Pro-Clinton? ‘SNL’ Says You’re Joking

[ZombieHorde]

Lorne Michaels has an answer to the political columns, cartoons and comments that have accused his show, “Saturday Night Live,” of favoring Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton during her primary showdown with Senator Barack Obama: Nope.

“I’m in show business and I never, ever forget that,” Mr. Michaels said in a telephone interview on Tuesday night. “We put on a comedy show.”

Or as Jim Downey, the “SNL” writer who has created all of the recent political sketches on the show — and most of its famous ones going back two decades — put it on Wednesday, “I’m just trying to make the sketches funny.”

Over the past three weeks “SNL” has put itself back into the national discussion — not a bad place for any television show to be, as Mr. Michaels acknowledged — first with a series of sketches that have centered on the premise that Mrs. Clinton has been the target of a vengeful press that sees Mr. Obama with stars in its eyes and also with the overt (albeit comic) endorsement of Mrs. Clinton by Tina Fey, the former “SNL” star who returned on Feb. 23 to be the host of the first show after the recent writers’ strike. “Bitches get stuff done,” Ms. Fey said, using herself as an example.

In the weeks that followed, some commentators have cited the comedy bits as aids that have helped revive Mrs. Clinton’s campaign with primary victories in Ohio and Texas. A study by the Pew research organization found that critical coverage of Mr. Obama had increased in the news media after the sketches.

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Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/arts/television/13snl.html?ref=politics

[MADem]

1. There was truth in all those skits, to include "The Obama Files."

Comedy is only amusing when it has elements of truth in it.

Others on the staff, including Mr. Michaels, hatched an “editorial response” for Mrs. Clinton to deliver. She turned up so late on the night of March 1 that she missed the dress rehearsal and had to go over the bit in her dressing room with Ms. Poehler.

By most accounts, she handled the self-mocking material well. Mr. Michaels agreed she had come off positively, saying, “I think we lit her well.”

The show did ask Mr. Obama to appear this week , and Mr. Downey wrote an editorial response for him to deliver, but the senator declined. “I hope it was scheduling and not because he hates us,” Mr. Downey said.