Since when did SNL become an outlet for Fox News propaganda?

So earlier in the day I saw a post about this skit some website or another suggesting that it was great.

I did not read the whole thing because I didn't want the skit to be spoiled before I had a chance to see it. (#Alaskaproblems.)

But as I'm watching the damn thing I kept shaking my head and saying out loud, "WTF? That's not what happened at all!"

Think Progress noticed the same thing:  

“BILL: And if I pass the legislative test, then I wind up on the President’s desk… 

BOY: President Obama what’s the big idea? That bill was trying to become a law.” 

In the sketch, once the bill reaches Obama’s desk, he pushes the bill down the steps. But this is the opposite of what actually happened. Obama was desperate to see an immigration bill — of virtually any type — cross his desk. In May 2013, he reached a tentative deal with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, which would have been substantially more conservative than the Senate bill. It was ultimately rejected by Republican House leadership. 

“BILL: Don’t you have to go through Congress at some point? 

EXECUTIVE ORDER: Oh that’s adorable, you still think that’s how government works.” 

The implication here is that presidents before Obama didn’t use executive action for major policy areas. In fact, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan both used executive orders to protect undocumented immigrants. In 1989, Bush’s order protected about 40% of the undocumented population, roughly the same percentage as Obama’s order.

Think Progress ends the article by saying that SNL is under no obligation to get their facts right in order to do parody, but I disagree with that.

Maybe back in the 70's SNL could be a little sloppy, and get by with it because their viewers were not nearly as well informed as viewers today. But in a world where they are competing with brilliant satirists like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and HBO's John Oliver, they need to cross their fucking 't's" and dot their fucking "i's."

Do you know how you know when you have really screwed the pooch while presenting a political parody? When freaking Ted Cruz is quoting you while attacking the President, that's how.

I have been pretty underwhelmed with SNL this season, but I thought I would give them a chance to his their stride.

Yeah well forget that shit now. I am done with them.
 

Amy Poehler's new book discusses her fearlessness, including rapping a song as Sarah Palin, with the real Sarah Palin sitting on set.

Amy Poehler has written a new book, much like fellow SNL alum Tina Fey before her, that discusses her life and what she has learned along the way.

On of those things was to overcome her sense apprehension and to courageously move forward with decisions that others might have balked at.

One of those decisions occurred on Saturday Night Live during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Here is more courtesy of The New Yorker: 

“I like picking fair targets,” Poehler writes in “Yes Please.” This means avoiding jokes that feel “too mean or too lazy.” The most satisfying example of this, perhaps—a perfect deployment of satire—was her Sarah Palin rap, which she wrote, with help from Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg. The conceit was that Palin had planned to do a rap number about herself but had backed out of it, and that Poehler casually agreed to pinch-hit. “One, two three!” she yelled. She presented, in lyric form, the nightmarish essence of the 2008 Palin campaign experience (“When I say Obama, you say Ayers! I built me a bridge, it ain’t goin’ nowhere”; “I got a bookish look and you’re all hot for teacher”), as Palin gamely and helplessly played along, trying to look cool and comfortable. The fact that Poehler did it while nine months pregnant—fully committed, technically perfect, firing finger guns at a moose and doing Cypress Hill-style la-la-las—felt like the ultimate out-mavericking, combining Palin-style trappings of macho-feminine power with humor and smarts. The sketch was scathing but ostensibly respectful, her performance relentless and irresistible. Watching the rap now, years later, the Palin era over, you still laugh and cry with admiration. When she growls, “I’m an animal, and I’m bigger than you!” you feel it. Poehler had her baby a week later, and she watched “Weekend Update” from her hospital bed. 

While not as iconic as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression, Poehler's Palin rap was a real show stopper, made even more memorable by the fact that Palin gamely tried to play along despite the fact that her eyes betrayed her realization that she had suddenly stepped off into the deep end of political parody.

And with lyrics like this who can blame her:

i'm jeremiah wright cause tonight i'm the preacha 
i got a bookish look and you're all hot for teacha 
todd lookin fine on his snow machine 
so hot boy gonna need a go between 
in wasilla we just chill baby chilla 
but when i see oil lets drill baby drill 

my country tis a thee 
from my porch i can see 
russia and such 

For those who may have missed this amazing television moment,  take a moment to enjoy the incredible, and very pregnant, Amy Pohler, and her incredibly naive victim by clicking here.

Just for fun, SNL's hilarious take on New York's new marijuana laws.

Okay that's damn pretty funny.

I have a feeling a whole lot of people, in a whole lot of states, are going to be trying to figure just what is, and what is not, legal when it comes to pot in the next several years. 

Well there is one group who will relish the election of Joni Ernst to the Senate, comedians.

Courtesy of Ria Novosti:  

The winner of Tuesday’s Iowa Senate Race, Republican Joni Ernst will be featured regularly in political comedy shows because of her extreme beliefs, a political strategist told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. 

“Joni Ernst has said some things that are on the fringe of American politics - which the press hasn’t covered very well. She referred to [US President Barack] Obama as a dictator. Not to mention she’s into all kinds of weird conspiracy theories. She’ll definitely make good fodder for Jon Stewart for the next six years,” Iowa-based political consultant Pete D'Alessandro said. 

D'Alessandro, who has also worked on a number of election campaigns, also pointed to some alarming statements Ernst made regarding gun ownership, including the one in which she stated that she would need a gun to defend herself against the government. 

“I would say she’s a less intelligent Sarah Palin [Former Alaska Governor]. Sarah Palin is actually smarter, politically,” the strategist claimed.

Wow, dumber than Sarah Palin. Is there any worse allegation than that for a politician?

I agree that Ernst is going to attract a lot of attention from comedians and satirists.

I can already visualize the SNL skit based on her acceptance speech, where she brayed like a donkey the entire time.

As for being dumber than Palin, I will have to see a little more evidence before I am willing to hand the Queen of Stupidity crown over to Ernst. Maybe if her family got shitfaced and attacked an innocent homeowner I might consider it.