Saturday Night Live: The Petraeus Hearings
By Nicole Belle Saturday Apr 12, 2008 6:28pm
Download | play 
Download | play (h/t Bill W)
SNL offers their take on this week's Senate hearings with Gen. Petraeus, skewering everything and anything, from Petraeus's obsequiousness, to John McCain's lack of knowledge on Iraq, to Hillary Clinton's attempts to spin her AUMF vote, to Code Pink protesters, to the cult of Obama that eclipses everything else in the room. A skit sure to get under everyone's skin, no matter whose camp you're in.
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Gotta give credit to Petraeus, he never said our war on Iraq makes us safe.
SNL is actually funny from time to time these days.
Though I predict a number of people will complain about how it's nowhere near as funny as when ________ used to be on the show.
it hasn't been funny since 1983.
AAhahahaha. I thought it was brilliant, and I am ostensibly an Obama supporter. I do wish they had been a little bit meaner to McCain, though. They could have made more of his "Senior moments."
knuckledragger @ 4:
Don't worry. There'll be lots more.
Here's how the original SNL woulda' handled the campaign.
bob dobbs @ 3:
83???? Of all the years to pick...
the early 80s were horrible with the exception of Eddie Murphy. The late 80s were great, with the 1988 Republican Debate sketch and the Bush/Dukakis debate.
Don Davis @ 6:
I must agree with you.
indeed...SNL has become very milquetoast as of late (havent they?)
Mike @ 7:
can't we just agree that SNL has NEVER been funny, except when it is?
milquetoast @ 8:
SNL has run it's course and has been dead in the water for years. Like all industries, there are really no "up and comers" to replace the icons of years gone by. Without it, there is no show. It is stale.
ConcernedCanuck @ 10:
who cares? it makes me laugh when i watch, isn't that the point?
SNL was the hoots in the early 80s, then came a dry period when all the greats left, chase, bulshi, curtian,murray,garret and of course gilda radner. Then came Eddie murphy and joe (forget his name now) and billy crystals apperance.
Id have to say the good times for SNL were the 90s. The church sex scandals, great tv talent. Then Phil hartmans wife runied it and killed em for coke!! Sandler was great, spade, farley, carvey etc. Either way its nice to see SNL get back to its quick wit script writing and nail its lines dead pan deliverd.
well wasint the special!!
Mike @ 7:
Heh. Those two were pretty good, as were the skits four years later with Admiral Stockdale.
Yeah, they will have fun with bittergate.
Reading the progressive blogs and listening to Obama, shows his hope and unity message is a lie.
Divisive, lying, politics as usual.
His campaign, his supporters and those blogs do not show hope or unity.
Its just one big fraud.
Don't forget Chris Farley...the Nick Foley motivational speaker skit was a classic. Wish he was still around.
ConcernedCanuck @ 10:
You people are the same people who just didn't like Richard Pryor or Lenny Bruce cause they weren't as funny as Bob Hope and Milton Berle.
Comedy has evolved, that your sense of comedy hasn't evolved with it is a sign that you are old and stale.
Amy Poehler killed in that sketch.
the video links don't work
Moose @ 16:
All four were great skilled comedians. There are none now or very few.
getalife @ 14:
You must be living in a van down by the river.
Are we sure the writers' strike is oveR?
getalife @ 14:
lol which "progressive blogs" are you reading?
video links don't work.
New blog post is up over at my corner of the world. wanna laugh check out the videos, wanna think check out the opening comments as well.
Iam out. Take care folks and be good to each other, and live for yourself because no one else will.
Best regards and thanks for the C&L crew too.
:)
Happy Monday Morning Greetings to all !
Friar Tuck @ 23:
oh god is it monday morning already? i hope not.
Obama escapes criticism once again.
His followers are lampooned, but not him.
He gets away with his bullshit votes to fund the war that he allegedly opposes.
His plan for U.S. troops in "the area" of Iraq is "from now on".
McObama.
I wish the general had put his left shoulder tab back under his collar. No general would walk around, testify to Congress, or appear on SNL with his shoulder tab not properly placed. Oh, wait, right, he's an actor and not a real general. Silly me, an actor wouldn't know a shoulder tab from a 106mm recoiless rifle.
Working Video Here or somewhere on nbc.com
Rufus @ 26:
huh?
