Thank you SNL, for not bowing down to the palin/mccain campaign too much, for not forcing Fey to have to rehearse with Sarah McCarthy Palin

Hi, abcd: Thanks for the comments. Z

Please... To the ass that wrote this piece... STOP BEING SOOOOOOO HATEFUL!!!! STOP BEING SO JEALOUS! Hillary, John and Sarah can laugh and have fun BUT you can't make fun of Obama... Your racist if you do... Its tired now with Obama...get a life and laugh asshole!

What a Joke! Sarah palin didn't perform in the show-- real disappointment.. really!

what a horrible editorial. Good Lord.

She did a great job, Mr. Z. You know it. Sour grapes, perhaps, that she didn't blow it? Why be negative?

I refused to watch the show last night. Ms. Palin hasn't done enough (any?) serious discussion with our media, so why should she be given the attention that she craves in the entertainment industry? Her entire campaign, sad to say, is entertainment for a fringe group of mean-spirited and racist people - and that hasn't been funny from "day one". I say, on with the boycott of Sarah Palin. No more cameras until she talks to some serious journalists outside of Faux News.

Hi, I agree about the way she has stayed away from any serious press questiooning except for Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, who both, by the way, did a great job in showing her limitations. I believe she and McCain are doing (finally) an interview with Brain Williams on NBC this week. But, yes, it is outrrageous. On the other hand, SNL did open with a sketch mocking her lack of press conferences. So, good for SNL. Thanks. Z

I though Gov. Palin did as well as a American prisoner of war in a German prison camp could do during WW II. Good for her.

I find it pathetic that Sarah Palin can find time to do SNL and yet refuses to interview on CNN and talk to people about the huge problems facing America. If you transplanted Palin's brain into Janet Reno, she would still be in Alaska defending our airspace from the Russians!

Poehler is a brilliant performer and the dancing moose made my night... that was hilarious. I don't think this appearance will neither help nor hurt Palin. At least we know she has some beat.

Hi Chris, I could not agree more. I do not think it will help opr hurt one bit. And I am still smiling at the memory of the mosse and Popehler rapping, "All the plumbers in the house pull your pants." Z

I just love Sarah Palin. I think she is great. This was so funny, but I felt bad for her. Imagine being made fun of week after week on TV. That's horrible (but entertaining.)

I thought the show was boring - a far cry from the entertaining shows of the 70's, 80's and 90's. SNL's writing was as "politically savvy" as the chatter you would find in a posh Beverly Hills hair salon or Green Peace rally - elitist and self-centered. Why were there no jokes or skits aimed at the Dems? Why didn't they create other skits for Sarah to be a part of? The show was lame and boring and missed a great opportunity to bring a huge audience back to SNL. Last night's show only reminded me of all the reasons why I don't watch SNL anymore - or any of the left-slanting network news stations for that matter.

I'm think her appearance constrained the show last night. I would have preferred the "gloves off" humor that we would have seen if she had not been there. We laugh daily at her lack of knowledge and theatrics anyway.

I'm think her appearance constrained the show last night. I would have preferred the "gloves off" humor that we would have seen if she had not been there. We laugh daily at her lack of knowledge and theatrics anyway.

Sarah was cool.

I found Palin to be charming. Stop being a hater you left wing Liberal.

Were we watching the same show? Those skits were horrible.

It would have been more entertaining if the Caaribou Barbie had whipped out her flute and played us a show tune

Hi, I just saw parts of the two skits I mentioned replayed on CNN's nReliable Sources this morning, and like the guests, I was laughing out loud again. Eye of the beholder, I guess. Z

Give Palin a break. Why doesn't SNL do a piece on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with the Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd characters? Oh, I forgot, they are DEMS. I guess humor is a little one sided when it comes to an election season. But don't worry after the election is over and taxes go up, and double digit inflation hits America, then they will slam the DEMS the way they did Jimmy Carter. It's all just a cycle.

Palin rocks!!! you go giirl!

Z you are a flaming liberal, just be honest with your readers.

I began reading this article and the moment I read the words "Joe McCarthy" I instinctively knew the writer was Jewish! I glanced up at the name and sure enough, the name is David Zurawick.

Why do I bring this up? Do I have a problem with Jewish writers?

