One mo’ time: The redacted SNL bailout sketch

posted at 12:28 pm on October 8, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Posted for two reasons: (1) My half-baked hope that Maverick’s lurch in the polls is due to his Fannie/Freddie attack on Monday, making any fingerpointing in this vein worth (re-)circulating, and (2) a nice catch by Andrew Malcolm at the LA Times in noticing that the controversial “People who should be shot” graphic isn’t the only thing that’s been scrubbed from this new version.

In an interview with Gold, the show’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said the Sandlers were distraught but had not demanded the changes. He noted the “People who should be shot” line was deleted as was a reference to their “corrupt activities.”

But a comparison of the two versions shows that actually a little more than that was cut. What also was excised was any mention of the involvement of Massachusetts’ Rep. Frank in the Sandler subprime mess…

In the original skit Sandler addresses Frank, saying, “And thank you Congressman Frank as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.”

To which Frank replies enthusiastically, “Not at all!”

The disappeared snippet comes near the end, right after Marion Sandler tells Pelosi it’s delightful to see her. Malcolm seems to hint that they’re letting Frank off the hook, but the GOP’s also blamed in that exchange and, as Michaels says, they were obviously worried about accusing the Sandlers of “corrupt activities.” How were they supposed to get rid of that without cutting the lines about Frank?

Exit question: Are they really going to have Fred Armisen play Obama for the next four years? All he does in the Obama sketches is sit there, look sphinx-ish, and preface everything he says with The One’s clipped, “Well…”

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