SNL's third presidential debate parody

Last night's "Saturday Night Live" parody of Wednesday's debate mocked John McCain for having Joe the Plumber as his "imaginary friend." The sketch comedy show's primetime edition was seen by 8.6 million viewers and earned a 4.1 rating, dropping 20% from last week's debut.

SNL's previous debate spoofs:

>> McCain-Obama second presidential debate

>> Palin-Biden vice presidential debate

>>McCain-Obama first presidential debate

Related: Full Thursday night primetime ratings here. John McCain's appearance on David Letterman here.

Update: Sarah Palin visits SNL

Comments

[kev]

This show stopped being funny about 1985. Why they even attract one viewer is beyond me.

[Randy]

Did you even see the show last night? It was laugh out loud hysterical.

[Frankiefa]

Is there some reason why they won't mock Obama past just dressing some guy up to look like him? The writers would normally have a field day with a guy with all his mannerisms, flip flops and angry wife.

The fix is definately in where media is concerned!

[TIM]

HONESTLY WHO WATCHES OR CARES ABOUT SNL. THEY WILL BE REALLY HARD UP FOR MATERIAL THE NEXT 8 YEARS IF OBAMA WINS SINCE THEY CANT MAKE FUN OF HIM.

[keith]

actually, i think Fred Armisen does a much better Obama impression than Hammond does with McCain. the cadence of his language is spot on. and how Obama says "look" before he begins a sentence.

[Joe the Plumber]

mildly funny... but it's getting old.

[Mark]

What a witty and irreverent show.Just not witty and irreverent enough to find anything funny about Barack America and his sidekick Joe Kinnock.What a waste of time.If you feel the need, click onto Obama.com and skip the pathetic middle men

[Patty]

I thought there may be a laugh or two when I tuned in to watch this show. But, sadly I was mistaken. It appears that the skits are written by 7th graders. How does a show like this exist? This exhibits the talent of the Hollywood "elite".

[Dead-Time]

I love it, please Hollywood, please New York keep doing what your doing because your pushing middle America right into McCains arms.

Every electronic smear makes one more independent just a bit more red than blue because people hate the Elite left and their electronic attack dogs.

[Brad]

I agree with kev. SNL hasn't been funny for the last 15 years. Occasionally my wife and I will turn it on thinking maybe this is the night it's funny...and it's not.
SNL should thank God for Palin since she's the only reason to watch. I wonder if the left-wing writers at SNL will try to make Palin looks stupid when she does the show this weekend. Wait a second, I know they will try, I hope she doesn't let them.

[Tim]

Was it that witty? They tried to implement Joe the plumber but they didn't know where to go with it. This was a rough draft sketch show

[Bob Nichols]

So, after the first half of this show depicting a parody of this week's debate being all about jokes and jabs about McCain (many very lame and juvenile) and nothing about Obama, I hung in to see what the second half of the show had to offer. When the rest of the show offered one jab at Obama through Jesse impersonation but more continual jabs at McCain's age, memory, senility, etc. it resulted in a 30 minute commercial for the Obama camp. It really is amazing that with the talent on this show and in Hollywood that they can't find any issues to parody Obama on. Let me help....how about a routine with Jerimiah Wright going off or Ayers dressed as a mad-bomber or Rezko selling real estate or....come on let's be a little interspective in your thinking.

[Kim]

I couldn't wait to watch SNL last night because they had pretty much given the laughs to everyone. They were so non-funny and one sided I turned over to the weather channel. Too bad SNL for your horrid ratings last night!

[Tom]

I just wasted 9 minutes and 29 seconds...

[Joe]

SNL is generally fairly amusing. I lost some respect for them for so blatantly ripping McCain/Palin to shreads and really laying off Obama completely. It seemed like a 1/2 hour hit piece on McCain. Don't remember exactly but they referred to him as old and decrepid and painted a picture of an old man who has lost his mind. Unfornately for the US, too many people form their political opinions after watching SNL, the Daily Show, Letterman, etc...who are all clearly promoting Obama rather than forming their own opinion based on the actual merits of the candidates. SNL last night was pretty much a 30 minute Obama commercial which cost his campaign nothing.

At the end, I was waiting to hear the real Obama state "I approved this message".

[BulgarWheat]

SNL is irrelevent. Joe the Plumber is relevent. Obama clearly stated that he is a Socialist. The left is now attacking an average American for daring to question the "Dear Leader". What the heck is this? North Korea? American's are not going to stand for this.

