Video below. Politico says comedian turned U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken helped head writer Seth Meyers brainstorm tonight’s SNL opening sketch mocking John McCain. Ugh, it was lame. Not funny at all. In fact, the whole show stank.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.







While alot of SNL is mediorce in quality, I actually laughed at that skit. Boy, are they going after the right harder than ever! Ive never seen more hostility between the so called liberals and conservatives than in today’s climate! There’s alot riding on this election as this country has never been more divided!
As an independent I really think the republican party has turned into a outright CULT! It’s like Pods have fallen from outerspace and taken them over!
I thought it was okay, not great. Clever premise, but Hammond’s delivery slowed the momentum. To be fair though…John McCain isn’t the easiest guy to impersonate when it come to getting laughs. There isn’t a whole lot to work with, and Hammond is known for being spot-on with his mannerisms and voice inflection, so it’s probably frustrating for him too.
It’s funny…back in the early days of SNL, I remember Chevy Chase used to impersonate Gerald Ford and didn’t even try to look and sound like him, but it was still funny. Dan Aykroyd used to do Jimmy Carter…with a moustache. Hammond is usually great, but he’s got his work cut out for him this season.
The skit fell flat. As does Franken.
Franken’s skit was pretty lame. McCain is … uh … old! ha ha. And … uh … bad. ooh, a zinger!
It was very funny and the whole show was good, particularly the sketch with Fred Armisen as Penny Marshall in “The Looker”. The show stunk five years ago but it’s back to being very funny, even for bitter Hillary supporters who hate anything that appears to favor Obama.
You didn’t think it was funny? I thought it was pretty good… I actually laughed out loud.
kings of leon blew the roof off. wow.
Nikki’s right the opening sketch was lame! Whoever wrote last week’s hilarious Sarah Palin opener should have written last night’s opener! Maybe Lorne Micheals needs to reevaluate his writers maybe some of them need to be let go and some new blood added. Don’t blame the actors for the lousy script blame the writers!
Al Franken. Sweet Jesus, this neverwas has more lives than Dracula. Unfunny, unpleasant and he just keeps right on rolling along, blithely unaware that he is the epitome of the D-Lister who just won’t pack it in. This nonentity in the US Senate? Please.
For the love of God, someone please cancel SNL!!
The very definition of “sad sack” or “loser” is to be home on a Saturday evening, sitting in front of the TV switched to NBC at 11:30 pm.
I love when Liberal entertainers get down and dirty and try to destroy the opposition with ridiculous or lewd crude crap labeled as entertainment or comedy. Someday these morons will figure this crap only gets the opposition more excited and enthused about going out and defeating them. I can hardly wait for the Oliver Stone movie “W”. From what I have read from some that have seen it or parts of it this film may not get the GOP base into the theaters but will surely get the GOP base out this November 4th filling out their voters ballots.
Hey, “Practical Conservative”, I checked out the link and that is some VERY funny stuff, VERY funny.
If it wasn’t for outside money Al Franken would not have the money for his own campaign commercials in Minnesota.
His Senate race ads are horrid..He has to put ads on explaining why he doesn’t pay taxes or why he throws chairs and yells obscene remarks to people he does’t agree with. I didn’t see the SNL show Franken supposedly helped write but I am sure if it is like his ads in MN his home for the last two years it would be lame. He seems like an angry man who is filled with hate. SNL should do a skit on the real Al Franken
talking to someone who disagrees with him. (chairs included)
Comment and premise, two items incorrect.
1. Franken did NOT write, suggest, nor participate in the creation of this skit according to his office.
2. SNL was NOT “attacking the future president”, they were simply poking fun at a tired old man, who’s looking to poink another trophy before he curls up his toes and crokes.
The cold opening was blah, but I thought the rest of the show was fine.
Humorous and pulled a few chuckles out of me, but not the gut buster that last week’s was. (Palin is just better comedy fodder, I guess.)
A solid premise, that McCain’s ads use, at best, spurious logic and cherry-picked/out-of-context facts to make their point. I think that the writing itself could have been tighter.
Well this comeback to haunt Al Franken in his senate bid in Minnasota. But viewers were outrage at an incest skit involving Palin’s husband. Word is thier political skits have fallen flat.
Last week’s poke at Sarah Palin was hillarious, I still laugh everytime I think of the line “I can see Russia from my house”. I looked forward to seeing what SNL would do with McCain. This skit wasn’t funny to me. I think this one was more mean spirited. I’m not sure where that line is between funny and mean, but I think it was crossed and for me that just brought the entertainment value down. If I wanted a commentary on the truthfullness of the ads that are running (and I live in a battleground state so I see them all the time), I’d turn on any news channel. During SNL, I want to be entertained.
Below are the most up to date Minnesota polls. Franken should stick to working on the job he wants and not the job he had!
Coleman (R) Franken (D) Barkley (I) Spread
RCP Average 09/10 – 09/21 — 44.8 41.5 10.0 Coleman +3.3
Quinnipiac/WSJ/WP 09/14 – 09/21 1301 LV 49 42 — Coleman +7
Rasmussen 09/18 – 09/18 500 LV 48 47 3 Coleman +1
Star Tribune 09/10 – 09/12 1106 LV 41 37 13 Coleman +4
SurveyUSA 09/10 – 09/11 734 LV 41 40 14 Coleman +1
Again, just one LITTLE error in the polls you include….
These are all TELEPHONE polls… and are NOT including the growing segment of individuals going ‘off the hook’ and using cell phones only. These also tend to be younger (read NEW) voters who have been shown to be more in the Obama/Franken camp.
Thanks Nikki for calling it as you see it. The sketch was not funny and perpetuated an old canard. According to a May 2000 article in the Boston Globe, Senator McCain cannot type because of his war injuries. I know you liberals might not want to hear it again, but this man endured intense physical torture for five years and the effect of that torture means he cannot use a keyboard.
The comments here just underscore what Penn Jillette said in one of his recent Crackle.com essays; that Democrats are hateful and patronizing. “Anyone who supports a Republican is stupid.” And talk about a media bias. The old network of Huntley & Brinkley has become the opposite of Fox. When will we see a sketch of Obama with his smug look, flip-flopping about his pastor and his church. Smugly supporting a terrorist who said he wanted to destroy the Capitol while denying he was a terrorist.
Get ready Democrats. McCain will win big in the Electoral College. When voters mark their secret ballots, they’ll vote differently from what they told the pollsters. Not because they’re bigots, but because they didn’t want to tell the pollster they were choosing a white man over a black man. Not because they’re racist, but because they are in reality choosing on the basis of actual merit, not the fervent wet dreams of out-pf-touch liberals.
I’m sure the tin-foil hat brigade will be out telling their constituency the election was stolen, regardless of the evidence.
Not a Karl Rove protégé, because the waiting list was too long.
Liberals calling the 08 election stolen will sound real cliche.