Comments on: Sarah Palin Delivers Highest ‘Saturday Night Live’ Ratings Since 1994

By: DiscoStu

DiscoStu — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Palin’s a good looking woman, but I think looks alone aren’t really enough to qualify you as the leader of the free world. An a non-american, I’m glad that the republicans got beat, I have no real issue with McCain, but god forbid something should happen to him and Palin ends up the most powerful person on the planet!

By: Satellite TV Guru

Satellite TV Guru — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:25:52 +0000

Unfortunately, I missed Saturday night’s episode with the real Sarah Palin, so thanks for the link to the two clips from the show. I must say, I couldn’t tell the difference between Tina Fey and the real Sarah Palin; Tina does a great job as Sarah Palin. Now I’m off to surf the Web to see if I can find a place where I can watch the full episode of SNL.

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:18:10 +0000

Except in the polls, amirite, RG?

By: R.G.

R.G. — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:17:09 +0000

After much noise from the media saying America is over Palin…it seems to me the media still need to do some “fact checking” on themselves…Palin seems to bring in the numbers no matter where she goes or what she does…

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:42:39 +0000

You should really go work for SNL. Your skits are about as funny as theirs usually are!

By: papertiger

papertiger — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:38:24 +0000

http://www.propublica.org/article/secret-service-denies-blocking-reporters-at-palin-rallies-1017/

Reporters are in the tank. Making up stuff out of whole cloth.
Which lends itself to another SNL skit.
Scene – a media boardroom where newsmen are brainstorming the next McCain/Palin smear disguised as hardnews. The camera pulls back to show the boardroom is really a goldfish bowl. Then it pulls back further to show the goldfish bowl is sitting on an endtable next to Obama. He casually reaches over and taps the glass saying “Get to work in there.”

By: papertiger

papertiger — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:58:12 +0000

I think you are confusing the story where Sarah Palin’s Secret Service guards have been keeping the media away from her and the crowds.

Yes Julia I believe that particular fiction was invented by Dana Milbank. It’s been debunked – http://www.propublica.org/article/secret-service-denies-blocking-reporters-at-palin-rallies-1017/ – but still your comment presents a challenge to my funnybone.

Ok – a media boardroom. Several news types are sitting around a table brainstorming the next outrageous McCain/Palin op/ed they can present as real news. Slowly the camera pulls back to revealing the boardroom to be enclosed in a goldfish bowl. A giant sized Obama taps the glass.
Tadoocha!

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:24:39 +0000

each of which are cut off by a gang tackling secret service detail just as they ask an embarassing question which the socialist Obama can’t afford to answer.

I think you are confusing the story where Sarah Palin’s Secret Service guards have been keeping the media away from her and the crowds.

By: The Bleamer

The Bleamer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:15:51 +0000

Watch the ratings go back in the tank next week. I don’t watch any of the networks except for local news and an occasional sports event. NBC is a disaster. Sorry I ever bought GE stock.

By: papertiger

papertiger — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:29:23 +0000

Ok so Obama is giving his stump speech from a podium. The crowd is really digging it cheering at all the right places. Barry is reading off a teleprompter but it’s presence isn’t obtrusive. Then he ends his speech and starts to move toward the rope line to shake hands, kiss babies and such. At this point we see that the teleprompter is a mobile unit which Obama is wearing around mounted on a backpack with a harness. _ Hysterically funny. Then as he is shmoozing with the crown people can get tankled in the contraption, he could start talking quicker then normal to keep up with the script rolling too fast. Or speak slower with plenty of “uhs” and “ahs” as the aparatus variably malfunctions
Depictions of Obama like that would keep SNL ratings up – the operative provision would be “keeping it real”. Because SNL can’t afford to pander to their switched on political junky audience.

By: papertiger

papertiger — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:26:45 +0000

Bob is talking about Obama being too boring to make fun of. This isn’t true.
Several scripts come to mind. Like having him step away from the podium then walk backstage into a Chairman Mao themed set where a panel of Chicoms praise or critique his delivery giving him pointers for the next campaign stop.
Or howabout Obama walking through a middle class neighborhood running into one Republican homeowner after the other, each of which are cut off by a gang tackling secret service detail just as they ask an embarassing question which the socialist Obama can’t afford to answer.
See stuff like that would be hillarious, becaue it’s so close to true.

By: newage44

newage44 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:38:22 +0000

After the election, and Obama and Biden apparently win, the only sketch SNL could play is the winners as undertakers!! Oh wait..that’s not funny…and the joke is on America.

