Anti-Hollywood Republicans Play Victim Card Again, Upset "SNL" Keeps Making Fun of Them
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Miscellaneous | Comments (42)
I found this post, via our insane friends at Big Hollywood, from “A Hollywood Republican,” another conservative that spins entertainment news for the right. He argues that despite President Barack Obama’s omnipresence — he’s apparently the 5th most Googled person in the world, and the 3rd most cited person on Wikipedia — that the media, and specifically, “SNL” takes it easy on him for political reasons.
Don’t we remember George W. Bush being the subject of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes on a nightly basis? Wasn’t George W. Bush portrayed by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live (“SNL”) every single week? Weren’t there several movies and documentaries directly and indirectly about the Bush Presidency during his entire two terms?I’ve been witness to this in the entertainment industry for over a decade now. When a Republican is in power, its full throttle; however, when a Democrat is in power, it’s time to step on the brakes.
For some reason, after watching several episodes of SNL this season, it finally dawned on me that something - or someone - was missing from their cross-hairs… Obama. Rather, the concentration has been solely on Republicans… whether Republicans in Congress or Republican Presidential hopefuls. And that concentration is consistently negative.
Why would SNL, a show intended to attract the 18-to-34 age demographic, work tirelessly to make George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, John McCain and many other Republicans not only stupid, but often evil and go so soft on Barack Obama and the Democrats? …
Like Clinton, Obama is portrayed as an intellectual who is likeable and “cool.” In the sketch Obama , played by Fred Armisen, says ,”No matter what the circumstances, I am going to keep it cool”, “if given a choice, I choose cool” and “I never play the fool like politics as usual, I keep it cool.” By contrast, Will Ferrell as George Bush in this Global Warming sketch states, “I have no idea what the hell I am talking about” and “They are making me look bad, using facts.”
Really!?! No, really!?! Really!?! Lorne Michaels?! Really…
A few weeks ago, a Republican media commentator argued that conservative comedians aren’t appreciated enough, while this guy argues that comedians make too much fun of Republicans.
Why? The answer is fairly obvious: President Obama is a comedy killer. He doesn’t do anything that’s ripe for parody. This guy argues that there is plenty of fodder, including “Solyndra, Fisker, Fast & Furious, new wars in Libya and Uganda without Congressional approval, Obamacare failures that include increasing healthcare costs, a broken 8% unemployment promise, the terrible economy, record setting food stamps, Obama anti-Israel attitudes, his support of the OWS morons, his taking over of the Internet.”
However, none of that is really conducive to sketch humor: Those are policy issues. Meanwhile, Republicans offer sound bites, many of which are self-parodying (if you saw “SNL’s” take on the Rick Perry debate gaffe, you can see how hard it is to mock something that’s already self-mocking). George Bush was the King of Malapropisms, which are easy to emulate for laughs. Obama has big ears; you can only mine that for so much. He may say things that Republicans disagree with, but he doesn’t say stupid things, which was a regular occurence for George Bush. And Rick Perry. And Rick Santorum. And Herman Cain. And Michelle Bachmann.
But after eight years with Clinton, you can’t tell me that comedy is decidedly liberal. I think this gentlemen is completely overlooking the years from 1992 - 2000. Hell, whenever there was a slow news day, or if he ran out material, David Letterman — a left-leaning independent — would pull out Clinton jokes and rerun them, years after Clinton left office. He will stick crack one if Clinton surfaces in the news.
Check the news cycle. No one makes fun of Obama because no one listens to Obama anymore. His speeches are like Iraq War casualties; background noise on the nightly news. The Republicans are sensational: It’s like a revolving door of fuck-ups and scandals. Comedians don’t make fun of policies; they make fun of gaffes, and if you stick your foot in your mouth or your dick in someone else’s, well, then you’re going to get made fun of, no matter what your political leaning.
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Comments
Posted by: maka at November 17, 2011 5:07 PM
Liberal media/entertainment bias? I'm shocked.
It is what it is, but Jon Stewart has been making fun of Occupy Wall Street.