I am exhausted. Can we just elect a president already? Especially today, one day before the election, I don’t need to hear anything else. Can I just cast my vote and get woken up on Wednesday afternoon? Or can the 24-hour news outlets maybe limit their coverage of the results? Maybe just run a ticker that announces the winner, with no talking heads earnestly dissecting every detail of the results?Â
[pause]
BWAHAHAHAHA! I know, I know. We’ve got at least eight days of non-stop election coverage to go, especially when you count the weekly magazines that are going to run cover stories on the winner.
Since the media juggernaut is inevitable, I’m just grateful for this sketch from Saturday’s SNL:
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I like this piece because it mocks both Obama and McCain, Democrats and Republicans. McCain can’t raise any money? Well, at least he’s got Ayers Freshener to sell, reminding us about one of Obama’s weak spots, and at least he’s got a Biden doll that talks on and on and on.
Even though it’s largely anti-McCain, the sketch still strikes me as skeptical about both of the candidates and the political process in general. That’s the kind of all-purpose joking I need right now because in my world, where almost everyone is a Democrat, the political humor tends to have an undercurrent of anxiousness. Cracks about Sarah Palin’s potential reign don’t make me chuckle with carefree joy, you know? They make me laugh, but it’s the laughter that springs from hell.
So as the pony show trots its last few steps, it’s nice to step back and snort at everything for a while, Obama included. I’ve been so intensely involved this year–so serious and emotional about every damn ripple in the stream–that I need to chill out for a minute. Lord knows, I’ll be hyped up again on election night, so thanks, SNL, for giving me a chance to laugh in a different way. At least for two days.






3 responses so far ↓
1 amanda // Nov 3, 2008 at 12:48 am
hmm…this world of yours in which almost everyone is a democrat? can i move there?
i did get a huge kick of mccain’s “strategies” on weekend update, though. “the sad grandpa” is fantastic. i wonder if snl was intentionally mocking mccain’s constant use of air quotes with that skit?
2 Mark Blankenship // Nov 3, 2008 at 1:21 am
Hey Amanda,
Sure! All you need to do is move to New York and get involved in the theater. We’ve always got room… but we don’t always have jobs… so… you know… we’re Democrats.
I thought McCain’s strategy thing was really funny, too. And Ben Affleck’s Keith Olbermann was pretty great, too.
3 Michael // Nov 4, 2008 at 1:02 pm
This clip returns me to the fundamental paradox of the whole Republican campaign for me: somewhere in the center of this shitstorm of bad, impulsive ideas, supposedly pragmatic compromises that sold out his integrity, miserable advice taken from shameless political bottomfeeders, and unsettling signs of quirks and crankiness, there is nevertheless still a John McCain whom I’m grateful to and admire (in some ways) and . . . LIKE. There’s something ineffably sad in the whole spectacle–and, ironically, this clip, showing the man’s capacity for wit and self-deprecation brings home that pang in the moment it makes me laugh.
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