Richard Nixon dared to say "Sock it to me" on 1968's Laugh-In because it was all in fun (plus, the head writer was a Nixon speechwriter). But today's equivalent, Saturday Night Live, may sock pols right out of office. Emboldened by Tina Fey's sly, astoundingly successful character assassination of Sarah Palin, SNL is adding Thursday political specials culminating in a SNL Presidential Bash Nov. 3, complete with its greatest political hits, undoubtedly reaching from Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford to Jason Sudeikis's Joe Biden.

Nobody thought comedy could pack such a political punch when SNL began in 1975. In fact, as Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad's brilliant book Saturday Night demonstrates, nobody in the cast was interested in politics except Chevy Chase and Al Franken, who got thrown off the campaign press bus in 1976 for asking Reagan why he illogically opposed both helmet laws and pot decriminalization: "Can't not wearing a motorcycle helmet cause brain damage a lot quicker than marijuana by, for example, the head splitting open so that actual material from the road enters the brain?"

Franken got even by taking LSD and writing a classic SNL Watergate skit, and, during his current real-life Senate campaign, suggesting SNL's recent skit skewering McCain for approving outrageous campaign ads. But the show has gotten more evenhanded since the early days. In May, they went easy on McCain when he guest-hosted, writing him much better age jokes than the lame ones he used in the debate, and McCain performed infinitely better than he's done in the real campaign.

Franken also helped engineer Chevy Chase's assault on President Ford. Chase was arguably the worst impressionist in the history of political humor-he didn't even try to mimic the man. He simply mumbled and stumbled, in dazzling pratfalls that damaged his body for life, made him the first SNL breakout star, and, he's convinced, helped cause Ford to lose the election. Franken helped Chase out by luring Ford's press secretary Ron Nessen into hosting SNL and playing himself opposite Chase's Ford. Ever after, Ford's image has been wedded with Chase's stumblebum caricature; his obituaries mentioned it.

They did not mention that when Ford appeared on SNL, he forgot his lapel microphone was attached to the camera, so when he walked away, he jerked back and the camera nearly fell over. Whether or not Chase really chased Ford out of the White House, Eugene McCarthy told the cast that SNL sendups of politicians became the first thing discussed each morning on the U.S. Senate floor.

Ford was a ripe target partly because his image was undefined, thrust from relative obscurity into fame, and his manner was bland, easy to project comic images upon. Reagan and Nixon presented the opposite challenge. Nobody could top the very familiar real thing. Reagan was so extraordinarily blank that nobody fully got him on SNL, though many tried: Chevy Chase, Phil Hartman, Harry Shearer. He was the Teflon President, unassailable by showbiz because he was showbiz to begin with.

Nixon was too incandescently strange for comics to touch him (and he was too smart to say yes when Lorne Michaels tried to hire him as a guest host). Dan Aykroyd told me that he poignantly missed Nixon, because his sheer craziness made such a rich subject for an actor. And you have to grant that Aykroyd's own practically extraterrestrial actorly madness made for an immortal Nixon, despite the fact that his impression was technically weak compared to David Frye's uncannily accurate one.

Yet Nixon was too crazy and extreme for comedy to harm him. He had to do it himself. Aykroyd was much better as Jimmy Carter -- a still worse impression than his Nixon, but easier to pull off because Carter's image was new, and his accent distinctive. Aykroyd actually made Carter more sympathetic than the real man, talking down bad-acid-trip sufferers with improbable expertise.

The next great political caricaturist on the show was Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush. He's got the mimicry gift, as we saw this week when he effortlessly nailed McCain cold on Letterman. Like Aykroyd's Carter, Carvey's Bush was sweet and silly, not vicious and pointed. Carvey's craft is head and shoulders above practically everybody in SNL history except Fey when it comes to approximating reality, but he failed to make his Bush a defining character, a comic archetype. Today nobody remembers either the man or the caricature.

Will Ferrell's persona is sweeter still than Carvey's, and he may have improved George W. Bush's image by sending up his knit-browed cluelessness. Back then, Bush's foibles seemed harmless and charming to many. Ferrell's depiction depended on the public perception of the character.

A funny thing happened as political history rolled on: SNL's sendup of politics began to express what people felt about politics for real. Jon Lovitz was no great Dukakis impressionist, but when his Dukakis, in debate with Carvey's Bush, shouted, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy!" it summed up what half the nation was thinking (particularly Dukakis).

Darrell Hammond, whom uber-critic Tom Shales calls the finest impressionist in SNL history, faces a different plight than any other actor in tackling political figures (and others). When Phil Hartman did Bill Clinton, he captured something true about Clinton, but remained essentially Phil Hartman. In this he was like John Belushi, who did a remarkably good Kissinger while furthering the Belushi meta-role. But Hammond is so good at doing politicians, he's like Lon Chaney doing monsters: he disappears into the part. Clinton, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Schwarzenegger, Giuliani - he's all of them, to perfection.

Hammond's take on Gore after the Bush debate that Gore won intellectually and Bush won emotionally (hence politically) was so on the money, Gore's people allegedly made Gore watch it to see what he'd done wrong.

Tina Fey is not Hammond's equal as an impressionist, but she may be the smartest writer SNL ever produced. Aided by her natural resemblance to Palin, Fey went even further than Hammond's Gore did in replicating the political reality of the moment. At a time when more and more Americans get their news via satire of the news, she beat Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at their own newfangled game.

More important, from an entertainment point of view, she made the already heating-up SNL spike like a fever chart. The show's recent popularity is the mirror image of the Dow Jones average-good news that just won't stop. The only frightening thing is, we live in a world where Presidential candidates don't dare directly address the issues; they must speak in cautious codes, stage Kabuki-like artificial dramas. If you want to see what's really happening, you have to turn off the debates and tune into Saturday Night Live.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us