A Rookie Makes a Strong Debut on SNL. Matthew Dowd Gets Snippy Over His Dumb Tweets. WTF Is Going On With Facebook?! | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
THE DAILY NEWSLETTER – MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2021
MEDIA WINNER: SNL’s James Austin Johnson
It’s not easy being the new kid in class, especially when that class is broadcast nationally on live television. But James Austin Johnson held his own this weekend as one of the new members of Saturday Night Live’s cast for its 47th season, delivering a performance that has us looking forward to what he’ll contribute to NBC’s sketch comedy show.
Johnson’s debut came during the cold open, playing the role of President Joe Biden — literally and figuratively front and center.
It’s a character that has humbled more seasoned actors; Jim Carrey’s portrayal last season was panned as “squishing his face in odd directions and imagining Biden as being afflicted by an angry internal monologue.”
Still, Johnson nimbly captured Biden’s mannerisms without overdosing on goofiness, a critique that was applied to other past SNL Bidens like Woody Harrelson and Alex Moffat, or Alec Baldwin’s cheesy take on former President Donald Trump.
MEDIA LOSER: Matthew Dowd
Matthew Dowd is taking a break from tweeting very dumb things and complaining on cable news to run for Lieutenant Governor of Texas — oh, wait, just kidding! He’s still tweeting dumb things and complaining on cable news. But now he’s a political candidate complaining on cable news about questions about his dumb tweets.
He got snippy with CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday when she asked about a recent Fox News article about Dowd deleting 175,000 past tweets before launching his campaign.
Dowd dismissed the report as “funny” and Fox just looking for “some conspiracy theory.” The actual article doesn’t push any conspiracy theories — just points out Dowd’s well-known history of controversial tweets — and Keilar didn’t push any either.
She tried three times to get him to answer, but all she got from Dowd was him snapping at her that he’d already answered the question. A pathetic and rude response to a question he should be able to answer.
