Deadron's Site - The disappearing SNL skits

The disappearing SNL skits in Off Topic

ID:48996

Oct 7 2008, 8:16 am

While much of the media has been pretty clearly "in the tank" for Obama (I've documented several instances), Saturday Night Live has been a show that has occasionally bucked the trend.

During the Hillary/Obama fight in the primary, SNL was the first to land any kind of hit on Obama, by doing a skit about a Hillary and Obama debate, in which Hillary was asked obscure foreign policy questions and Obama was asked if he wanted a pillow. This struck something for people, and may have resulted in, the next week, the first time the press actually tried to question Obama about something difficult to prove SNL wrong -- his Tony Rezko connection, which caused Obama to flee a press conference:

After this, Obama refused to meet with the press for nine days.

I wanted to link to the SNL skit that started all that...but it's gone. Can't find it on YouTube or NBC's site (if you can, let me know!)

This week, SNL did a skit including the Democrats involvement in the Fannie/Freddie stuff...and it's been pulled from YouTube and NBC's site.

However, you can see it here.

If that video is pulled, Michelle Malkin has the transcript and screenshots here (you don't know how much it pains me to link to her...Malkin is someone I try to avoid, but in this case she's got the info, so...)

I don't know why these videos have been pulled. Plenty of other SNL videos are available, especially on NBC's site (no doubt you've seen the Tina Fey as Hillary skits that manage to remain available (I particularly like the Hillary portrayal in that one...)

Whatever the reason, check em out.

#1 Oct 7 2008, 9:41 am
Gughunter	The rich couple, labeled "people who should be shot" in the sketch, is apparently based on a real couple. So there could be some potential legal issues there. "Owner, Democratic Party". Heh! In other news: Madonna has banned Sarah Palin from all her concerts! http://www.wrecradio.com/cc-common/news/sections/ newsarticle.html?feed=104659&article=4363764

#2 Oct 7 2008, 10:07 am (Edited on Oct 7 2008, 3:12 pm)
Jmurph	I am sure Governor Palin is hugely upset by that development. /sarc Also, I are better then teh candidates cause I deliver teh gudz http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/77752/ http://www.archive.org/details/PulledSnlBankBailoutSkit

#3 Oct 7 2008, 12:20 pm
IcewarriorX	I'm sure they haven't made them unavailable. NBC tends to list the more memorable/classic ones rather than newer ones. The only sketch that they've ever made completely unviewable is that penis sketch they did like 30 years ago.

#4 Oct 7 2008, 1:13 pm

Deadron

IcewarriorX wrote:
I'm sure they haven't made them unavailable.

No one can find them (aside from the copy I pointed to).

There's a lot of speculation on why...best theory I've heard is that it's because while making fun of two real people, they ran a crawl that said, "People who should be shot", and they may have pulled it because that could be taken as inciting real violence in this overheated atmosphere.

If that's the reason, hopefully they'll blur that part out and put the video back up. And hopefully they'll put up the other video I mentioned about the Hillary/Obama debate; though that might be up and I just couldn't find it.

The Volokh blog discusses this.

By the way, the skit also portrays some things that I think are inaccurate (more deregulation pap), but I still like it because it throws elbows everywhere and skewers everyone.

#5 Oct 8 2008, 6:51 am
Gughunter	The plot thickens! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/ palin-snl-pelos.html

#6 Oct 8 2008, 7:22 am
Jmurph	Ummm... the video in that linked post wasn't edited at all. What are they talking about?

#7 Oct 8 2008, 8:44 am
Gughunter	"All that's gone in the new version, which Show Tracker has posted here." -- points to new version. "To see the original full sketch before the editing, click on the Read more line below." -- points to original version (YouTube). I didn't actually check to make sure the two videos are different. But the L.A. Times wouldn't lie to us.

#8 Oct 8 2008, 9:30 am
Jmurph	Hrm. The embedded video had the ref to Frank and the "People who should be shot" label. And it looks like Youtube pulled it.... Oh well.

#9 Oct 8 2008, 4:37 pm

Gughunter

There's a plausible explanation for the omitted Frank remarks at Ace of Spades:

23 Guys, I need to come to SNL's slight defense here. I mean, I wish they hadn't caved at all, or cut anything out at all. The piece was obvious satire so the "they should be shot" reference can't be taken seriously. But given that they caved to pressure from the Sandlers I think it should be pointed out that the reason this part of the skit was cut was not because of Barney Frank but because the (fake) Mr. Sandler claimed he was engaged in "corrupt activities." If you read the recent news reports about the Sandler's angry reaction to this you'll understand that they strenuously object to any claims that what they did was corrupt.

Again, I don't think they should have cut anything out. But I also don't think this is an example of caving to Barney Frank or the Demcrats, just to the Sandlers in particular.
Posted by: mcg at October 08, 2008 04:33 PM (ejhPJ)

#10 Oct 8 2008, 4:50 pm
Deadron	As it happens, I have a friend very familiar with all this (used to work at their bank), who feels strongly that the Sandler's were good people, acted responsibly (they avoided the S&L scandals earlier, for example), and are being railroaded here. I'll have to look up the Sandler response...