“Saturday Night Live” finally saw fit to target President Barack Obama on last night’s program. But don’t be alarmed. The show didn’t lay a glove on Obama. Instead, they used him as a tool to blast the GOP, mock blacks who will never consider pulling the lever for his opponent and so gently tweak the First Lady’s healthy eating campaign that even Michelle Obama herself might chuckle at the ribbing.

When the time came for the “Weekend Update” segment, it was back to business for “SNL” – blasting conservatives (and their values) with alacrity.

In the “How’s He Doing?” sketch, Kenan Thompson hosted a talk show assessing what it would take for a “nonpartisan” panel of black guests to vote against Obama in 2012. The guests wouldn’t change their vote no matter what Obama did in office, but the sketch also tried to paint GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as a quasi-racist.

Romney looks like the kind of person who, “at any minute, might hand you a tip,” guest host Maya Rudolph said in character.

Over at “Weekend Update,” Seth Meyers and returning “SNL” star Amy Poehler tag-teamed for a segment touching on birth control, the topic du jour Inside the Beltway. The duo blasted Romney and Rick Santorum directly while trashing Catholics for being hypocrites and control freaks.

Meyers also fired off this joke during the segment about CBS’s profits and upcoming GOP presidential ads – “If you could find this lady believable as a cop (“CSI: Miami actress Emily Procter) you might find this guy believable as a president (Santorum).

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NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” is having a field day making fun of the GOP presidential field.

Last night, the show used its opening sketch to mock Gov. Mitt Romney for losing primaries in three states to Sen. Rick Santorum during the week and for being artificial to the core.

“SNL” regular Jason Sudeikis did the Romney impersonation, but the nearly laugh-free sketch was saved by a barking dog.

You won’t see KISS rocker Gene Simmons anchoring any cable news program, but the ageless bass player is eager to discuss the current GOP field.

Count Simmons in the Mitt Romney camp, and his reasons for choosing the former governor over Newt Gingrich come down to a pragmatic view of modern women. Simply put, they won’t stand for a first lady who came in third.

Mitt Romney’s got a chance … and he’s got the experience. He’s run successful companies, knows how to make money and knows how to be taxed at 15 percent instead of 48 percent if he lived in Beverly Hills the way I get taxed,” he says. “If you invest you should be taxed at 13-15 percent because if you invest you could also lose everything, so it’s all fair.

Simmons is more cynical regarding former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s hopes of beating President Barack Obama in the fall, and it’s not because Gingrich isn’t qualified to become Commander in Chief. (more…)

Even people who recoil at “Saturday Night Live’s” inability to hit the Left as hard as the Right will admit the show’s sketches look great.

Terrific makeup. Top-flight impersonations. Impressive production values.

Actor Justin Long proves in his latest video that’s he’s not ready for prime time, “SNL” style.

Long is partnering with far-left MoveOn.org to play up the already discredited meme that former Gov. Mitt Romney likes to fire people. “SNL” beat Long to the punch, but the “Live Free or Die Hard” star doesn’t want to let it go.

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This weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” skit targeting likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a perfect example of two media worlds working toward the same goal – the re-election of President Barack Obama.

First, mainstream news media outlets take a Romney quote out of context – “I like to fire people” – to gin up manufactured outrage. That meme circulates for a few days, long enough to get on the radar of “Saturday Night Live” writers who can’t find anything funny about a president residing over a stagnant economy.

Why look for potential laughs there, right? It’s not as if sitting presidents haven’t translated into comedy gold for decades.

Next, “SNL” picks up the Romney meme and makes it the Jan. 14 show’s opening sketch. The bit has Romney (Jason Sudeikis) appearing at a Middle American diner and firing everything in site – including the bacon on the menu.

Ha ha.

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Stephen Colbert isn’t content with satirizing the GOP from the comfort of his Comedy Central perch.

Now, the star of “The Colbert Report” is running a faux Super PAC ad in South Carolina slamming GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney.

The spot takes an actual quote from Romney – “Corporations are people” – and fuses it with the former governor’s days with Bain Capital. If Bain eliminated struggling companies, then Romney is a “serial killer,” according to the ad voiced by actor John Lithgow.

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What hath the sax-lovin’ Bill Clinton wrought?

Then-Gov. Clinton appeared on “The Arsenio Hall Show” way back in 1992 to, A. play his saxophone and B. earn some cool points along the way.

He likely did both. Now, it’s common for both presidential hopefuls and the Commander in Chief himself to appear before Letterman, Leno and their peers to win over the masses.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney joined the late night fun this week by reading “The Late Show with David Letterman’s” Top Ten List. Letterman, whose liberal biases have become crystal clear in recent years, kindly allowed Romney to speak directly to his audience.

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Titled, “Things Mitt Romney Would Like to Say to the American People,” the bit included this highlight – “It’s a hairpiece …”

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Consider Michael Moore the latest celebrity to see the sour side of Hope and Change.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker won’t be voting for Rick Perry, Mitt Romney or Herman Cain next year, but he’ll pull the lever for President Barack Obama with a heavy heart. And no, that’s not a fat joke.

Moore described Obama’s first three years in office to the BBC as “heart-breaking” and a “disappointment.”

“He did not come into office like I hoped that he would, to do what Franklin Roosevelt did in his first few months where he came in and said, you know, ‘I’m in charge, this is the way we’re doing things, if you don’t like it, throw me out of office,’” Moore said.

Moore said Obama spent the past three years “running the ball in the wrong direction” before making somewhat of a turnaround with a jobs bill and other economic plans.

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The Presidential race is on. We’ve already seen the first Presidential Debate, and political comics are chomping on the bit. For the past three years, political correctness has forbidden Presidential humor, so when Fox News announced the first Republican debate, “Saturday Night Live couldn’t” resist the urge to satire.

Unfortunately, their enthusiasm might have caused them to jump the gun. Since last Thursday’s GOP debate was devoid of A-list candidates, “Saturday Night Live” didn’t have any solid characters to parody. So rather than make the late night ensemble work, the writers just fictionalized a debate between the more famous undeclared candidates; using characters they will probably be able to recycle during the upcoming campaign.

It was like watching a focus group, each actor trying out catch phrases they hope to use over the next year and a half. They even had Keenan Thompson resurrect his Jimmy “Rents 2 Damn High” McMillan character (personally I would think they could have gotten the real Jimmy McMillan, at or below AFTRA rates, which would have had the added bonus of making the skit funny). (more…)

Tonight, HBO’s “Big Love,” which has become tremendous television, runs its season finale.   In spite of the fact that the first large media portrayal of Mormons living and working in America (in my memory) is based around a rogue polygamist family, a truly cultish “compound” of polygamists worshiping a nefarious self-proclaimed prophet (Harry Dean Stanton!), and some corrupt elements of the actual Church of LDS, I gather that at least some Mormons watch each new episode eagerly.  I understand, because however you want to describe the structure of the show or how it portrays the Mormon Church, it has produced one memorable character after another and as many compounding plot twists as the genre can handle so well.  And then there’s the acting – it’s wonderful.

Watch it now or later, but if the premise of one man with three attractive wives somehow turned you off from the series…or let’s say, turned someone in your house off from the series…the show’s exploration of love and family will surprise you with its heart and concern for tradition.  Jeanne Tripplehorn’s performance as “Barb” (the first wife) could carry you through this season alone.  Hey, the main title song is literally “God Only Knows,” with Carl Wilson singing forever through the opening credits.

More about the show after the jump, but here’s my question: how has the show changed or informed your impression of Mormons?  If you’re LDS, what do you think of the show?  (more…)