Olbermann gets his comeuppance via Ben Affleck

Well, it ain't a pitch-perfect parody, but it's damn funny. I hope Olbermann is laughing.

How Sarah Palin revived Saturday Night Live, and how Saturday Night Live is destroying Sarah Palin

The blade of satire is sharp and true.

Sharp humor once again at SNL

Saturday Night Live pokes a sharp stick at McCain's negative and inaccurate political ads.

I ran so far, back again

This video clip disappeared from the web for awhile, but NBC likely thought better of the exposure, or lack thereof.

Radio, radio

Radio and music are heavy on my mind this week, as an earlier post indicates, and somehow I tripped upon this on a site called Rock Town Hall.

I'm totally familiar with the first instance of Radio, Radio being played as contraband on Saturday Night Live. Costello and the band had been booked in December 1977 as a last minute replacement for the Sex Pistols. I saw it live on TV, and it made me a fan of Elvis Costello forever. History reveals that the moment was not as spontaneous as it seemed, but plotted by Costello and band ahead of time. It did piss off Lorne Michaels, who vowed never to have Costello back. It's the kind of performance that can make or break a career. Costello's talent insisted that it be a monumental push forward and not a stumbling block. He was invited back to play in 1989 and 1991, likely after Michaels decided the memorable moment was one of the reasons early Saturday Night Live was great.



Today, I saw for the first time, this reprise on a 1999 anniversary special of the show which featured the Beastie Boys.



BTW, Elvis Costello opens solo/acoustic for Dylan when he plays the the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport on Sept. 30.

A half-wit with a thesaurus

I can honestly say that I never found Dennis Miller to be funny. You have to admit that Saturday Night Live has been all downhill since the first four seasons, and Miller was responsible for his share of the downfall.

He was always more impressed with his intellect than he deserved to be. You want smart comedian, think John Stewart. You want faux-intellectual, Dennis Miller is your man. He uses big words, that he himself doesn't seem to understand, with all the subtlety of an oversized cudgel.

I haven't seen much of him lately. Mostly because if I see his face on TV, I click right on by.

I know he couldn't make it as a football commentator, following in the footsteps of that other wingnut sportsfan Russ Limbaugh. Unlike other illustrious, and even not-so-illustrious SNL alum, he never had much of a movie career (excuse me, how about "Bordello of Blood"?) And now, apparently, after a conversion to conservatism on 9/11, he's got his own syndicated methane producing right-wing talk show.

Doesn't surprise me.

So when I saw Miller criticize Chris Dodd's defense of Yearly Kos on Bill O'Reilly's political science fiction TV show, (be forewarned, I swiped the video from a conservative blogger's sight, and it's instructive to see how they viewed the encounter) I thought, "How pitiful to be so drunk on your own ego that you let it rob you of grace and common sense." Then I thought, "Dennis Miller didn't start our with much grace and common sense, so it was petty theft."