The SNL Effect on the Clinton-Obama Race

The Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama primary race is still neck-and-neck, thanks to surprise Clinton wins in last week’s primaries.

More surprising is the idea – reported in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere – that Senator Clinton’s victories could be chalked up to a couple of funny debate sketches on “Saturday Night Live.”  Several pundits are suggesting that these sketches, which spoofed the rosy coverage that Senator Obama had been enjoying from the mainstream media, were the catalyst for tougher Obama stories last week.

They’ve dubbed this phenomenon “The SNL Effect.”

I think there’s some truth to this. The media has been tougher on Clinton. Her campaign had been complaining about it for weeks, and a few media outlets and reporters did weigh in on the coverage prior to Saturday Night Live’s debate satire.

Just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the younger generations were no longer getting their news from traditional media, but from The Daily Show.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The American mainstream news media seem to have abandoned their tradition of objectivity. I don’t know if it’s the Murdoch-ization of our press, proliferation of competing coverage from the Internet, or some combination of the two. But the media have not been doing their job. It did not thoroughly investigate our reasons to go to war with Iraq, and it has not given a fair shake to all the candidates in this campaign.

So thank goodness we have one medium that can be trusted to be objective: Our late night comics.

In comedy, anything and anyone is fair game, and it doesn’t even matter if it’s offensive – if it makes you laugh. Comedians know that the audience will forgive you anything, as long as it’s funny.

When it comes to ridiculing public figures, late night comedy television has always been an equal-opportunity player. If you are a politician or celebrity and you do or say something stupid, you will end up the subject of a joke. If you continue to engage in such behavior, you may be immortalized as a character on SNL.

But partisan ridicule doesn't work on late night commercial television. It alienates half the audience (which is why few liberals think Rush Limbaugh is funny). Johnny Carson never made his personal political views known and so his jokes were never suspect. And for the 30 years he hosted the Tonight Show, his nightly monologue was considered the barometer of the American public's views.

Comics and comedy writers like Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert all characterize themselves as independents, for the same reason. They make fun of the Bush administration now, but go back 10 years and you’ll see they were just as merciless with Bill Clinton. (Hell, these guys still trot out Clinton womanizing jokes whenever they can, and these still get a laugh.)

I know a little bit about this subject. From 1986 to 1990, I was the writers’ assistant on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. That does not mean that I helped write the thing. My main duties consisted of typing jokes, making copies and distributing scripts. I also spent a lot of time listening to Carson’s staff of 10 writers talk about the nature of their craft.

The man who hired me was a loyal Republican with White House connections. He was a former Nixon speechwriter and close personal friend of George H.W. Bush. But whenever President Reagan did or said something that warranted it, it would immediately be turned into a joke, or a full-blown sketch. This so angered Nancy Reagan that she once pressured my boss to stop writing Reagan sketches.  That he refused to do so says a lot about the sensibility of comedy people. To them, the joke is more important than the cause.

The reason George W. Bush is the butt of so many late night jokes is that he can’t seem to help supplying the comedy staffs with material. With the exception of the grace period he was given after 9/11, they’ve seen him as a gift.

Even though the SNL debate sketches seem to endorse Hillary Clinton, the majority of jokes on the late night comedy shows have skewered her, for the same reason the press has been tougher on her. They know her better, and she’s an easier target. They’re still trying to figure out what to do with Obama.

But I know they will come up with something. Familiarity breeds comedy.

Donna Schwartz Mills also writes about the absurdity of raising a family in the land of swimming pools and movie stars at her personal blog, SoCal Mom.

Comments

[Glennia]

A few days ago, most of the country had never heard of Eliot Spitzer. Now? He's a comedy writer's dream come true.

[Donna]

I betcha SNL opens with Spitzer this week. I'd have Spitzer and Darrell Hammond's Bill Clinton having a little chat, with Hillary just pissed off about the memories this brings back and how it affects her campaign.