Ironic, that Plumbers brought down Richard Nixon. Now, a single plumber just brought down Barak Obamma. Heh!

[Harold]

Ha, ha, ha! I get it, Obama has humorous voice inflection, but McCain’s an absolute ass. ROFL! Oh SNL, you are on the friggin’ cutting edge of comedy.

[Joe the Loafer]

Perfect metaphor for what is wrong with leftwing Hollywood. To them, people like Joe the Plumber are invisible.

[Christopher in Texas]

Let's see. SNL insinulates that Gov. Palin's husband had an incestuous affair, with his daughter, label alaskans like me (I am a native Alaskan) as idiots, and now attack a man who questions Ob"Mesiah"ama's tax policies. Just curious, if Ob"Messiah"ama's wife had been accused of having an incestuous affair with her children or made fun of Ob"Messiah"ama's supporters, there would be cries of outrage and charged of racism.

Christopher in Texas

[scott]

SNL thinks that good impersonations automatically make good comedy, one problem though...the writing is absolutely horrible. I mean we have a VP candidate with fake hair, big fake teeth and botox who doesnt know how to spell but for some reason Biden is off limits. NBC is completely biased and that is why SNL has its hands tied. Where is Obama's smug smile when McCain points out the chosen ones tax and spend socialist agenda...instead lets try to tear apart Joe the Plumber..if you want to cut wasteful spending how bout ending the SNL production...the show has stunk for 15 years already.

[Snobama H8er]

Watched the entire skit.
Was it supposed to be funny?
When did SNL start using a canned audience?

[Middle America Mike]

SNL is all about Hollywood;st leftist views. But those actors make over $250K per year. So they won't be invisible to Obamas' IRS goons when it comes tax time.

So thanks SNL for giving your hard earned money to up and comming starving comedians like me. You are going to help spread the wealth to guys like me, but keep your material. It sucks.

[BulgarWheat]

Christopher in Texas

Don't sweat it. The idiots don't realize they just handed the election to McCain.

SNL, the MSM and the left have just been dumped into the dustbin of history. Good riddance!

[666]

So is this plumber related to six pack or does he just drink six packs?

[marine 43]

So now thanks to Obamas M.S.M. we all know how many hairs are on Joes a$$. But they still haven't examined Obamas ties to 10 extreme America haters. Remember it's not who joe is... It's what the Messiah said to the guy! Geeees are you libtards that stupid? Obama is a socialist! Hey if thats what you want go for it! We'll route you just like we always do.

[sayNO2Socialism]

It's ok to make McCain look senile but god forbid they make Obama look like anything other than perfect.

Have you also noticed in ALL commercials when there is one black guy and one white guy the white guy is always the dum - uncool one??

I you haven't noticed, now you will.

White guilt run amuck. We are going to have a SOCIALIST president for petes sake!!

[scott]

here's an idea for a sketch SNL...why dont you have a sketch where you pick up on secret camera that the real reason obama needs to raise taxes is that he needs to raise cash to buy his nuts back from his wife.....then show file footage of jesse cutting obamas nuts out and handing them over to mrs. O.

[Dave]

I watched it last night. Besides waiting for one single joke to actually be funny, I kept waiting for some kind of equal time for Obama to actually be ridiculed in some way. Didn't happen. Hammond's John McCain was just portrayed as a drifty psychotic with imaginary friends. Armisen's Obama merely tried to copy his mannerisms. Nothing more.

As far as why they won't actually mock Obama, that's simple: If McCain wins the election, you can look forward to 4 years of McCain-is-old jokes the likes of which the show hasn't seen since Ackroyd was doing Nixon and Chevy Chase was channeling Gerald Ford. If Obama wins, you will see almost nothing on the show making fun of him. And notice, you haven't seen SNL do a single riff on Michelle Obama. That's not an accident. You won't see any jokes about her in an Obama presidency. Leno and Letterman won't touch them either.

No questioning of The One, no jokes about the Obamas, no jokes about their kids. All that will be off-limits.

But McCain's age, his houses, his temper, his POW experience, etc.; Palin's looks, speech, family, Alaska, guns,etc...that's all fair game.

Look for a Joe The Plumber sketch this weekend, Guaranteed he'll look like an idiot. SNL hasn't been funny or relevant for years, it's the media that ascribes this false importance to the show.

