Saturday Night Live
I could ponder how it’s possible that a 34-year-old comedy show is newly popular. But what’s more interesting to me is how some of the writing on that show has gotten soooooo much better.
Not ALL of the writing, mind you; at least 80% of the show is still subject to such a lack of The Funny as to make one chant an internal “What are they thinking?” like a mantra. But the opening segment . . . ah, the opening segment!
Like most of America (and portions of the rest of the world) I have been enthralled by the Sarah Palin mockeries. As has been previously reported here, Tina Fey is God. But she hasn’t been working alone; the writing has been unerringly sharp, and unflabby in a way that SNL hasn’t been in — well . . . maybe ever. Last night’s installment — featuring the fakey Palin and the actual McCain — was both fascinating and funny. And just a bit daunting, as had been the actual-Sarah-Palin episode; one has to gauge these real-Republican-inclusive skits to make sure they’re not somehow exalting the figures that so richly deserve satiric contempt. (I can’t say conclusively that a certain exalt hasn’t happened, but my solace comes in the theory that the only “bump” the Repubs could get for exhibiting a hip sense of humor would be from the humorously hip audience faction that is already committed to an Obama vote.)
I thought last night’s McCain-Palin “show” from QVC (the only network time they could afford) was a brilliant premise, with jokes intermittently more brilliant than we had any right to expect. Even Cindy McCain was funny, in a truly creepy kind of way. And when Feylin stepped “secretly” to the side to hawk her “I’ve gone rogue” sweatshirts for her 2012 campaign, it felt downright devilish, as if we were getting a huge, illicit laugh behind the substitute teacher’s back.
John McCain — of all four of the candidates for the two top slots — has always had the actual sense of humor. It was more palatable when he actually WAS a maverick, back in 2000. But one can’t argue that he didn’t rise to the bantering occasion with Dave and Jon, in the old days. He may be worse for America than Barack Obama in every important way, but in the “bring the funny” category McCain wins…at least, when he’s not in one of his moods.
At long last, we seem to be a country that is electing a President and not auditioning a drinking buddy. I’ll drink to that. (And I’d watch a show on QVC that John McCain was hosting…if the writing was good.)