'SNL' Does McCain-Bashing Skit Written by Al Franken

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" opened its most recent installment with a John McCain-bashing skit believed to be the idea of Senate Democrat candidate Al Franken.

In the segment, McCain, played by Darrell Hammond, approved numerous campaign ads making absolutely absurd claims about Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.

One accused the junior senator from Illinois of wanting to provide health insurance for everyone in the universe including Osama bin Laden, while another said Obama approved tax cuts for pedophiles (video embedded below the fold).

Yet, according to Politico, this was all the brainchild of Franken:

Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" star now running in a high-profile Senate race in Minnesota, helped craft the opening sketch mocking John McCain that kicked off the NBC comedy show Saturday, according to two well-placed sources inside the network.

Franken, who hasn't been a staff writer on the show for 13 years, "phoned in" a spoof of McCain recording campaign ads in an edit booth, said an NBC source. Seth Meyers, the show's current head writer, wrote it, but the sketch was hatched by Franken, a longtime liberal satirist and comedian.

An SNL insider said that, as of the Wednesday script read-through, Franken was the "credited writer with Meyers" on the opening sketch. Show veteran Darrell Hammond is to play McCain.

Honestly, NBC, candidates are certainly fair game. But allowing one candidate to assist in the creation of a skit attacking another goes way beyond the pale and should have been obvious to someone in the network before it was approved.

Sheesh.