If you’re over thirty-five and I ask you to mention three famous running gags from Saturday Night Live during the late 70’s and 80’s, there’s a good chance that SNL portrayals of Presidents Reagan and Ford will be on your list.
Chevy Chase as Ford struggling to answer questions and falling down, and Phil Hartman’s doddering Reagan who becomes a hard driving general when the cameras turned off, were iconic and hysterical. But both recurring bits are based on the same underlying premise, that Reagan and Ford were frail old men experiencing cognitive decline who were unworthy of the offices they held.
Were those skits cruel? Of course they were. Were they funny as hell? Of course they were. And after all, making cruel jokes at the expense of Republicans is totally cool… I mean it’s not as if they’re human or anythng.
So now here we have Joe Biden (D – Cuckoo’s Nest) and his obvious mental decline (GOD LOVE YA! COME ON MAN!) on display each and every day. It’s a meatball across the plate. So it’s fair to ask, will the batters at SNL swing at it?
Maybe they will. If Biden were a Republican, the answer would be obvious. But he’s not, and I look out at the media landscape and I see major media outlets leaping over themselves to fact check obvious jokes because they might reflect poorly on Democrat politicians, and I kinda suspect that they will not. Comedy always seems to take a holiday during Democrat Adminstrations. Funny, that.
It’s too bad, because the Ford and Reagan bits are so memorable. Similar Biden bits would be too, I think.
Imagine someone, Pete Davidson maybe, in a powdered wig with obvious hairplugs. He sits down behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and stares into the camera for an uncomfortable thirty-four seconds. And then, just as the nervous titters from the live audience really start to get uncomfortable, Pete suddenly screams… “TRUNALIMUNUMADEPREZURE!” ***
I mean, tell me that wouldn’t bring down the house.
I’ll tell you one other it might do… it might convince a few Republicans to tune in next week to see what Pete Biden might say next… which would increase SNL’s ratings… which is supposed to be what putting on a live TV comedy show is all about.
…right?
……
…. wait, where are you going?
*** the first idea is free, Pete
Ratings plunge might get their attention?
It was clear they no longer cared about ratings the day they had Kate McKinnon open the show by singing Hallelujah to mourn Hillary Clinton’s electoral loss. Still one of the most cringe-inducing moments in TV history