You know you've made it when you're "parodied" on Saturday Night Live, Sen. Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, exclaimed to Rachel Maddow when appearing on Maddow's MSNBC show on Monday.
Which might be true had SNL actually parodied Maddow. What they served up instead was a pallid impersonation at best when there was so much more to work with.
The skit in question opened the SNL show that aired over the weekend and was based on Maddow moderating a candidates' forum in South Carolina the night before featuring the three Democrats running for president.
"You know what was the weird thing?," Maddow said in response to McCaskill's praise. "It looked like she was wearing my exact clothes and I keep my clothes in the building. Like, I don't wear a suit when I go home. ... I think it's quite possible that I need to send the dry cleaning bill to them."
It's true, SNL cast member Cecily Strong's attire closely resembled that often worn by Maddow, as did Strong's hairdo and the nerd glasses. Beyond that, the impersonation fell flat, especially when compared to the spot-on impressions of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders provided by SNL's Kate McKinnon and actor/comedian Larry David.
Here's a brief video compilation of what SNL could have done instead with Maddow had they been so inclined, featuring Maddow's appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, several clips from her own show on Nov. 5, and a snippet from Maddow moderating the candidates' forum on Nov. 6.
As anyone who has watched Maddow more than several consecutive minutes at a time is aware, she is inclined toward animation when expressing herself -- lots of arm waving, shameless mugging, wide-eyed mock wonder, theatrical throat clearing, etc. The Daily Howler wasn't far off when it dubbed her the "Crazy Guggenheim of cable news".
All of which begs the question -- why did SNL pass on the chance to go three-for-three with nailed-it parodies in the same skit of Clinton, Sanders and Maddow?
Clinton is arguably the easiest to imitate given her generation-long turn in the public spotlight, one that threatens to stretch beyond the horizon. But Sanders did not become widely known until this year and it took little time for Larry David to create his indelible impression, on a par with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin in 2008 and Dana Carvey's elder Bush in the early '90s.
Problem is, a genuine parody of Maddow rather than the bland caricature offered by SNL would involve crossing a line the show dares not approach. At a time when Halloween costumes are deemed too frightening for Yale undergrads to cast their sensitive eyes upon, Saturday Night Live running a recognizable and humorous impression of the openly gay Maddow would result in inevitable accusations of homophobia, considering that the show's core audience shares SNL's easily provoked liberal politics. Better instead to keep playing it safe and impersonate low-hanging fruit like Clinton and Sanders.
