Remember When SNL Was Funny? (Obama Ushers in New Era of Comedic Irresponsibility)

by Chris Stigall

Everyone knows the old axiom about comedy.  There’s always a grain of truth in that which an audience finds funny.  Done well, comedy can make you squirm with its raw honesty.  It has the power to inform our perspectives about politics and news just as any good journalist.  Comedy helps provide insight into human flaws just as any good psychologist.   Often self-deprecating and socially awkward, comedians themselves will deny their impact.  Most comedians and writers prefer to think of themselves as lovable class clowns – laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.  Just as former NBA star Charles Barkley once famously proclaimed he was no role model, many in the funny business will dismiss their impact in the hearts and minds of their audience.

Modesty, however, cannot dismiss a growing body of evidence that suggests comedians possess greater power than ever before when shaping the national debate.   Notably in the last decade, television comedy has amassed an influence in politics to such and extent; nary a high profile politician can ignore its impact and resist the pull to participate.   Numerous studies have been conducted through the years analyzing the staggering impact of comedy in the opinions and perceptions of its audience.  The power is particularly significant with the country’s attention-short youth. 

Since 1977, “Saturday Night Live,” and in more recent years, “The Daily Show with John Stewart” have been a destination for those that like to laugh at pop-culture and politicians.  Often the majority audience is not deeply invested in subject matters skewered and lampooned, especially subjects of policy and legislative debate in Washington D.C.  Most comedy show audiences probably believe they possess a substantive understanding of the issues of the day.  The audiences are largely raucous, passionate, and young.  Youthful exuberance is intoxicating for comedians.  It feeds the performer in the moment, and leaves the home viewer with the impression the show’s message resonates with the masses.

In truth, the live audience sycophants would cheer like trained seals no matter the content.  Being on TV or around those that make TV is just – “cool.”  Informed content is not required.  Check informed opinion at the studio door.  Allegiance to what is “hip” is all that is necessary.

Ever wonder how many in a live studio audience actually watch an evening newscast in lieu of episodes of “Family Guy” and “American Idol?”  Many of them see the USA Today banner headlines, top-of-the-fold at their local gas station as they fill their tank and grab an energy drink for the road.  Still others hear the latest news of the day on their favorite FM radio station’s sixty-second newscast sandwiched in between a hot phone debate on Octo-mom or Chris Brown and Rhiana.  The truth, of course, is it’s a fast paced, multimedia, information culture where there is very little honest information to be found. Keith Olbermann, The Huffington Post, and Daily Kos don’t count, incidentally.

It is that lack of honest information and intolerance for substance that empowers variety and comedy shows to shape national opinion.

Presidential candidates, serious policy thinkers, Wall Street investors, and military giants are all reduced to sketch comedy and six minute interviews to share their message at large.  Once left entirely to men like Murrow and Cronkite, John Stewart and Lorne Michaels are now the gatekeepers and disseminators of information and opinion to a large swath of our nation’s population.  Information and opinion filtered through their unabashed bias.

Lauded and blamed for the destruction of Sarah Palin’s vice presidential aspirations in 2008, SNL’s Tina Fey impression had an undeniable impact on the way millions of Americans judged the Alaska governor.   Comedic lines meant to underscore Fey and company’s narrative of the Governor as an intellectual lightweight rapidly became truth to many voters.  “I can see Russia from my house,” was a fictional comedic line delivered by Fey.  Fey made no secret in interviews about her private disdain for Palin, and her passionate support of Barack Obama.  Sarah Palin’s occasional missteps were artfully employed by a comedian to deliver a big sucker punch in a close election.  The dead-ringer impression became a bigger story than the candidate herself.   While she never actually claimed a view of Russia from her house, millions of SNL viewers still credit the famous line to Palin anyway.

Recently, Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” has been mining the nation’s populist anger at Wall Street for his punch lines.  Host Jon Stewart had been using his nightly stage to portray CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer as a dishonest ringmaster of financial chaos, encouraging his viewers to make reckless investments based on knee-jerk, irresponsible analysis.  Never mind Cramer’s show contains a disclaimer essentially describing it as entrainment, not advice.

This fact did not deter Stewart from playing clips of Cramer’s show, (Cramer contends out of context) to imply his backing of now defunct financial institutions. Want to wager how many in that audience had ever heard of Jim Cramer, his show, or a toxic asset prior to show tape?

