NBC's "Saturday Night Live" featured some fake Republican ads that were either intended as a) a dead-serious mockery of the GOP exploiting the terror threat and socially liberal causes or b) something so over the top it was just funny to everyone -- or maybe a little gross. About 18 minutes into the show came Robert Smigel's "TV Funhouse" cartoon feature, with President Bush discussing GOP ads. First, Smigel had his Bush introduce the authentic RNC Osama-"real stakes" commercial. Then, he had Bush say that if anyone was offended, the new ads were more festive and fun.
The first one had a Ted Kennedy photo mocked up as a vampire, saying with a Transylvania accent "I vant to cut and run!" Then bin Laden came into the picture and Kennedy was tongue-kissing him. Then "Count Obama" rose up (like Kennedy, an Obama pic mocked up with pointy ears and fangs) and said like the Count on Sesame Street, "One gay marriage... two gay marriages...three gay marriages..." Then it had real audio of Ken Mehlman saying this message paid for by the RNC, with his little picture on the bottom, just like the real ad shown first. Video (1:15): Real (2.04 MB) or Windows Media (2.33 MB ), plus MP3 audio (356 KB)
Bush said see, it's Halloween, and these ads are festive. Then the really inappropriate one came on:
The silhouettes of kids came to a door and rang the doorbell and said "Trick or Treat." A pretty woman came out, but her stomach swelled, and burst open bloodily to a picture of Hillary Clinton in a witch hat with a fierce wide-eyed look on her face. She said "Have some condoms and abortion pills!" Then Hillary and the mom she burst out of started tongue kissing. When the ad ended again with Mehlman again, in miniature, Hillary burst bloodily out of his stomach, too, saying "Hello."
This would probably scare small children, but it made me laugh. (I didn't notice the bloody Mehlman end until the second viewing.) When he cut back to fake Bush, he was half under the desk from fright. Cheney was wheeled in to tell him to keep going, that he had two years left. Bush said "Oh hell."
One of the funniest political satires on "Saturday Night Live" was a fake political ad in the middle of their fake-news "Weekend Update" segment. It showed a large chainsaw being started (I want to say the ad was poised below a crotch) and it said "Mario Cuomo is a murderer!" It was so over the top that you couldn't even take it as a slam on Republicans. It was just so ridiculous it was funny. This might be read the same way.