New York
Unlike the rest of the world, SNL had a hard time joking about the debate
“It’s boring enough when they’re talking about all this and how it will affect Americans, but when you’re sitting there trying to pull comedy out of it, it’s really bad,” Seth Meyers said. “There were people on Twitter saying: ‘You must be really happy, there’s so much in this debate. This is writing itself.’ I was like: what debate are you watching?”
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Colbert struggled as well.
aunursa on October 8, 2012 at 12:38 PM
Colbert just ran with the DNC line that Obama couldn’t keep up with all of Romney’s lies.
aunursa on October 8, 2012 at 12:39 PM
So far in the tank.
rbj on October 8, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Seth Myers, comedian: – Eyes wide shut.
WisRich on October 8, 2012 at 12:40 PM
So much material they had, but they went soft with the anniversary skit. If they just pretended it was George W. Bush, they could have come up with tons of stupid jokes.
El_Terrible on October 8, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Irrelevant program. The last gasp of talent on SNL was Darrell Hammond with exceptions few and far between since before Belushi died.
viking01 on October 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM
I don’t seem to recall them having problems with finding material in previous election debates.
WisRich on October 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM
Guess it’s hard to joke about your God-King as he embarrasses himself in front of tens of millions.
There was plenty of material, but their bias prevented them from seeing it.
changer1701 on October 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM
all SNL is doing is just mark-time marching…..they’re just trying to maintain an audience…not increasing it. They’re treading water–no waves. It’s no surprise that they are unfunny.
ted c on October 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM
Personal disappointment is a hard thing to turn into humor. True and talented comedians excel at this and create timeless pieces for all generations (Cosby’s early work is a great example).
SNL…not so much.
Skwor on October 8, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Blasphemy isn’t funny, is it, Seth?
DarthBrooks on October 8, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Here’s a tip Seth. Remove all assumptions that Obama is smart or is a great orator. Things will flow from there.
WisRich on October 8, 2012 at 12:45 PM
I’d like to see SNL do a skit on Clinton oggling babes. No, not that Clinton, this one.
Akzed on October 8, 2012 at 12:45 PM
The reason it is hard for them to write a comedy skit about Obama is because there is only one way to go, he’s an incompetent fool. If he were republican they would be playing Obama very similar to the way they smeared Gerald Ford, who was not. They might even now were it not for the fact that the Mainstream press paints him as a genius, even if a flawed one, and would crucify SNL for suggesting he isn’t.
Rocks on October 8, 2012 at 12:46 PM
The opening skit was a gentle as possible to Obama while still having to acknowledge he royally screwed up at the debate. The writers actually took the “his mind was preoccupied with something else” excuse half-seriously, even while giving Al Gore’s “high altitude” excuse the treatment it deserved.
Myers’ statement just shows while the staff knew that had to write and perform a debate skit, they weren’t happy about having to do it, but will be all-in on the next one if they can find anything about Romney they can sink their teeth into. In contrast, SNL went all-out on the MSNBC debate coverage parody, because even they aren’t so liberal as to not recognize the prime-time clown show over there (taking MSNBC seriously apparently is David Letterman’s job).
jon1979 on October 8, 2012 at 12:48 PM
SNL hasn’t been funny in years.
IR-MN on October 8, 2012 at 12:48 PM
Behead those who insult Obama
faraway on October 8, 2012 at 12:49 PM
It’s not the result, but the intention, that counts for libz. Ergo, SNL’s still on the air.
Akzed on October 8, 2012 at 12:49 PM
The most important part of the article… CREEPY!!!
This is like the Inquisition
faraway on October 8, 2012 at 12:53 PM
The cold opening last week was soooooo bad, they didn’t even try to be funny or accurate.
rndmusrnm on October 8, 2012 at 12:57 PM
It’s to write comedy when your pad of paper or your keyboard is full of tears.
I thought the debate skit was lame. They couldn’t bring themselves to taking Obama down.
The MSNBC skit wasn’t bad. The woman who played Maddow was pretty good. The guy who played Matthews didn’t spit. I think for Sharpton, SNL should have played the live clip. Hell, as a skit, SNL should have played clips from the actual MSNBC postmortem.