By: Mark GE shareholder

Mark GE shareholder — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:37:33 +0000

It takes Sarah Palin (a republican ) to turn this shows ratings around. GE Corp
needs to takes account of this . We need to bring back Jack Welch and put
him back at the helm. COME BACK JACK…..!!!!!

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:50:36 +0000

Jackie, we’re willing to let an awful lot go by in our comments, but racism is over the line.

By: Jonathan B.

Jonathan B. — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:48:28 +0000

It’ll be interesting if Michaels can get his wish to have McCain, Obama and Biden all appear in the next two weeks. If he can, they could probably stay in the 7.0-8.0 range, before quickly falling back into the 4.0 range they’ve been in before this season.

If anything, I just hope this somehow helps 30 Rock at least perform adequately in order to keep it alive. That’s ALL I ask. Please?

By: tom

tom — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:27:53 +0000

it’s sad when people like jackie bring the conversation down to a low level. takes the fun out of it.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:59:29 +0000

@Jackie

How can you stand yourself? Really.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:38:30 +0000

Catherine, I wasn’t selling myself short as much as giving SNL the benefit of the doubt. The Fey/Palin/Poehler/Clinton skits got me to watch the show, and I tried watching the rest, but couldn’t endure anything else. I kept telling myself, this can’t be as woeful as I think it is, someone has got to think this is funny.

tom, I am at peace with my soon to be advertising irrelevancy. Namaste.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:30:38 +0000

Way back in the beginnings of SNL when I was part of the target audience their political skits were always funny. It is easier to write material based on something tangible.

I don’t care for Gov. Palin but she seemed to be a good sport last night. Actually I think Amy Poehler stole the show with the flirty bar skit and the Palin rap. And yes, the show without Fey and Poehler will be poorer. They were the glue that held the show together.

As has always been the case the weakest part of SNL is the final twenty minutes of sketches. I wish they would find a formula to strengthen that. Maybe they just figure that not too many people are watching toward the end. Wisely they have been moving Weekend Update closer to the end of the show,

And come on Bill, you are selling yourself short, funny is funny. Age has nothing to do with it.
Even when we were young and in the youth culture loop a lot of the SNL skits misfired. It is hard to come up with material for a show like this, especially when they are doubling up because of the election. Some of this material is just bad.

By: tom

tom — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:22:32 +0000

bill… just 2 years away from being insignificant. wow. thank god i’m still in my 30’s and advertisers still want my money.

ratings will obviously go down after the election… but i really think if they stay current they can keep some of the younger ones tuning in. but they have to stop with the lawrence welk, mary popins and macgyver stuff. i can’t imagine that’s what 20 year olds wanna see. but i have to admit the welk thing was funny and twisted.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:10:34 +0000

Come on, Obama or McCain are too boring to make fun of them. Especially Obama, every attempt to spoof him simply fails.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:36:20 +0000

tom, I do agree that their political stuff is funnier to me than everything else they do, but that’s almost certainly because [at 48] I’m out of their target audience. My guess is that their big ratings boost this fall, fueled by the political sketches, were all folks like me who’d otherwise never watch the show. After the election, politics won’t be topical enough for them, and all of us will stop watching.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:18:20 +0000

Can Sarah Palin get down or what I saw her raising the roof during that Palin rap i’m not voting for her but i’ll dance with at da club anyday LOL

By: tom

tom — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:18:11 +0000

bill… there’s always something juicy going on in politics… as well as current events which is what i think this is more about. there’s always one event that drives the news and they should try to stay on that after the election… not just in news update but in sketches. be it politics or whatever grabs everyone’s attention. what sucks is poehler is gone soon. and even though it seems like fey is there… she’s not. but it’s funny because i always worry when good people leave snl and then i think there’s no way they can go on without… (belushi, murphy, hatman, meyers, fey) but there’s always somebody right behind them that comes out of nowhere… poehler didn’t really come into her own until she took over news update. so it will be fun to see who comes to the front of the line.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:16:29 +0000

It’s just curiousity for something strange. Just like Nancy Kerrigan got in 1994.

If somehow McCain wins the TV networks have a great cow to milk, maybe they’ll do a sitcom, who knows? If Obama wins Palin is history, and everything goes back to normal for SNL.

PS: yesterday they didn’t laugh with Sarah Palin, they laughed AT Sarah Palin with her standing there. Alac Baldwin trashed her.