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Heartbreaker
Kittens, if it weren't too darn hot, I'd break out the widow's weeds, because after tonight's performance show I'd say that Mark… -
So You Think You Can Dance: So Wrong It's Right
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EW
Adam B. Vary wins! Adam B. Vary beat TVTalker 11 to 10.
Tina Fey's "**** is the New Black" commentary was surprisingly unfunny. And kinda insulting.
Adam B. Vary said
It's not that she chose to defend Hillary Clinton that's the problem; it's that her defense was both unfunny AND an unconvincing argument for her candidate. Starsky and Hutch and old-looking Ronald Reagan? Those are seriously the best comic references you've got? If you're going there, why not Cagney and Lacey and Eleanor Roosevelt? And if I've got it straight, we should support her because she's the **** first viable female candidate who doesn't have sex with her former-president husband, which reminds us of the ****, sex-deprived Catholic nuns who taught us (who went to Catholic school, anyway) the capital of Vermont. And that's a feminist argument how?
The Obama/Hillary debate sketch was much, much funnier AND more politically astute.
TVTalker said
While true that the Obama/Hillary debate sketch was funnier and probably more politically correct, you have to give credit to Tina Fey for pulling off what would otherwise be a fairly weakly written piece. Yes, it was somewhat offensive, but let's face it. It's no better to say that you should vote for Obama because he's black. And yes, Hillary IS a ****, and I think Tina made some good points.
Also, it wasn't surprisingly unfunny. It was just unfunny. SNL hasn't been incredibly funny for a long time.
Adam B. Vary said
Oh, but Tina Fey has been incredibly funny for a few years now, and her Weekend Update segments were always the highlight of even the most lackluster shows. And she's gone on political rants before on SNL that were all with the funny. It just seems to me like there were many, many ways to tackle this topic, but she went for it in such a way that it would most likely only big time Hillary supporters laugh -- and even then, if I'm a Hillary supporter, I'd be kinda annoyed that she didn't make a much better argument.
TVTalker said
What, you expected a realistic argument for why you should vote for Hillary? This is Saturday Night Live, not Meet the Press. There's no expectation to make a better argument, her only goal is to make people laugh as much as possible. She may have struck out a bit here.
And while Tina Fey is funny, SNL writers are not, and she was reading their material as opposed to her own.
Adam B. Vary said
Forfeited Turn
TVTalker said
I suppose my only statement is this: Hosts of the show, even former writers like Tina Fey, do not write the material that they later present. Tina was merely reading the material that was presented to her. So was it not a surprise that it was unfunny; the SNL writers have barely been funny for a few years now.
As for insulting, I don't think it's all that insulting. I sincerely doubt that Tina Fey honestly believes that you should vote for Hillary because she's a b****. She's a lot smarter than that. So who is it insulting to? Certainly not our intelligence. I think we're ALL smarter than that.
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Comments
The Counteragent 02/26/08
Hi, I'm Amy and I'm self-proclaimed President of the Tina Fey Can Do No Wrong Club. That's all.
sinakitty 02/26/08
The only problem I had with it is that Tina Fey always pimp Obama on her glorious show 30 Rock. If she is such a Hiliary fan, why doesn't she pimp her on 30 Rock? Why wait until she guest host on SNL to do it.
Alynda 02/26/08
It's inappropriate for Fey as a guest, and the show's former head writer, to spout her political views during Update. Besides, let's not claim the moral high ground here, people. When you get a cast that's at least diverse enough to portray a presidential candidate, THEN you can start lecturing me.
TVTalker 02/26/08
I don't think that it's her own views per se. Remember, it's just the material the show chooses to write.
NateTheGreat 02/26/08
the wknd update bit was utterly painful. not only was the comedy and the logic weak (per adam) but the whole play on words ("b**tch is the new black") basically implies that people are voting for obama because he's black and not voting for HRC because she's a woman, and they get on the bus and switch that around, is offensive and belittles both candidates.......
NateTheGreat 02/26/08
last sentence should read "...they should get on the bus..."
Adam B. Vary 02/28/08
Whoa! I didn't realize I forfeited a turn! But, if I hadn't, I would've said that since the credits for show never ran, we'll actually never know whether Tina Fey wrote her Women's News commentary or not -- and since she said in her opening monologue that she considers herself more of a writer than a performer, I'm willing to guess that she most likely had at least a hand in it. (Also, by the way, hosts of the show DO sometimes write material for it -- Tom Hanks has talked about staying up late with the writers working on the material when he's hosted the show.)
But ALL of this is beside the point. And that point is that the commentary itself was A) surprisingly unfunny, which you've pretty much agreed to and B) kinda insulting, which you pretty much capitulated to by saying that even the person delivering the commentary was smarter than what she was saying, whether she actually wrote it or not.
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