Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

http://static.flickr.com/97/247882094_e666b03ed8.jpg

what connection do you see?

I can see how they would see it.

I think Van Duzer was just excited, yeah, though it apparently wasn't as spontaneous as everyone's letting on (he ran it by Secret Service or staff first, but POTUS didn't know). I think maybe a Prez deserves a little more formality than being bear hugged, but I don't personally think there was a racial component to it.

http://imgc.artprintimages.com/images/art-print/paul-schutzer-vice-president-richard-m-nixon-receiving-a-hug-from-an-indian-woman_i-G-27-2704-IVFND00Z.jpg

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-U1370194.jpg?size=67&uid=b7f736e3-3431-4c87-96c6-7e45f6c058b7

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2TlYFeEdT2XJ0-mPvgeEaIkBn8zeuqgPe06HX5pD3Nv_S8WWG6A5-Y-UFXg

Morbs calls for Tarantino to be executed on the regular, but I don't think he's a fanatic

T gets commuted for making 3 good films in the '90s. Let's talk Apat*w.

he definitely not religious

come to church w/ me sometime.

http://www.shamelessmag.com/media/content/2008/10/obama-hug.jpg

do you like hugs? feel like we got so much in common now, right about now baby

presidents get hugged all the time--this guy was a little over-enthusiastic & a Republican, but the fact that he cleared it with SS shows that he wasn't trying to disrespect. this is where i give the f up on humans figuring each other out

Yeah, people hug presidents all the time. I know, but I kind of want to be sympathetic to her perception of it:

"there's a tiny bit more going on than just "picking up the president" that rankles, and i'm reluctant to mention it. but beyond the basic disrespect of PICKING UP THE PRESIDENT, whether or not it's campaign season, there's a racial aspect. seeing this story reminded me of my mother telling me how she refused to let people rub my head when i was an infant. apparently, rubbing a black baby's head was considered good luck in some circles. we're not magical beings, we're not children, we're not the stump on the apollo theater stage, we're people. and this particular person is the president of the united states. show some goddamn respect."

Maybe if we'd already had a few black presidents or if Obama had asked to be picked up, it would be different. I dunno. It was just something I hadn't thought about at all until I saw several people agreeing that it struck them as shady.

deserves no more respect than any other President especially if he kills innocents in drone strikes

cynicism + respect in all the rong places

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Js5wBPGe3lc/SnOVz-yDD4I/AAAAAAAAFvg/mLnmNWDkb5M/s320/richard-nixon-sammy-davis-jr.jpg

presidents need hugs too

Symmetry...

http://iconicphotos.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/scan-4.jpeg?w=700

Poor Ike.

http://www.cpsd.us/tobin/directory/Dahill/08_09projects/HelenKellerpics/Helen-Keller_1.jpg

I liked Jay Pharoah last night--huge improvement on Fred Armisen. (Easily the worst SNL president, although from what I remember, whoever did Reagan was pretty generic. Everything else dating back to Ackroyd's Carter was various degrees of excellent, and they even had two great Clintons.) Probably the most succinct overview of the election you could ask for, too: this is bad, this hasn't gone great, and this is iffy too, but take a look at this guy ("What's that you say? Oh, sorry, you don't have arms").

how succinct

Phil Hartman did Reagan, and outside of the classic cast and Ayckroyd's Nixon, did probably the greatest president sketch SNL ever ran!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWCyi70Foi4

Didn't they have another guy do Reagan before that? That's who I was thinking of. I saw the sketch above on a rerun once, and yes, that's good. Truthfully, I tuned out of both politics and SNL during Reagan's two terms, which I why I didn't remember their Reagan(s) very well.

obama look like hes hanging w/the choom gang http://www.hulu.com/watch/401527?playlist_id=1106

Rich Hall played Reagan, on?

*no

I found a page that says they had seven different Reagans; they list five out of the seven (not Rich Hall, who could have been one of the other two), and I think it's Piscopo I'm remembering.

Didn't Harry Shearer do Reagan at one point? It's weird, I remember a lot about the '84-'85 season, but can't think of a single Reagan sketch they did that season.

didn't Reagan play Reagan iirc

I remember Randy Quaid doing the worst imitation of Reagan. Terry Sweeney was fantastic though as Nancy.

Interesting when Funny Or Die reunited the SNL presidents, they got Jim Carrey to do Reagan. Eight years and they couldn't get one guy to do an iconic impression like Carvey/Bush or Farrell/Bush.

Shearer was one of the five listed, yes--him, Hartman, Piscopo, Quaid, and Robin Williams.

http://www.saturday-night-live.com/snl/miscellaneousstuff/documents/top50impressions.html

From 2000, could use some updating--no Fey/Palin.

