SNL Skewers Fox News (And Glenn Beck!) On Election (VIDEO)

Rachel Sklar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:59:29 +0000

Last night’s Saturday Night Live opened with a sketch spoofing Fox News, its coverage of the election — and, of course, Glenn Beck.

The sketch was loaded with send-ups — Greta Van Susteren by Kristen Wiig, Shep Smith by Bill Hader, Brit Hume by Will Forte, Karl Rove by Bobby Moynihan and Juan Williams by Kenan Thompson — and took aim at assertsions that the election was a referendum on Obama. (Hume: “He had ten months – ten months! – in office, and he could not find time to fix the greatest economic collapse in modern times, or win one of the two wars that he inherited.” Rove: “Let’s not forget that it was under HIS watch that we lost the King of Pop.”) Oh yes, the Fox “panel” also featured Fred Armisen as lone Dem Joe Trippi (the joke being that Trippi was an overlooked, ignored afterthought).

The highlight of the sketch, though, was Jason Sudeikis as Glenn Beck who declared Tuesday’s election “the return of Freedom,” got choked up, and took to the chalkboard to rearrange the letters in Greta’s name. (“A Great” for “A great, great nation” — the joke being that Glenn Beck can’t spell.)

Great, zingy sketch — but my only quibble here is with the glaringly off-note of Shep Smith. Played by the usually spot-on Hader, this version of Shep is inaccurate in that it portrays him as pushing a nakedly partisan agenda, which Smith is well-known precisely for not doing. All told, though, that’s balanced out by Juan Williams’ mustache and Glenn Beck’s hat. Watch below:

Of course I like this sketch spoofing Fox News’ election coverage — it agrees with me. Nice Juan Williams from Kenan Thompson (mustache!), great Greta Van Susteren from Kristen Wiig, funny Karl Rove from Bobby Moynihan, and a shout-out to Joe Trippi, even if it’s clear that the SNL makeup people had no clue what he looked like. Best line in the whole thing: “Let’s not forget that it was under HIS watch that we lost the King of Pop.” A nit: Bill Hader as Shep Smith was way too smugly partisan, with shades of Keith Morrison. But on the flip side, I think Jason Sudeikis may need to get an Emmy for his impression of Glenn Beck. Outstanding.

Megan Fox on SNL: 35 Years of Hope On Her Shapely, Er, Shoulders

Rachel Sklar — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:15:31 +0000

In its 34th season last year, SNL went mainstream — super mainstream. Thanks to Tina Fey‘s uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin — a Vice-Presidential candidate who revealed herself to be a headline machine in one of the most riveting election seasons in U.S. history — SNL hit its stride with viral video after viral video, which skyrocketed it out of the realm of late-night ratings and onto daytime computer screens across the nation (and newscasts, and 24-hour cable shows, and The View, etc. etc. etc.) Finally figuring out how to make videos embeddable and loosening the next-day pickup sphincter helped, too. At long last, the choruses of “SNL sucks! I never watch it!” were quelled.

Fast forward a year. Tonight SNL premieres its 35th season (well, if you don’t count the last two Thursdays). Times are tougher than ever for network television — Tivo is king, appointment television is scarcer than ever, Jay Leno has brought comedy to 10 pm. Okay, maybe not that last thing. The point is, SNL is premiering tonight in a non-election year — and expectations are high. How can it possibly meet them?

Two words: Megan Fox.

Actually, I’m not really joking. SNL’s bread and butter is in buzz — picking great hosts and bands to encourage people to tune in. See above re: appointment television. In the Internet Age, they now also have to worry about next-day pickup. So who better to kick off the season than the Internet’s favorite pin-up girl? She’s already making the video rounds with her appearance on Jimmy Fallon, her SNL promos and Thursday Update cameo, and her recent headline-grabbing comments about her vagina. (This girl is a media superstar for a reason.)

She already showed herself to be game and a good sport on Thursday, and it made next-day news — whatever happens with the ratings tonight, SNL only needs one or two knockout skits to burn up the internet the next day.

But it does need them. It needs them because in its 35th year, SNL has never had more competition horning in on their beat. There’s Jon Stewart (who just beat them for an Emmy!) and Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel (“F**ing Matt Damon,” anyone?) and Jimmy Fallon (darling of the Internerds) and even Leno (he’s got five days a week to come up with something). So SNL needs to be memorable and fresh and funny (think: the Ahmedinejad “Iran So Far” spoof or Amy Poehler‘s pregnant Palin Rap).

Note that neither of these skits mentioned featured a guest host — the blockbusters often don’t, and that’s as it should be. The SNL regulars and writers are there because they’re damned talented, and it’s their job to create memorable, hilarious moments to make the whole show good (or at least until Update). Jason Sudeikis‘ send-up of Glenn Beck is already a hit, and strong supporting characters like Bill Hader‘s impression of James Carville or really anything by Kristen Wiig will keep the chattering online classes buzzing the next day (we all need something to post, right? Thanks for the traffic, SNL!).

But the guest hosts are there to create that spark of excitement, that unique OMG moment that will instantly set Twitter ablaze. SNL needs that. It’s the catalyst for everything else. Because fundamentally SNL is not just about comedy, it’s about Zeitgeist. So they’d damn well better tap into it.

Megan Fox, you’re on.

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SNL Skewers Fox News (And Glenn Beck!) On Election (VIDEO)

Megan Fox on SNL: 35 Years of Hope On Her Shapely, Er, Shoulders