HAHA!! I've already seen this like 10 times, and it kills me every time!! GREAT STUFF!!!
The Champ is out.
Mike @ 7:
Although the original cast was iconic, the late 80's/early 90's -- the era of Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler and Chris Farley was great in its own right, particularly with regard to the political skits.
I think it's rather weak.
killthepoor @ 28:
Killthepoor, it's a military thing -- if you haven't served you wouldn't know. But, it's not too late to enlist.
Right wingers are not funny.
The degrading treatment of code pink is insulting to anyone trying to end this horrible war.
The treatment of Senator Byrd who spent much more energy than Obama trying to prevent the war was sickening.
Senator Clinton's position on the war was clearly misrepresented.
Then they all wind up kissing Obama's sorry ass.
We have no future.
getalife @ 14:
What else did you expect. He's a politician. They all, including Obama, will say ANYTHING to get your vote. I swear we should strap them all to lie detctors durning the debates.
i hope your happy...you got me to watch an nbc product...and i had all natural green tea coming out my nose
LOL!!
Videos don't work.
Andy Samberg is awesome on SNL.
Yeah I never had any interest in seeing Hot Rod, but Andy Samberg isn't bad. Especially last night, making fun of Jack Johnson. That was the only skit that made me chuckle. I love Fred Armisen, Will Ferrell was better on SNL than he could ever be in movies, but nothing beats Norm MacDonald on Weekend Update. If only he would have taken over the Daily Show after Craig Kilborn left.
To all the 'Obama is a fraud' people:
Should we vote for the rich white Republican lawyer lady instead?
I find it painfully not funny. Just the most obvious jokes you could think of. Another odd thing is that they seem to be adding a laugh track to the audiences'. People seem to be laughing at jokes that should fall flat. The audience probably isn't as coked up as in the early days, I just can't see it being real.
The best part for me was the John McCain impression. It's the first one I've seen, and I found it surprisingly good.
On the other hand, the guy who did Barack has done it better before; this wasn't very good.
The clip was a waste of time. This whole fiasco is so not funny, and the actors are weak at best.
Thanks...I guess....Killthepoor 27 for the working link. After all that time I spent trying to watch the video, I wish I had doing anything else but that with my time.
SNL has out lived it's funny days. Subject matter today is too serious to make jokes about. How many dead so far? How many wounded? How many BILLIONS of dollars from our grandkids wasted?
All I can think of is a skit involving the Killer Bees...now THAT would be funny!
I grow so tired of SNL snobs: "Hasn't been funny since _____".
It's a funny show, and it's grown a long way since the NRFPTP-era (not the least of which has been the evolution of female comediennes and writers).
Darrell Hammond and Bill Hader are world class impersonators. Amy and Seth rock Weekend Update as well as any other duo. Andy Samberg could fire off a viral YouTube vid every week if he tried. Kristen Wiig is a gem. And Will Forte has made me pee my pants as Senator Zell Miller or when he was Peyton Manning's basketball coach.
Hulk @ 42:
Comedy is needed more and more in the time of depression and war. I'm not sure why you think parady has no place here. Comedians were the first critics when we were all supposed to be good little citizens, if you recall.
parody* :P
Wow. Was Tina Fey on vacation? These skits are usually pro-Hillary. I'm surprised. If they've given up on promoting Hillary and bashing Obama, I may start watching again.
Yeah, the state of U.S. politics today is so pathetic that a mockery is considered a parody.
I wonder if the millions in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as Iran, Lebanon, and every other Mid-East country awaiting the fun of U.S. treachery in the future) would find this skit the least bit funny.
I'm all for political humor, but this bit made my stomach turn -- only because, in a dark sardonic way, it wasn't humorous at all...and yet the audience laughed with glee.
"So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause" -- and laughter.
Abdiel @ 48... what part of ..exposing tragic hypocrisy through biting parody.... don't you get ?
This type of skewering of Petraus & Crocker's lies was critical of this disaster?
Oh never mind....see Moliere' for how to expose the political elites!
"...Thank you,Code Pink..."
ROFLMFAO!