No, not at all. But I want people to understand that Jews, although they portray themselves as tolerant and open-minded, actually have quite a bit of prejudice themselves. Many (not all) Jews harbor an ethnic chauvinism and superior attitude towards their fellow gentile citizens - especially evangelical Christians.

Joe McCarthy was not an evil man. He was someone who observed that communists had infiltrated Washington and Hollywood. And history has proven him correct. However, many of these communists also happened to be Jews. This is not surprising as most Jews identify with left wing politics.

Ultimately, Jewish leftists persevered - and practically demonized JoeMcCarthy to the point where his very name is now associated with intolerance itself (McCarthyism)

The resentment that David Zurawick feels towards Sarah Palin is a continuation of the prejudice (perhaps even unconscious prejudice) that many Jews hold towards Christian Americans who hold traditional, patriotic beliefs.

I am not suggesting that all Jews feel this way or that non-Jews should boycott Jewish writers. I am merely trying to raise consciousness about a "hidden" prejudice that affects us all.

Hi Bannister: I think your comment speaks for itself with its discusion of my ethnicity. So, I will decline comment on that. As for bringing up Joe McCarthy, it is essential to the discussion, and I wish more of my colleagues would do it. Just as McCarthy in the 1950s recklessly destroyed lives and careers with unsubstantiated charges that certain members of the State Department and other agencies had "associated" with Communists, so has Palin embraced that same reprehensible tactic using the contemporary equivalent and substituting "terrorists" for Communists. I cannot tell you how much David Letterman rose in my estimation for confronting John McCain on it last week. I wish the press had done it, but I'll take a comedian with a social conscience any day. You will understand if I do not thank you for your comments. Z

A Lifetime Movie airing on November 1eight ,2008 at eight pm will show
Sarah Palin in a real time drama. She goes to McCain to tell him her son has been kidnapped by the Al-Qaeda
as he is on patrol in Iraq. Rather than
pay the ransom the Iranian terrorists
demand, she dons her Alaskan National Guard uniform and flies to where her son is held. The operation is a joint CIA-Mossad plan and includes soldiers from Armies around the World, all US special forces from all branches of the service, and features a special appearance by John McCain himself as he acts as the President in place of George Bush, who suffers a convenient mental breakdown during the Crisis.
Palin returns with her wounded son in time to place a vote while wearing
tattered and blood stained army fatigues. She is helped into the voting booth by a US Marine and a Navy Seal in their dress uniforms. The terrorists look amazingly like Barack X, and his associates.

I thought Sarah Palin did good. The skits were funny and SNL did a wonderful job!
Having said that, I'm a Republican woman voter who will be casting my vote for OBAMA/BIDEN!

I don't understand why something is only funny if it showcases your (general you) political perspective.

I am an undecided voter, though I am registered Republican.

Funny is funny...and that dude they had playing Mr. Palin doing the running man was FUNNY...I don't care HOW you vote!

I agree that the appearance neither hurt nor helped Palin. It did, however, elevate Fey and Poehler to new levels. The writing and delivery of their skits reminded me of the good OLD days of SNL. The remainder of the show was so-so. However, will someone PLEASE convince them to deep-six that idiotic character who gets excited over surprises?!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

How interesting--the Palin appearance on SNL gets a LOT more media attention than the Powell endorsement. That should tell you something about the media and the American voter.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Palin sure looked like she was enjoying her new found celebrity. And the GOP thought Obama and Paris had a lot in common...

Palin & McCain need to win!!

Our country needs to go forward with McCain & Palin not downward into Socialism/Communism & a 3rd world mentality!

Thank you.

I can't figure out if Julia (above) is being ironic. Palin looked distinctly uncomfortable, as well she might since Tina Fay didn't even acknowledge her presence and most of the rest of the cast were obviously avoiding contact. Lorne Michaels had to bring in Alec Baldwin just to have someone who would speak to her.

It seems Palin wanted the appearance and I am guessing she wanted to imitate Hillary Clinton showing up to join the satirizing of herself by Amy Poehler. But Tina Fay wasn't having any. Wasn't going to help provide a showcase for a woman whose extremist views are definitely beyond the pale.

I say congratulations to Fay and to the rest of the cast, for refusing to play along.

Go Sarah! i thought it was great...especially the rap and she had fun with class at the same time. Shows she has a sense of humor, can have a good time, but still show some class.
McCain/Palin all the way

Sarah is soooo much hotter than Tina AND she excited the base as McCain never could. Joe McCarthy was a hero, but the socialist whom control government schools always treat him as evil. Ayers and his wife were terrerists. Worse than that, he now helps decide what's put in text books. Oh, and SNL has SUCKED for about 25 years...

