Op-Ed: Is Saturday Night Live Swinging To The Right, Or Just Swinging?

SNL has always been keen on political parody. That said, some rather edgy political skits from SNL, including a Fannie Mae howler that earned the ire of the DNC, surprised me. Now they've gone and lambasted Joe Biden and John Murtha. What's up, Lorne?

Saturday Night Live has always been at the forefront of political comedy, and few of either party have been spared. For example, you had Dana Carvey's George H. W. Bush to Jon Lovitz's Michael Dukakis. You had Norm MacDonald's rather lame but funny Bob Dole going head to head with Phil Hartman's Bill Clinton. By the way, Carvey's impression of GHWB was so amusing to the then-president he had Dana do impressions at a White House dinner. Busted him up. Yet beneath it all, SNL has leaned center-left for the most part. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have graced the show prominently more than once. Al Franken, now a Democrat senatorial candidate for Minnesota, was a lead writer on the show for well over a decade. And Tina Fey has not been shy in voicing her disapproval of Sarah Palin, though she must play the role as the script calls for or as Lorne demands. So what is up with SNL's absolute devastation of some key Democrat players lately? During the primaries, they parodied the media's fawning all over Obama during debate questioning even as they gave Hillary the third degree. The original Fannie Mae parody was a stunner. No one was spared: George Soros, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank or the Sandlers, who were neck deep in the mortgage debacle. That video made news when it was released, then withdrawn, edited and re-released for 'legal reasons.' Now, they've gone after two more pillars of the Democrat community, John Murtha and Joe Biden, for "saying crazy things." While it is not untrue that Murtha and Biden sometimes don't know when to keep their mouths shut, it is quite another thing altogether to see them skewered by the SNL crew for doing just that. Even worse, they broadcast a skit where Barack Obama and William Ayers sing 'white devils be crazy.' Are you kidding me? I find it curious yet refreshing that SNL is providing more in-depth coverage on the candidates through parody than the MSM is doing for real. Anyway, it's SNL. If anyone is bipartisan in all things, it's that crew. They'll go after anyone regardless of political persuasion. And that's what I like. Keep it coming, Lorne & Co. Spare No One.