[Nola Legal]

The SNL political sketches are freakin' hilarious. You people have tin ears if you don't think so. What I think is more likely is that you can't take a joke at your candidate's expense, and so you just mope and b*t*h at people who DARE point out the glaring deficiencies. And they've been making fun of Biden and Obama a lot, if you can't see that, you're obviously not watching the show, just hearing about the SNL sketches skewering Palin and McCain on Rush and drudgereport and accepting someone else's opinion as your own, thought unthought. I can see how that's attractive to people who made up their political minds years ago and don't feel like thinking about things at any greater length.

[AJax]

Still no funny stuff on "The One".

Will he finally be made fun of once he is President?

Skeptics think not. He's "The One" afterall.

[Dave the]

I find SNL skits funny when they exaggerate reality, even if the joke is critical of my supported candidate. But they have to have some kernel of truth to them to make them funny, otherwise I don't get it.

The Joe in a cigar box sketch was so far from reality that I just found it dull. I actually looked at my non-political wife and asked if I was missing something. She was more confused than entertained.

As far as "Joe the Plumber", I find it frightening that the media (and SNL) are shamelessly attacking someone that simply had a discussion with and disagreed with Obama. That's pretty much all he has done and now they are trying to dig up dirt on him? Aren't we allowed an opinion without getting attacked by the media? This isn't the America I want for my kids.

[BulgarWheat]

Nola Legal

What color is the sky in your world?

[roland]

joe doesn't have a license...

did obama ever get his?

when did he pass the bar?

[BulgarWheat]

Dave the

When the left begins attacking average people (Remember, Joe is also one of "we the people....") for daring to ask the Dear Leader an honest question, and the Dear Leader provides an answer that clearly demonstrates THE ONE's Socialist intentions, it's time to deflect and attack that average citizen.

Right out of North Korea's Playbook. Communism isn't dead. It's alive and well in America. Geez!

[vicki]

That's disgusting SNL - making fun of an ordinary citizen. You are all pathetic!!!

[Rusty]

Wow, what a shocker! SNL did not make fun of Obama once during this skit. Yet, they repeatedly made fun of McCain and Joe the Plummer (who's not ever running).

Or as I like to call it, equal.

[Gigi]

Dollars to donuts the liberal BUFFOONS at SNL will get the Marxist half-breeds PROMISED tax cuts But, the idiotic republicans should have done their homework before latching onto Joe the IDIOT, for he appears not to have sense enough to know how much he earns or else is as big a LIAR as the two pathetic candidates!

HOWEVER THERE ARE A FEW OF US WHO ACTUALLY DO EARN AND I DO MEAN EARN EARN EARN WHAT THE MARXIST JOKE CALLS RICH BUT I HAVE NEWS FOR THE BUFFON, THIS "RICH" WILL SIT ON MY A-- LIKE THE FREELOADING SCUM WHO ARE WAITING FOR HIS HANDOUTS AND THEN WHO DOES THE MARXIST TAX IF WE ALL SAY THE H---WITH IT ALL!

[John Andrew Prime]

I guess it's pointless to point out that it was Obamarama's people who found Joe the Plumber and not vice-versa. So they are either hypocrites or incompetent/stupid. Please, SNL, which is it, are they inept & stupid or just a lying pack of thieves?

[James]

My wife was born in Russia. She didn't grow up watching SNL and didn't know much about the show. Last week she watched one of their election specials. She sat and stared at the screen for awhile, then turned and asked if the show is a comedy because it just wasn't funny. In the past people had always told her it was a comedy and my wife was concerned that she didn't understand American humor. I assured her she's fine and that the show hasn't been funny in many years.

[merle]

Get ready for the next 2 weeks. The media and Hollywood and comedy shows are going to absolutely POUR IT ON.

In light of these considerations: 1) This is supposed to be a big Dem year, 2) Obama is "the One we've been waiting for, 3) The media have been pulling out all the stops with their one-sided reporting, 4) Voter fraud that all favors Dems, 5) Obama's suppressing free speech and/or instilling fear (Missouri "truth squads") if you tell "lies" (according to him) about him: If John McCain ends up winning (and the polls are even closer today), what will that say about Obama and how people view him?

I think it would be hilarious and liberals would absolutely blow a giant gasket!