Tonight’s SNL Skit Mocked McCain… (But Al Franken Should Stick To Campaigning)

COMMENTS (47)

• Al Franken: Still funny and heading for Washington.

  One of the best little youtubes you can ever watch is Al Franken drawing the United States state by state, by hand, from memory on a white board in front of a group.

  Best trick ever.
  I link it for you but I’m lazy.

  Comment by ReelBusy — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 9:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Just saw the skit. Hope Al’s not writing his own campaign commercials, ’cause that was incredibly lame.

  Comment by A.M. — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 10:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• it’s on huffingtonpost.com–and while ok doesn’t compare to last weeks.

  Comment by CJ — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 11:10pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I just saw the skit linked on HuffPo and I thought it was pretty clever and funny actually. It may be closer to the truth as far as what McCain signs off on as “approved messages” as sold to him by his staff. He accuses Obama of “win at any cost” campaigning yet he runs all these untrue sensationail spots and then pull them when the fact checkerS call BS but long enough to fool a few more voters. He seems pretty desperate lately.

  Comment by Transpo — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 11:12pm PDT  Reply to this post

• It was great. The youtoooobers will keep it alive. My opinion is people need to see this, or at least they will want to see this.

  Comment by Julie Evans — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 11:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Yeah, wasn’t that funny. Both sides do it. Last week they picked on Palin. This week McCain. Hmm. Where’s the Obama-Biden skits?

  Comment by Dan Zee — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 11:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Worst opening in SNL’s history.

  Comment by Can'tBelieveWhatIJustSaw — Saturday September 20, 2008 @ 11:36pm PDT  Reply to this post

• is there no one who can tell lorne michaels that his show is unfunny and maybe he should move on? He has the same disease Paul mcartney and bob Dylan have in that no one has the ability to tell these guys it’s over. No matter what rolling stone says.

  Comment by Anonymous — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 12:20am PDT  Reply to this post

• Where’s the Obama-Biden skits? Comment by Dan Zee

  Hello Dan, 4 months ago is calling.
  Get with the times.
  Remember last season and the pillow comment that made it into the real debates after SNL’s sketch?
  They did Obama last season.

  Comment by ReelBusy — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 12:56am PDT  Reply to this post

• SNL is over.

  It’s been bad and so far this year, all they have to show for it is 2 minutes from Tina Fey/Sarah Palin.

  There’s more wit here:

  http://practicalconservative.wordpress.com/

  Comment by Practical Conservative — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 1:15am PDT  Reply to this post

• Wasn’t the worst SNL opening ever (anyone who’s been watching the last few years can vouch for this.)

  But it wasn’t worth a blog post either. Just another forgettable sketch.

  Should be noted though: Franken only came up with the concept. If you want to blame someone, blame Seth Meyers who actually wrote it and head writer of the last few terrible seasons.

  Comment by 40yearoldstitzer — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 1:42am PDT  Reply to this post

• I know! Let’s blame the whole SNL staff for not putting up a fuss on just how lame their stuff has become. Or are they all out looking for other jobs and just don’t care anymore? Amazing the show is still on the air.

  Comment by Amelia — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 2:00am PDT  Reply to this post

• that was funny!

  Comment by dv — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 2:11am PDT  Reply to this post

• Man it was AWFUL. I really can’t understand how they can write these skits, go through the run-through to see what works and what doesn’t, and still think ones like this one are funny. (The Cougar one was even worse. I couldn’t even understand what they were saying.) Hammond as McCain wasn’t funny. Kristin Wiig looked at the prompter the whole time. Why was even Franco the host? I can’t imagine how the show’s gonna be when Amy Poehler leaves.

  Comment by MrBurns — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 2:18am PDT  Reply to this post

• Without Tina Fey and Amy Poehler there would be no more SNL.

  Comment by Thierry Attard — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 3:40am PDT  Reply to this post

• I think that Franken did the best job tonight. This season of SNL sucks, and this sketch isn’t the greatest, but I laughed and it was better than most of the shit tonight.

  Comment by Lars — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 4:21am PDT  Reply to this post

• Worst opening ever?

  Was I the only person laughing?

  Any problems were with Darrel Hammond’s delivery… that guy’s as bad as Bruce Willis character in The Sixth Sense… you’re dead buddy… stop hanging around 30 Rock.

  Comment by Mary Janes — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 5:09am PDT  Reply to this post

• The females on SNL just appear to have more talent these days. Unfortunately they are booking out of the show…

  Comment by JS — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 6:27am PDT  Reply to this post

• Wow, I just don’t get the hate. I laughed out loud. The universal healthcare riff was funny, the snarky voice guy, what do you want?

  Comment by MDOC — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 6:31am PDT  Reply to this post

• Al Franken must be listening to too much radio. Rush Limbaugh was airing commercial parodies almost identical to the ones on SNL 4 years ago, except with a more conservative slant of course. They were also much funnier.

  The music, the voice and the ridiculous “connections” seem to be lifted straight out of the EIB comedy archives.

  In his new political career many critics have advised him to “stick to comedy”. After watching this I would advise him to stick to politics.

  Comment by Tom Crook — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 6:34am PDT  Reply to this post

• This was clever satire. It perfectly lampooned just how low the McCain ads have stooped.

  If only the rest of the show was as good as this skit. The OJ Simpson trial skit was funny but Weekend Update wasn’t as good as last week.

  Comment by nyguy — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 7:38am PDT  Reply to this post

• I agree the opening sketch wasn’t classic, but ok. However, Franco in the Cougars’ sketch as an addled Pete Wentz was spot-on hysterical. The Pineapple Express/James Bond parody was too obvious, although Franco was a good sport about it. But buried within was a real gem sketch — the NY Times reporters gathered in a meeting, trying to prepare to covertly go to Alaska to investigate Palin. A brilliant dig at elitist Time reporters too full of themselves to be objective about any subject. And the Kings of Leon rocked. Now, excuse me while I go back to Hell and prepare a comfy breakfast nook for Chevy Chase.

  Comment by Michael O'Donoghue's Ghost — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:18am PDT  Reply to this post

• As SNL, like Stewart and Colbert, will contain the three most viral, highly-circulated ads of this campaign season aimed at young voters, so the Republican supporters, think tanks, and McCain strategists have to make a MAJOR effort to discredit them. That’s why I expect that the first 5-10 Nikki Finke posts on SNL will be discrediting posts actually written by these Karl Rove proteges. Either that, or the hater comments are written by the rightwing nutjobs who have discovered Nikki through the Drudge Report.

  Nikki, are you ignorant of this, or are you a Rethuglican yourself?

  I thought that opening was really funny, except Hammond’s impression could be better.

  So it’s fair to say that people’s positive/negative reactions to SNL sketches will be politically partisan for the next 6 weeks, no matter how funny or unfunny they may be.

  Comment by LiberalArugulaEater — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:29am PDT  Reply to this post

• I thought it was very funny. It would be nice if McCain actually saw the real ads before they air but I don’t believe he does. They are just too inaccurate for a reasonable person to approve.

  Comment by hrtlandmom — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:43am PDT  Reply to this post

• Ugh. I was hoping it would be good, but it was about as funny as those Seinfeld/Gates Microsoft commercials. In fact, the entire show was woefully dull.

  Comment by savvydude — Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:45am PDT  Reply to this post