"Obama and McCain Presidential Debate" (Grade C-)
Thinking back to the "lockbock" and "strategery" debate sketch between Bush (Will Ferrrell) and Gore (Darrell Hammond), I was looking forward to seeing what they would do with the most recent presidential debates. This sketch turned out to be a disappointment. Granted, the debates were held on Friday, giving them less than twenty-four hours to come up with something. It was apparent a good portion of the sketch was written before the debates occurred, because little in this sketch referred to what was actually said. It was nice to see Chris Parnell return to the show to play debate moderator, Jim Lehrer. Fred Armisen, who usually does a good job playing Barak Obama, seemed off his game in this sketch. While he had the facial expression and arm movements down pretty well, the vocal impression didn't sound anything like Obama. Darrell Hammond played McCain as a guy who can barely muster enough energy to speak, which doesn't fit McCain's character. There wasn't anything in the debates to imply that McCain "just doesn't care anymore." They need to turn these candidates into characters the way they have done in the past with Bush, Carter, Bush Sr., Dole, and Ford. It would surprise me if anyone involved in this sketch watched more than a few minutes of Friday night's debate.
"First Date" (Grade C-)
In concept this sketch probably sounded funny. It's a musical in which the two main characters (Anna Faris and Kenan Thompson) are out on their first date. Said date happens to be on a rowboat in the middle of a lake. As the date progressed the audience learned that the man was actually a hired hit man, and the girl's ex had information that could convict drug kingpins. The girl thought she had met the man of her dreams and the hit man was having second thoughts about his hit. All this was told through song. Some of the lines were kind of amusing, but as a whole it was all too bland to be funny.
Musical Performance: Duffy - "Mercy"
"Weekend Update" (Grade A-)
This week's "Weekend Update" was finally funny. The thanks for that primarily goes to Darrell Hammond. Hammond's portrayal of Bill Clinton was a look at political humor done right. Hammond was hilarious playing Clinton double-speaking his away around officially endorsing Obama for president. "Barak Obama is the only — Democratic nominee for president." Staying true to the SNL version of himself, Clinton said he can't endorse McCain even though he is "hilarious and cool." He also said there are plenty of differences between himself and McCain — McCain likes to watch CSI and he likes Californication. Another highlight of "Update" was Kristen Wiig as travel writer Judy Grimes, who is so nervous she keeps making stupid jokes and then adding "just kidding" after each one. There were also several funny jokes during the news portion of the sketch.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
I think Fey absolutely had to come back and do the Palin thing when she did. You simply can't let something like the Couric interview go without parody.
2 - handyguy
Yes...it was almost as funny as the actual interview.
Some of us are hoping for more yuks on Thursday night. Last Friday's debate was notably short on laughs.
With the world falling apart around us, is it too much to ask that our candidates be entertaining?
3 - CallmeMaddy
The debate was amazing. Besides, weekend update, it was the best thing of the night.