Reply #66: Here's how I saw it.

[Berry Cool]

The "blackface" issue aside, because that's a whole different discussion, although I think it's a legitimate one. For that reason, I'm going to discuss this skit as if it had been a black man portraying Obama.

The skit was cunningly created, because it was constructed as to potentially be found funny by anyone, regardless of political opinion. As a Republican or independent, you could simply look on it and laugh at both the farcical depictions of Clinton and Obama equally. As a Hillary supporter, you could read it as a hilarious--and TRUE!--depiction of what life would be like with Obama as president, and thus as "the best Hillary ad ever." As an Obama supporter, you could look at it as a hilarious--and TRUE! presentation of what Hillary WANTS voters to think would happen if Obama were president, and of the absurdly exaggerating, demeaning-to-Obama kind of ad she WISHES she could run.

Of course, doing such a skit is never risk-free. So, of course, you not only have people reacting to it as above, but also have Hillary supporters thinking it was an insult to Hillary because it cruelly implied that she would actually like to exaggerate Obama's lack of fitness for office that way, and Obama supporters thinking it was a depiction of the show's writers' TRUE feelings about what an Obama presidency would be like.

Me? I think the absurdity on both sides kept me in mind that above all, comedy was the goal. Was it so pro-Hillary to include Obama asking where Bill is and Hillary saying "It's 3 a.m., how am I supposed to know?" Or to depict Hillary in curlers and cold cream? Was it so pro-Obama that it avoided even reminding people that he used to smoke? Or that it avoided making him look so stupid he didn't know what to do in the White House if it got cold?

I recognized that the whole thing was couched pretty carefully to ensure that it didn't sound like it was favoring either candidate too much.
And I admit--the part about the heater and the little red button next to it that "Hillary" advises "Barack" to push and wait 45 minutes for the heat to kick on--that's exactly the kind of thing my mind wanders to every time I hear the "Day One" meme.

Yep--Hillary will be ready on Day One. She already knows about that little button next to the heater. She could find it in the dark. And that stuck window in that one room? That too. Just give it a good shove and a slam; it'll shut.