A week-long media blitz ensued as Stewart and Cramer shot back and forth through multiple media outlets and their own shows.  Cramer finally agreed to appear on Stewart’s show to address the debate head-on.  Richard Cohen of the Washington Post summarized the power Stewart seemed to posses during the televised meeting.  “…Cramer almost instantly sank into a classic case of Stockholm syndrome, agreeing much of the time with his captor. He came with sleeves rolled up but with the droopy eyes of a chastised puppy.”

Of course there are a number of thoughtful debates concerning our nation’s perilous financial state, but Stewart took the low road.  By singling out Cramer, Stewart dishonestly created a villain; an emotional punching bag for him and the largely ignorant mob in-studio.  Stewart’s audience cheered like Romans in the Coliseum as Stewart seemed to lay Wall Street’s ruin at the feet of Cramer alone.

It is not simply, though that some of today’s comedians take unfair liberties in what they say and write.  Not only is that not new, but who says comedy has to be fair to be funny?  Noticeably it is what today’s comedians are not saying and writing that have many who roared at Fey’s Palin impression only politely chuckling at this season’s disconnected comedy.

For those who pay close attention to the news of late it is clear there is an enormous, almost daily crop of low-hanging fruit just ripe for sketch comedy’s harvest.  It is not uncommon to watch or read the news of the day and think “this should be on ‘Saturday Night Live’ this weekend.”   It seems like a missed opportunity if not painfully dishonest to watch comedy programming and note their inability or unwillingness to score obvious laughs with the country’s most obvious subject – the President of the United States.

Pick your high-profile candidate or president of the last 30 years and Saturday Night Live created a lasting and often crippling parody of their character and leadership flaws.  Chevy Chase’s Ford was a bumbling klutz and Dan Aykroyd’s Carter, a smooth and smiling empty suit.  Dana Carvey’s elder Bush was stilted with scripted throwaway lines.  Phil Hartman’s Regan was gentile on the outside but a calculating power-broker on the inside.  Every year, every election they kept them coming.

Bill Clinton was a McDonald’s-starved sex fiend.   George W. Bush was a cocky moron led by the cold, sinister Dick Cheney.  Remember Ross Perot and his charts, Admiral Stockdale’s loony rants, and Al Gore’s petulant, haughty sighs?  Michael Dukakis had bushy eyebrows and a losing attitude.  Hillary Clinton was a woman desperate for power at all costs and Joe Biden is a slick-talking, loud, brash, phony everyman with a Cheshire Cat grin.  All classic SNL created characters still sold on collector DVDs to this day.

Yet today, the 44th President of the United States has managed to come away from nearly three years of high-profile coverage untouched and unscathed by the show made legend for mocking the most powerful players in the country’s capital.  There is a palpable, labored delivery as the cast and writers of “Saturday Night Live” search to find something funny about Barack Obama.

It is obvious the Obama administration is a target-rich environment for big laughs, but the television comedy industry is purposely firing blanks.  We have entered an unusually dishonest era of comedy.

As it became clear Barack Obama was going to give the once-presumed unbeatable Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the 2007 Democratic primary, SNL was quick to take note.  The obvious bias the show’s creative team would display going forward was immediate to even a casual fan.

Week after week, Obama’s primary fight with Clinton was the focus of the signature opening sketch.  As Obama gained traction the characterization of Clinton became increasingly more desperate and needy.  Even the press was mocked by the show as being partial to Obama through impressions of Gwen Ifill and Tim Russert.  Once each party’s front-runners were nominated, Republican John McCain was quickly cast as wandering and passionless.  Of course people are still abuzz about the aforementioned Palin portrayal by Tina Fey.  Consistently though, Obama’s SNL alter ego would walk away from every satirical situation unscathed.

Students and fans of television comedy are seeing for the first time in modern history productions devoid of laughs at the expense of the most powerful office in the world.  Not only have SNL’s attempts at capturing the essence of Obama fallen flat, the inability of the show’s writers to find any laugh-worthy faults in this administration borders on disturbing.

Clearly attempting to write around this president, we have seen opening sketches of House Republicans debating their latest “obstructionist” strategy.  Dan Aykroyd made a guest appearance as House Minority Leader John Boehner.  It would be interesting to conduct a focus group in the live studio audience after the show. Their awkward, politely required half-laughs seemed to indicate there were not many who understood what they were watching.   When sizable demographics of the population can’t name the Vice President, it seems safe to assume most Americans won’t know House minority leadership.