Interesting when Funny Or Die reunited the SNL presidents, they got Jim Carrey to do Reagan. Eight years and they couldn't get one guy to do an iconic impression like Carvey/Bush or Farrell/Bush.

more like the guy who got closest is dead

That Reagan sketch is really funny conceptually, but in all honesty, I don't find Hartman's dumb-Reagan especially funny. He does Reagan much like everyone else does--it's good as mimicry, but I don't find it that inventive. The thing with Carvey's Bush and Hammond's Clinton and Ackroyd's Carter (and Fey's Palin) is that they were all able to seize on one or two particular tics (even if they had to make some of them up--especially when they made something up), and that was what made the impression indelible: Hammond biting his lip and looking sorrowful, Fey's wink, etc. Sudeikis doesn't even try to sound like Romney, but he captures something essential about him, and that makes me laugh more than accurate mimicry.

yeah hartman's reagan was great - that mixture of folksy and sinister. his barbara bush wasn't bad either. iirc brad hall in the shales book said that during the ebersol years political humor was pretty much off limits, they could maybe show a picture of the president wearing a funny hat and then make fun of the hat but that was it really.

Hartman's Reagan was great, but I especially remember Piscopo's for some reason, constantly mispronouncing "Grenada".

May start a poll in a moment. I think a "worst portrayal" might be more interesting than watching the two Bushes duke it out.

Barbara and Nancy having tea:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/barbara-and-nancy/1354174

A poll would be good. I'd extend it to all politicians they've done (Perot, Stockdale, Dole, etc.), even if that probably guarantees that Fey finishes first.

shoutout to gary kroeger's mondale

A poll would be good. I'd extend it to all politicians they've done (Perot, Stockdale, Dole, etc.), even if that probably guarantees that Fey finishes first.
--clemenza

To be fair 90% of the funny with Feylin is that Palin is so absurd.

George Will was talking about *trickle down government* again this morning to criticize QE3!

They've probably had more than one Jesse Jackson, but I saw Hammond on a rerun the other day, and he was quite good. Here's a full list of SNL impressions, but you can't filter it for politicians:

http://snl.jt.org/imp/listimp.php

I don't agree about Palin. I'd even go so far as to say that the fact Palin's so absurd made Fey's task harder--adding an extra layer of absurdity on top of what's already there couldn't have been easy. Where she did have a head start, I think, was in how much she looked like her; people picked up on the resemblance immediately, as soon as Palin was announced.

Fey didn't do the voice that great, she's never been much of a mimic or impressionist, but the joke writing in those sketches was pretty sublime, just tweaking those Palinisms ever so slightly with a shit eating grin

Oh, OK, never mind - it was trickle down economics. He says the idea of QE is to drive investors out of bonds and into riskier investments. Then the stock market will go up and the wealthy will have more money to spend and invest and it will trickle down.

xp

hammond's jesse impersonation was good but i can't recall anything memorable done w/ it. the only memorable jesse stuff w/ snl i can remember is eddie murphy singing 'hymietown' and obv this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPy2alWEZ-U

yeah hartman's reagan was great - that mixture of folksy and sinister. his barbara bush wasn't bad either. iirc brad hall in the shales book said that during the ebersol years political humor was pretty much off limits, they could maybe show a picture of the president wearing a funny hat and then make fun of the hat but that was it really.
...
shoutout to gary kroeger's mondale

― balls, Sunday, September 16, 2012 5:04 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was gonna say, the Kroeger/Mondale bit (where he's crying while fishing after losing the election) is literally the only political sketch I can think of from that season, outside of when Jesse Jackson hosted.

That's it--Fey didn't really try to do the voice. (A bit, maybe.) Julianne Moore was more accurate in that TV movie. But Fey got at something I have a hard time explaining (I know, because I've tried before). There's something so heedless, so joyful almost, that just takes her Palin into the stratosphere for me. I start gushing whenever I talk about it. (xposts)

Start the poll, pplains, before we hijack the election thread.

yeah 'accuracy' of impression is helpful but hardly essential for me - i'm pretty sure every single reagan they had sounded more like him than ferrell did like dubya or obv chase did ford but those two are top five for me easy while none of the reagans comes close.

my shortlist: chase's ford, aykroyd's carter, carvey's bush, lovitz's dukakis, carvey's perot, hartman's clinton, hartman's stockdale, macdonald's dole, hammond's clinton, ferrell's bush, fey's palin

Pretty definitive (I don't remember Lovitz's Dukakis as well as the others). I'd add Sudeikis for either Biden or Romney (works-in-progress), although I'm a fan of his in general.

Lovitz' Dukakis was spot-on, and Lovitz isn't exactly known for his impressions.

Sticking with cast members only doing presidential impressions (and not before or after they were president), I'm already up to 30.