It has been five decades since Lorne Michaels’ "not ready for prime-time players" created Saturday Night Live, a show whose stars and characters became touchstones for all Americans, regardless of politics. But this weekend, Michaels decided to flush that all down the toilet.
On Saturday night, Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on the birthplace of Ed Grimley and the Church Lady in a cringeworthy skit that also happened to be a blatant violation of Federal Communications Commission elections rules.
Now isn’t that special?
Back on Oct. 1, Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter that neither Harris nor her opponent Donald Trump would appear on the show, a statement which turned out to have all the honesty of Jon Lovitz saying, "Yeah, that's the ticket."
Suddenly, with three days left before the election, Michaels decided that his comedy show, one of the few things all Americans still share, would become a full-blown arm of the Harris campaign.
Live from New York….It’s Democrat Propaganda!
I’d be very curious to know exactly how this happened. Did Michaels have a change of heart and reach out to Harris? Or, as seems more likely, did a panicked Harris campaign beg for her star turn on the weekly broadcast?
This is the same Kamala Harris who couldn’t be bothered to attend the Al Smith dinner at the invitation of Cardinal Timothy Dolan because her schedule was too tight. Suddenly, 72 hours before the election she cancels a rally in Michigan to appear live at the home of Father Guido Sarducci?
Michaels broke a real and serious trust here, part of what makes comedy as social commentary work. It's something SNL has often strived at: fairness and the idea that all sides are open to ridicule. Such a blatant display of partisanship destroys that.
This is why woke comedy doesn’t work. In the place of the edgy and honest skewering of society, it instead is a laundry list of pseudo-religious shibboleths wearing a shabby comic costume.
The audience isn’t laughing at the joke, but at the stupidity of those they disagree with.
It is also worth noting that SNL has produced some of the most notable conservatives in Hollywood, including Dennis Miller, Rob Schneider, and Victoria Jackson.
The reason that comedians skew more to the right is that unlike actors, screenwriters, or directors, they don’t learn their craft in colleges or conservatories with progressive worldviews. They just sign up at a club and if people laugh they get asked back.
Comedians also need to be free to walk right up to the line of decency in their work, to challenge the things the left says should not be challenged. This is why Dave Chappelle is in hot water every six months.
In this sense, Michaels has not only done the worst disservice to his audience since he took Norm MacDonald off of the Weekend Update segment, he’s also harmed his own cast who he decided to feature in a super expensive political ad.
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In response to the FCC violation, NBC gave Trump equal time during NASCAR and NFL broadcasts, but who at the network greenlighted this mess to begin with? Whoever it is deserves to be sleeping in a van down by the river.
If there is a silver lining to Michaels’ mendacity it is that the Harris skit was abysmal. Every time she looked in the mirror, all I could think of was Stuart Smalley saying, "I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."
Michaels really ought to apologize to his audience and his cast for either his harebrained decision to hand the show over to Harris or his cowardly acquiescence to their unfair and illegal request.
Whichever it is, he doesn’t exactly look marvelous.
If there is ever a time when Americans need an escape from the constant drumbeat of partisan politics, ads and signs, it is three days before an election, but Michaels didn’t care, trying to elect Harris was more important.
Michaels might think he pumped up Harris like Hanz and Franz, but all he really did was soil the reputation of his show. As Wayne and Garth might say, at least in this instance, "he’s not worthy."
