Saturday Night Live

The weather has been so brutal in the Northeast this winter that those involved in preparations for Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary special were apparently cut off from any news over the last two weeks. How else to explain the show's laughable piety when it aired last night, and at the dead-whale weight of four and a half hours (including a red-carpet preview), and mocked what was…

Disgraced NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was the butt of several jokes on Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary Special. Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld and even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani got into the act during an interview on the red carpet. 

Stand-up comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld cracked up the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary audience with a joke at Brian Williams’ expense: “I just found out that one of the original cast members in 1975 was Brian Williams.”

Appearing on the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special Sunday night, comedian Martin Short mocked NBC for the ongoing scandal surrounding Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, declaring to the audience of A-list celebrities: “Do you realize that if this roof were to collapse right now, it would be the least of NBC’s problems?”

During the red carpet show leading up to the 40th anniversary special of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, actor Jim Carrey ended his interview with Today co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on a rather awkward note by suddenly asking them where NBC is “hiding” suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Carrey interjected with: “Can I ask you guys a question? Where are you hiding Brian…

Following President Obama’s decision to ignore Congress and issue an executive action on immigration reform, Saturday Night Live hilariously mocked the decision on their Saturday night broadcast. During the show’s opening, SNL did their own “School House Rock” segment featuring an immigration reform bill being shoved down the steps of Capitol Hill by President Obama, played by Jay Pharoah, in…

Out of sync with MSNBC, NBC’s Saturday Night Live opened last night with a skit in which “President Obama” acknowledged the ineptitude of his administration and “Ron Klain,” the Ebola Czar, conceded to a reporter that he has no medical expertise. Picking up on poor Democratic prospects in the mid-term elections, the comedy show then had Klain warning “if you live in a southern state, such as…

With the autumn return of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" with all new installments, the traditionally reliable pro-Obama skits may be on the back burner as the voter opposition to the president is at an all time high, according to Gallup.   The actor portraying President Obama was the same as last season, Jay Pharoah, but this past Saturday night, the writers seemed to have been paying attention a…

Saturday Night Live returned from its summer hiatus this weekend but if Democrats had succeeded in their September 11 vote to amend the Constitution there wouldn’t be any more political skits on the 40 year-old comedy institution.  According to Senator Ted Cruz the Constitutional amendment, that would’ve been an end-around the First Amendment, would’ve given Congress the power to restrict…

Politico reports that Sen. Ted Cruz argues that parodies on “Saturday Night Live” could be illegal under a new campaign-finance constitutional amendment proposed by Democrats trying to cracking down on political speech by corporations. “Well, NBC which airs Saturday Night Live, is a corporation,” Cruz said, reminding other Senators of all the satirized politicians, from Gerald Ford and Ronald…

The ESPN-affiliated, Bill Simmons-run website Grantland, which specializes in sports and popular culture, claimed on Friday that Fox News Channel is a major source of what Simmons calls “unintentional comedy” (or maybe "subconscious comedy" would be more accurate). In a feature about the history and influence of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment, Grantland staff writer Brian…

New York magazine interviewed Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels about his show and political humor. Michaels seemed to suggest that Republicans can take a joke, and Democrats can't. Or perhaps Republicans are used to being mocked by Manhattan liberals, and Democrats expect to be pampered. The magazine’s Lane Brown asked: "Are there any basic rules for what works and what…

After playing a clip of Saturday Night Live mocking President Obama's "embattled second term" on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie sympathetically observed: "I guess if you're at the White House you laugh so you don't cry." She then turned to Obama's former press secretary Robert Gibbs and wondered: "What do you think the President's state of mind is right now? I mean, have you ever…

Could it be, just maybe, that there's hope for Randi Rhodes yet? Rhodes finds herself high on the list of prominent left-wing radio hosts (mainly because it's a very short list), but her rants as often documented here make it difficult to take her seriously. (Audio after the jump)