It’s only been a couple days since the episode aired and I’m sure everyone’s sick of talking about Sarah Palin and her appearance on SNL. But I still feel the need to do a bit of hand wringing on the idea that she was allowed on the show to begin with.
There seems to be some sort of duty to fairness at SNL wherein it’s assumed that politicians from each side of the political aisle are entitled to an equal amount of cameos on the show. However, I would posit that SNL doesn’t necessarily need impress anyone with its even-handedness this close to the election.
I can’t imagine any fewer than 90 percent of the people working on SNL are anything but flaming liberals — liberals who flame hotter and brighter than all of the joints Andy Samberg has ever smoked. Very few people on that set probably plan to vote for last week’s guest star.
If I were running SNL, I really don’t know if I’d be able to invite someone like Sarah Palin onto the show this close to the election. The idea that I would give exposure and (most likely) positive attention to the woman who could (through a series of two specific disasters — a McCain victory and subsequent death) become president of the United States.
If anything, Palin’s experience on the show made her even more likable. As we’ve seen over the past several weeks, likability is her biggest asset. After all, the fair Alaska governor is basically just a really nice lady whose ascendancy to the presidency would probably dwarf the disasters called for in the Book of Revelations. So, SNL basically did her a big PR favor — even if they plan on writing an amazing sketch for Barack Obama right before the election.
Let me put it this way — I think the tension during the episode was most palpable during the Alec Baldwin segment. If we know two things about Alec Baldwin, it’s that he’s a tremendously gifted comic actor and that he is also a heaving mass of barely suppressed rage. During that moment where he said “that horrible woman,” everyone in the viewing audience (or, well, at least me) was holding their breath or nervously guffawing through a slackened jaw. We know that he actually meant it, even if he could pretend it was just a gag that was written for him.
The tension was clear.
SNL made a decision to play for ratings and comedic opportunity over partisan politics. I know that if you only pillory politicians from one side of the aisle you risk alienating half of your audience and, worse yet, losing relevance due to the perception that the show is merely satirical porn for the left wing (Despite its clear liberal bias, The Daily Show has guests from all political leanings and Jon Stewart asks them all real questions — that is a testament to the long-term success of his show and his credibility as a source of real answers.). While that may be plenty fair, I don’t know if I could stomach making the same decision.
Anyway, I don’t want to try to make an official declaration of whether or not having Sarah Palin on was morally right or wrong. In fact, if I had a thesis to this entire blog post it would probably merely be: “yeesh” followed by the sound of me sucking air through my teeth.
