SNL--Rovian Comedy

[capriccio]

I made a rare appearance in front of my TV for SNL last night because of all the buzz over the first show of the season coming right after the first presidential debate. I have so low regard for the quality of that show that it always takes special circumstances for me to watch it (my last time was their first post 9/11 show). I wasn’t at all surprised to see them immediately sink to the level of my expectations. It’s the same as it’s always been...mint a catch phrase and repeat it over and over again until the audience realizes that THIS is the joke and it’s not going to get any funnier than this. Last night it was “hard work.” The irony is that Bush’s entire approach to the presidency is lifted from SNL...”the world is safer without Saddam,” “9/11 changed everything,” “we’ve got to stay the course.” It’s like repeating “cheeseburger-cheeseburger” over and over again or “baseball been very very good to me.” The audience learns to ignore all the lame, lazy bullshit that comes before or after and simply responds to the punch line. And whenever SNL answers critics who say the show is unfunny, they always whine about the (what?) hard work of doing topical comedy on a weekly basis. Last night they reached their apex—mimicking Bush who’s been mimicking them.

Of course anyone who watches the Daily Show 3-4 times a week...especially the one right after the debate can see what true comic talent can do in any time frame.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Ain't no Gilda and the Blues Brothers,like the rest of the media,

Comedy in modern times, has become a banal exercise in rhetoric.Give the people what they want?

[NYC Liberal]

2. After the first few times,

people in the audience just stopped laughing. Actually, the second they said "flip-flopper" I knew what was coming.

The reason Bush was funny was because they made fun of things he *actually* did during the debates. Like the "Ummmmmm's" and the silences and the "Hard work." With Kerry it was just using something the RWers made up -- it wasn't true.

[nuxvomica]

3. I missed SNL last night. Went to bed early.

Thank you for assuring me I missed nothing. I thought they'd have a field day with the debates but I must be living in the past.