OK, I can see you have everything figured out. If you can get the name of the "socialist whom control government schools," please share. Thanks. Z

17 million viewers baby! Lorne Michaels loves Sarah Palin.

Some of you people are wound WAY too tight. The bottom line is SNL is out there to be funny. Last night, they we FUNNY! You can like Palin, or not. You can vote for their ticket, or not. But the bottom line is that she showed up, like she said she would, and both skits with her in them were funny. That is what SNL is all about.

Z,
Bill Ayers for one. Ayers’s politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. He still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism. This time, however, he does it from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America’s future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students. See http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-pal-ayers-still-a-dangerous-radical

":I cannot tell you how much David Letterman rose in my estimation for confronting John McCain on it last week. I wish the press had done it.."

I WISH THE PRESS WOULD CONFRONT OBAMA.

That's definitely the first time ever I've heard McCarthy called a hero. Unreal!

Sarah Palin did outstanding going into a den of wolves. That just proved her strength, sense of humor, and good sportsmanship. Although I fear Obama will be our next president due to the large amount of buses the Dems are chartering to get the poor to the polls, at least Sarah Palin is a household name who brought hope for many Americans at a bad time in history. Unfortunately, the liberal media and people like Z the Socialist will never see right from wrong.

Many things bothered me about this episode of SNL. First, there was no mention of Palin's appearance on the SNL site prior to the show. Was it not confirmed on time or were they putting her down before the show even began?

Tina turned up the heat last night. Her material was more current and much funnier than before. But it was also a trillion times harsher. I felt like the pageant walking was especially means-spirited when juxtaposed with the real Palin watching the skit unfold from backstage.

Palin was treated like a child from that moment on. Here's why I thought so:

*Michaels shoots down Palin's 30 Rock sketch with a simple joke. It seemed frighteningly similar to the way a parent tells a child no without hurting their feelings.

*Walburg barged into the scene and acted as though Palin was not there. Michaels did not care to introduce them.

*Walburg upset for the same reason as Palin but only HE was allowed to do something about it.

*Look closely. There was a LAMA in the background. I believe this was completely intentional and screamed "LOOK! YOUR CANDIDATE IS A CHILD!"

*The weekend update portion of the show looked a lot like two high school students picking fun of a clueless junior high school student.

This show left me with an awful taste on my media consumption pallet. I felt it was liberal TV at its worst. As frightening as it may be to think Sarah Palin could somehow be our country's VP, SNL cannot excuse the childish nature of their treatment of the candidate while she was present on set.

Sarah Palin showed on SNL that she is a good sport. I disike everything the women stands for but it is nice to see she is able to make fun of herself.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler where both, as always, amazing.

Comment to Realist. Dude you are so unreallistic. Guess you must have been under the bleachers in high school or college copping a feel or smoking a cigarette because if you'd been in history class you might have learned something about the sick Anti-Democratic American named Joe McCarthy. He wanted the same kind of repression that he was preaching ahainst. Fortunately, history proved him wrong along with the people who turned intheir friends, like Ronald Reagan, for their own gain. Oh yeah, another point SP, we don't say her named in our house, may look better than Tina Fey, but at least Tina say speak and think.

JB

Why did she not appear side by side with Tina Fey? Hillary Clinton did with Amy Poehler. I suspect Palin did not WANT to appear with Fey.

Um.. the 30 Rock joke was on TINA FEY not on SARAH PALIN. I don't believe there was an actual 30 Rock sketch, Mr. Karelis.

The Wahlberg thing served to make WAHLBERG look immature. And the joke was that he thought Palin was Fey. It wasn't happening in real time - it was all scripted.

Sarah Palin had everything under control. Please. There was no fun at her expense. She called all the shots.

While it seems a bit silly to quote a movie, I am constantly reminded of this during the election season. I think it comes up because I constantly see people trying to silence those with opposing views thus this popped into my head when reading some of these comments.

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"."

Sarah Palin was a GREAT sport, very cute, and I LIKE everything sh stands for!!!! Go Sarah, Go Sarah!!!!

