Tonight SNL opened with the biggest piece of news all week: President Obama's State of the Union address (it edges the iPad by a hair). The optics were good — Fred Armisen looked very Obama-esque flanked by Kristen Wiig's Nancy Pelosi and Jason Sudeikis' aw-shucks grinning Joe Biden, intercut with actual SOTU footage of stone-faced Republicans and orange-faced John Boehner — but otherwise, I am not sure what they were going for. A few knocks at Martha Coakley at the top, but otherwise, I couldn't really tell who they were mocking. Is it me? Was I just too blinded by the excitement of Jon Hamm's impending appearance? Because that *is* exciting. Maybe they'll do a sketch where he has to take his shirt off. Wait, what was I saying? Cold open below. (more...)

For those in favor of the Democrats' bill to reform health care, last weekend felt triumphant. After what seemed like endless circular debates about death panels and the public option, a historic bill passed through the House of Representatives and for a brief moment, it felt as if something had been accomplished. But the feeling didn't last. As the "victory" aged -- on what seemed like an hourly basis -- it started to feel more conceptual than practical, and talk of the Stupak amendment and a watered down public option diluted the satisfaction of having passed anything at all.

Saturday Night Live noticed. And this week, they lampooned the conciliatory Obama administration, characterizing their bipartisanship and negotiation tactics as cowardly appeasement. In an opening piece mocking Vice President Joe Biden, castmember Jason Sudeikis played Obama's number two as the now-standard bumbling gaffe-machine, eager to please.

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video Disclosure: I didn't see last night's SNL. I'm in Canada with my parents (happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Canucks out there!) and Hulu does not work here. However, I do have Twitter which caught me up nicely: SNL sucks, no it doesn't, yes it does, it's funny, no it's not, it's boring, no it's not, Gilly is back yay, Gilly is back yuck. That's why here at Mediaite, we bring you all the videos from last night's show and let you decide for yourselves. (more...)