BuckeyeSam on October 8, 2012 at 1:03 PM
Another missed opportunity, they really should have a guy playing Maddow. Just sayin’…
Fallon on October 8, 2012 at 1:03 PM
Wait… I thought MSNBC was a comedy channel. What??
faraway on October 8, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Things are only funny when the joke is on the right target.
Scrappy on October 8, 2012 at 1:06 PM
They were probably feeling like the Christians during the trail and crucifixion of Christ.
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do”
~BHO, Nov 2012
BobMbx on October 8, 2012 at 1:07 PM
All they had to do is just show an empty chair…fade in—fade out–
right2bright on October 8, 2012 at 1:09 PM
… and I thought NBC’s biggest joke was Andrea Mitchell…
Try the veal !
viking01 on October 8, 2012 at 1:09 PM
The opening debate skit was decent, but Seth is a known bleeding heart liberal. So, his statements should come as no surprise. Did anyone watch his “news” segment? I watched most of SNL this week to see how they would handle the debate and the current state of the election campaigns. I usually watch only up until the news segment because Seth is such a douche. This week, I watched it and, sure enough, he had to go with current liberal mantra of “Romney is a liar”. He just can’t help himself. This got huge laughs with that audience, of course.
yubley on October 8, 2012 at 1:12 PM
Ha. That was great. I quit watching in the 90s because they started sucking so badly, but if they can once again pull off jokes like that with a straight face then I’ll give them another chance.
Wait, what?
rogerb on October 8, 2012 at 1:12 PM
It’s really sad to see how far Left this country is leaning now. You’d think there weren’t literally dozens of banana republics to choose from, instead of working to ruin the United States.
KMC1 on October 8, 2012 at 1:18 PM
SNL itself has become the joke. “Remember when SNL was funny?” has become convention wisdom. They happily betray their own craft–just like the media–comics can’t bring themselves to make the obvious jokes, reporters can’t bring themselves to report the obvious stories, and Hollywood can’t bring itself to make movies about taboo topics.
Now, that’s a funny story!
Christien on October 8, 2012 at 1:19 PM
Meyers is the worst of the liberal hacks on SNL. He tells outright lies about Governor Romney during his fake news segment.
slickwillie2001 on October 8, 2012 at 1:27 PM
They had a man play her once, can’t remember whether it was one of their regulars or Affleck. That youtube was scrubbed.
slickwillie2001 on October 8, 2012 at 1:32 PM
The President Romney jokes will begin on Day One.
Moesart on October 8, 2012 at 1:42 PM
SNL has sucked for at least 25 years now. Yeah, it’s produced one or two actual comedians, but these current guys are too full of themselves. They can’t mock Obamuh bcuz they’re just like him–it’s all about them.
stukinIL4now on October 8, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Meyers tells more flat out lies on his Weekend Update segment because much of that segment material comes straight from HuffPo and the kos recommended diary section.
Yes, really.
Moesart on October 8, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Remember when SNL was funny?
Crisis Game ’83 (starring Tommy Smothers as John Glenn, Eddie Murphy as Jessie Jackson, and Joe Piscopo as Ted Koppel)
Christien on October 8, 2012 at 1:54 PM
SNL’s political skits are mean spirited in nature so it is hard for them to make fun of their political messiah.
Lack of intellectual and ideological diversity is killing entertainment in all forms.
Daemonocracy on October 8, 2012 at 2:16 PM
A writer on SNL declares about a current event “That’s not funny!”
We now live in such a world. Wow.
DarthBrooks on October 8, 2012 at 2:17 PM
I just like that they still see Obama as ‘Superman, effected by the altitude, like kryptonite.’
There’s your comedy. It’s all behind the scenes.
Go RBNY on October 8, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Their way of apologizing for an insufficient amount of adoration of Obama.
tom on October 8, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Sycophants! Even after that debacle they are still spinning for Obummer and put out advantageous spins;
“Oh look! Obama is just like the average husband. Cmon, we all forgot an anniversary gift at least once, right? Isnt it cute that he cares more about his wife than about all that political stuff? Unlike that meany Romney by the way, who LIES!!!”
Valkyriepundit on October 8, 2012 at 2:35 PM
Sooooooo much heartache
Jackalope on October 8, 2012 at 3:22 PM