It's too bad that the 90 minutes can't be used for some cutting political barbs, rather than SNL's ham-handed, play-it-safe, intellectually unchallenging jokes. SNL seems to pride itself on nailing the impersonations. If they really did nail them, I could overlook the lack of funny lines. But their Petreaus isn't even close to the man's demeanor or delivery, Obama's off by a mile, and Hillary's vocal tics are almost entirely absent. Lost opportunites--typical of the show year after year.
Armisen's Obama is really off-base. I seem to remember his first one was pretty decent, but they've been pretty bad after that.
Otherwise it was great.
That pretty well sums the whole thing up.
I thought the skit was hilarious. I'm sure 90% of you haters didn't even watch the show yet want to claim that it is not funny any more because everything was "cooler" and "better" when you were young enough to still be relevant.
They finally got it right, poking fun at the politicians who open themselves up to it rather than trying to manufacture things to make Obama look bad when he doesn't give them much ammo.
This is the only way I will watch the show nowadays, thru C & L.
Great skit tho'
This would've been really funny if it were at all funny. The writing is piss poor pointless.
Everything was better in the past! You all suck, your forefathers was smarter/funnier/ better than all of you!
Nice powerful piece of satire! I agree that it was sure to get under many sensitive skin, and call for many SNL critics.
that's pretty effin funny--snl still got it sometimes.
knuckledragger @ 4:
----------------------
i loved when sen. byrd was wandering around:)
"Overly long, boring, and poorly written..." like most SNL skits.
Saturday Night Live...ahh...funny, but not as funny now as when Scott Thompson played the Gay Guy Named Buddy...no...wait...that was "Kids In The Hall" a much funnier show...oh, I remember, what about when they had Artie Lange as "Thats My White Momma?"...no...sorry, my bad, that was "Mad TV" a far funnier show...oh! I got it! What about the skit where the two men dress as women and go on about being LAAAAAY-DEEEES...whoops sorry again, that is "Little Britain" a far superior show...ummm...what about....no, that is "That Mitchell and Webb Look" another great show from the BBC...oh! OH! Heres one! How about when Martin Short played Johnny Nucleo the mad scientist who built a nuclear reactor on top of the tallest, skinniest building in the world and Joe Flaherty fell down the stairs of that building...no...wait...that was SCTV...Well, shoot. I just can't actually remember SNL EVER being as funny as any of those shows...never mind.
-Emily Latella (from beyond the grave)
Way more honest than the "real" one.
2 Slaw Says: SNL is actually funny from time to time these days.
Though I predict a number of people will complain about how it’s nowhere near as funny as when ________ used to be on the show.
==============================
It's nowhere near as funny as when _____, #####, and &&&&& were on the show. There. Gotcha.
14 getalife Says: Yeah, they will have fun with bittergate.
Reading the progressive blogs and listening to Obama, shows his hope and unity message is a lie.
Divisive, lying, politics as usual.
His campaign, his supporters and those blogs do not show hope or unity.
Its just one big fraud.
=============================
Steep in your own bitterness, if you like.
43 Zlad! Says: All I can think of is a skit involving the Killer Bees…now THAT would be funny!
========================================
Thanks for reminding me. I'd forgotten I am supposed to FEAR the killer bees too. I've let my guard down, at my own peril. No more, damnit, no more.
All I have to say to all the modern SNL haters is: dick in a box.
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/uncensored.shtml
Or how about: More Cowbell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctDX_s5QxZ8
Come on!
All this bitching and moaning, it was funny, get over the fact that SNL has changed over the years, and that they were cruel/not cruel enough to whoever you like/hate. If you didn't think it was funny, then don't watch it again.
abdiel @ 48:
no!liberty died when bush let a humongus fart at his first inaguation and a tenie tiny turd excaped his anus!
Sigh.... I guess I just don't find commercialized "satire" from one of the US TV networks that pimped for the US War on Iraq very funny.
For example, portraying Sen. Byrd as merely an ancient old man is who worthy of scorn and derision merely and solely because he is an elderly man is in itself puerile. But when one remembers that of all the characters represented in this SNL "comedy" sketch, Senator Byrd was the ONLY politician who ACTUALLY opposed this war and who ACTUALLY and ACTIVELY spoke out against it on the ACTUAL US Senate floor right up to the commencement of the attack.
When one considers that fact, then this SNL "bit" is beyond unfunny or stupid. It's obscene.
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