Well, once again NBC proved me right. What liberal pieces of crap you all are and as much as I liked 30 Rock, I won't waste my time on any more Tina Fey programs. Saturday Night Live wasn't worth watching this season until Sarah came along, but the only time I will watch SNL is when the real Sarah is on. She was the only bright light in your show. Tina Fey you have had a good run, but I hope your shows end up in the gutter.

Well, once again NBC proved me right. What liberal pieces of crap you all are and as much as I liked 30 Rock, I won't waste my time on any more Tina Fey programs. Saturday Night Live wasn't worth watching this season until Sarah came along, but the only time I will watch SNL is when the real Sarah is on. She was the only bright light in your show. Tina Fey you have had a good run, but I hope your shows end up in the gutter.

Sarah Palin was great!! The only people judging it in a negative way are the crazy libreals.. what else is new. get a clue u morons!

Todde from Michigan, your idiotic comments confirm why your state, run by democrats has nearly 9% unemployment. The community organizer won't help you, and neither will George Clooney, a real shameful slug!

OH COME ON! SARAH WAS GREAT, IT WAS HILARIOUS. GET A SENSE OF HUMOR YOU LIBERAL FREAKS!

Sarah Palin was great. Also, I think Amy Poehler probably got more votes for McCain-Palin with that awesome hip-hop thang! Sarah, Tina, Amy you go girls!

Geez, everyone's so serious. I am a democrat and for Obama, but I still LIKE Palin as a person, and I love that she was able to go on SNL and show that she has a sense of humor about all of this. If I were her, I would be laughing, too. I don't think they're doing her a disservice, really. Lighten up, everyone!

Palin definitely called all of the shots but SNL took advantage of her media illiteracy. If Palin truly understood the implications of her appearance on SNL I don't think she would have done it. Biden would have never agreed to such a display of public humiliation. That's what I felt it was, public humiliation. In my opinion SNL went over the top and took on the role of the verbally abusive high school bully. As much as I dispise her (and McCain) I kind of feel bad about how she was treated on the show.

I think the problem with Palin's performance is that, like many others who have been on the show simply for the sake of being on the show, the writers didn't necessarily know what to do with her. In both sketches she was little more than a prop for the others to act around, if that makes sense.

It's also likely that they didn't get a lot of time to really develop a sketch for her they way they have for others (think of Julian Bond in 1976 and the short, but brilliant "Black Perspective" bit). As it was, it was pretty clear that Alec Baldwin was reading off a prompter, so chances are, that sketch was no more than a few hours old.

I'll give her points for being a good sport and all, but I don't think that her appearance had a lot of impact, in the long run.

Apropos of nothing, the character who freaks over surprises is a REPEATING gag? Wow.

HI, I agree about it probably not having any major impact. And I do think they were scrambling because the appearance was still not a done deal as of late Thursdday -- if you judge by John mcCain's reaction when David letterman asked duing the taping of that appearance. But I do think we can't forget the darker stuff she has done on the campiagn trail. It is reckless, dangerous, and thank goodness a few folks have spoken out against it. Thanks. Z

"...so has Palin embraced that same reprehensible tactic using the contemporary equivalent and substituting "terrorists" for Communists. I cannot tell you how much David Letterman rose in my estimation for confronting John McCain on it last week. I wish the press had done it, but I'll take a comedian with a social conscience any day. You will understand if I do not thank you for your comments. Z"

Z, you are so far out of line, it is ridiculous. The Ayers issue is clear. Ayers admits that he terrorized America, not just talked about it. He admits that he wanted to destroy it. He admits that is a great country that let him get away with what he did. He admits that he do not do enough to destroy it. It is a fact that he was a poor little rich boy from South Chicago that hated the family privilege and turned against it and society to become a domestic terrorist, when the fashion of the time called it radical or militant is clear.

Your attempt to whitewash Gov. Palin as being McCarthy-like is a sad and your historical analysis is reaching at best on your part. It is obvious that the Governor of Alaska has been tasked to keep this issue at the forefront, not that Senator Obama is a terrorist, but that Senator Obama has expressed a "change" in his story at every turn of this issue, when he has been confronted by the few reporters to question him to ABC’s Stephanopoulos to the last debate by Senator McCain.. That is the issue that Gov. Palin is pressing, not McCarthy-like whitewashing.

