his pro-torture stance. It's difficult to imagine the biting SNL of the 70s/80s would have given an anti-democratic bigot like Rudy a platform to show off his self-referential "humility." Once upon a time, SNL would have gleefully skewered Giuliani's ego without his help.
Compared to the Rudy-worship, the free (and unconvincing) commercial for Clinton was somewhat less revolting. Clinton more or less gets to laugh off her vote for the war with SNL's blessing.
SNL's fawning attitude toward politicians is simply another example of how boomers like Lorne Michaels have abandoned the revelatory joke for self-congratulatory (and apparently profitable) cynicism. The craft has also suffered accordingly. Expert make-up jobs now stand in for revelatory characterization. Aykroyd believably played paranoid Nixon with a mustache(!), black-like-me Armison can't even manage Obama's easy-to-mock sunny cadence. The performers have talent (eg Armison's funny Weekend Update sketch) but seem smothered under by an imposed point of view.
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Random thoughts
SNL feels a special relationship with Rudy G. because he acquitted himself quite well on the first post-9/11 show amd gave the cast "permission" to let the show go on. I'll leave it to the readers to "Discuss amongst yourselves" (thank you, Linda Richman) as to whether this was a good thing.
Any pol who appears on a TV comedy show is just following a tradition begun by Nixon on "Laugh-In." Again, discuss amongst yourselves...
I think SNL'S "jump the shark" moment came somewhere in the late 80's or early 90's when various celebs started making surprise "cameo" appearances on the skits in which they were mocked. Sometimes it works (DeNiro and Pesci), mostly it's just embarassing for all concerned. (D.A.Y.)