We’ve seen ridiculous scenes of Senate Republicans being thrown out of the Oval Office window by an Incredible Hulk version of President Obama.  Again, show of hands in the audience.  How many knew Oklahoma Senator Tom Colburn and Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison?   Certainly there have been half-hearted attempts to tweak Democrats like Tim Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Joe Biden and even Rahm Emmanuel.  But in each scene, each sketch, each show, each week – President Obama is portrayed only in various degrees of calm and cool, almost victimized by a sea of buffoonery surrounding him.

In actuality, the Obama administration is a satirical gold mine; a comedy of errors just over two months in the making.  There are scores of actual events and instances gone completely ignored by our creative friends in New York’s hallowed halls of comedic television that have been inexplicably, but now predictably ignored.

First Lady Michelle Obama recently confessed to ABC’s Robin Roberts that their weekly Wednesday night cocktail parties in the White House get so wild that furniture has been broken.  In the interview, she further admitted to repeatedly warning her guests to tone it down.   A high school drama club could write this sketch.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently gifted President Obama a wooden penholder.  The wood used for the gift was taken from the timbers of the anti-slave ship HMS Gannett, whose sister ship supplied the wood used to make the Oval Office Resolute desk. The Prime Minister also gave the President a first edition biography of Churchill by Martin Gilbert. These are gifts that can only be described as priceless.  What did President Obama give to the Prime Minister in return?  A box set of “classic American movies” on DVD.

The DVDs, by the way are not formatted for viewing in Great Britain.   This story writes its own comedy.

Underscoring the power of comedy shows, President Obama decided to visit one just last week to tout his economic recovery plan.  “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” hosted the President for most of the hour-long broadcast.  This was the first time a sitting president visited the set of such a show.  During the taping, President Obama made an astounding gaffe that has since been all but forgotten if never mentioned in the case of the New York Times.

When asked about his poor bowling skills President Obama remarked, “It’s like — it was like Special Olympics or something.”  Couple this embarrassment with Vice President Joe Biden’s request for a paraplegic at a campaign rally to “stand-up” and be recognized ­ and you’ve got the new Martin and Lewis!

It can only be concluded that ratings and obvious comedic material are being pushed aside in favor of protectionist partisanship.

How about the newest head of the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner not paying his own taxes?  Nothing there?  SNL didn’t think so.  Multiple Obama cabinet appointees stepping down for unpaid taxes?  Not funny either.  Nine thousand earmarks in the President’s newly signed budget?  He promised a line-by-line scrutiny of wasteful spending only to tell us the day of the signing earmarks were useful?  Guess not.

When Jon Stewart excoriated CNBC’s Jim Cramer for “playing games” with financial reporting, the criticism rang hollow.  Cramer is no more a serious financial show than Stewart’s a serious showcase for journalism.  Stewart is correct in a broader sense.  Many in America can agree on the lack of serious, honest reporting on everything from finance and politics to faith and family within the newspapers and networks we used to rely upon.   Sadly, shows like Stewart’s and Saturday Night Live are where a growing number of people are turning for opinions and perspective.  This grants a tremendous pulpit of influence to these programs.  They may not acknowledge it publicly, but privately they are most certainly aware. The uninformed audience is just happy to be along for the show.

Here’s one for the pop-culture set.  A quote from the comic book, make that box-office hit Spider-Man: “With great power there comes great responsibility.”  Comedians and writers have great power today, but no sense of responsibility.   Responsibility is not funny, nor does comedy require it.

Comedians are clowns and modern day court-jesters, not journalists.  They write punch lines not bylines.  They frame the debate and craft the joke as they see their world ­ a world based exclusively in New York City and Los Angeles, by the way.  It doesn’t have to be “fair and balanced” because there is no such thing as ethics in comedy.  Indeed, comedy doesn’t have to be fair, or accurate, or responsible.   Individuals must be the judges of those things on their own.  But if comedians and writers expect us to collectively laugh at their work they must be honest with their audience once again.  That applies to this president and what is funny about him, too.

The truth about the Obama administration is that there is a lot to laugh about right now.  Perhaps there is a fear of implied racism or a lingering respect for the historic nature of the last election, or simple blind devotion to a man today’s comedy writers have invested in both financially and emotionally.  But for millions of Americans who did not vote for Barack Obama, and still millions more who see the daily folly of an administration full of missteps is to ignore truth.  Comedy without that grain of truth just isn’t funny.


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Posted Mar 25th 2009 at 1:33 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 155 Comments