Any whitewashing, such as the whitewashing of Gov. Palin that has been occurring in this election period, has come from people like yourself that feel the need to juxtapose a historical analogy in a fallacious magnitude without merit. I would even go so far as to say that your television and entertainment reporting is without merit, if you think that David Letterman rose to the occasion by pressing this issue with Senator McCain, last week. Mr. Letterman was not pressing anything but his own little button to get a rise out of people and a rise in his own ratings to beat Leno. He did accomplish the later, but not for rising to the occasion of pressing Senator McCain over the Ayers situation. According to initial overnight ratings, the Letterman show attracted 6.53 million viewers, well above Mr. Letterman’s usual total of about 3.5 million viewers and the best he has scored since Dec. 1, 2005. (When Oprah was on kissing his ***) He beat Leno last week, because Senator McCain was gracious enough to play Letterman’s little ratings game. For you not to expose that aspect as a TV critic shows your own inability to do your job and mistakenly try to be a contemporary historian or political scientist.

Show a little chazaq and post this please.

Hi, You are using "whitewash" in a sense of the word that I am not familiar with. But I am abolutely certain about the link between the innuendo served up by Palin on the campaign trail and the tactics of Joe McCarthy is the 1950s. And it is one of the worst and darkest aspects of American political discourse. careers and lives were recklessly ruined by such smears, and there is an abolutel moral obligation to take it on when and where you see it. Thanks. Z

I saw her in the opening monologue. For a political nut, she's really good at handling the satire from SNL.

It's been widely reported that SNL had its biggest audience in 14 years.

The reason: Sarah Palin.

So much for the theory (pushed so hard by the pro-Obama media) that Palin is hurting McCain's cause.

I know you'll try to explain this away, but the reason for the huge SNL ratings is because there's an intense nationwide interest in Palin. And much of that interest translates into support for the McCain/Palin ticket.

And on SNL, Palin did plenty to show that she's likable enough to get the votes of independents and - gasp - even some Democrats.

Don't forget that voters can make history by electing McCain/Palin. It will be an historic first - the first female VP in U.S. history.

Palin helped her cause - and this historic quest - by being so funny, self-deprecating and such a good sport on SNL.

And millions, including some of the youngest and "hippest," tuned in. That's the Palin effect. Try all you want, but you can't wish that away.

Too bad SNL didn't do a skit with her using soccer mom rhetoric talking to Chavez or Putin. Wow! Really missed the boat with that one. Talk about funny - and super scary all in one!

I have to say I enjoyed the sketch but thought that it was a mistake to invite Palin on the set. Showing her as a "good sport" and even having fun (or pretending to) with the show pretty much defeated the purpose of the satire. SNL has been doing anti-McCain/Palin skits and I think that her presence undermined their biting wit and evident message. It seemed almost as if they'd gone pro-Palin or were at least almost apologizing for the harshness they've previously pointed at her. Sorry SNL- wasn't your best decision.

Zurawik gets it wrong on Maddow and Olbermann
see
http://koulflo.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/olbermann-and-maddow-deserve-our-thanks/

DAVID LETTERMAN'S HATE, ETC. !

David Letterman's hate is as old as some ancient Hebrew prophets.
Speaking of anti-Semitism, it's Jerry Falwell and other fundy leaders who've gleefully predicted that in the future EVERY nation will be against Israel (an international first?) and that TWO-THIRDS of all Jews will be killed, right?
Wrong! It's the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah who predicted all this in the 13th and 14th chapters of his book! The last prophet, Malachi, explains the reason for this future Holocaust that'll outdo even Hitler's by stating that "Judah hath dealt treacherously" and "the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this" and asks "Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?"
Haven't evangelicals generally been the best friends of Israel and Jewish persons? Then please explain the recent filthy, hate-filled, back-stabbing tirades by David Letterman (and Sandra Bernhard) against a leading evangelical named Sarah Palin, and explain why most Jewish leaders have seemingly condoned Palin's continuing "crucifixion"!
While David and Sandra are tragically turning comedy into tragedy, they are also helping to speed up and fulfill the Final Holocaust a la Zechariah and Malachi, thus helping to make the Bible even more believable!
(For even more stunning information, visit MSN and type in "Separation of Raunch and State" and "Bible Verses Obama Avoids.")

Fey looked so much like Palin it was scary. It was great. JIm in the post just above. Read Rom 2:5 For there is no partiality with God. I wouldn't consider Palin a leading evangelical. That's just my opinion.