Leaving the first presidential debate last week, an 8-foot talking bird — and his future employment prospects — seemed to be the biggest issue. The infamous Big Bird even ended up on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in the Weekend Update.

The pop parts of culture have the tendency of becoming a big voice of the national conversation. Last Saturday’s “SNL” lampooned the madness that was the first presidential debate perfectly.

Although sketch comedy shows are supposed to be “lowbrow” fun and political debates should be saved for “highbrow” pundits to discuss, in real life that’s simply not how it works.

Remember almost-Vice President Sarah Palin? After Palin told us that she “could see Russia from (her) house,” her VP hopes seemed a little less achievable. Once Tina Fey donned that red suit and became Palin on “SNL,” it only got worse.

Four years later, “SNL” isn’t any less politically inclined.

In real life, President Barack Obama seemed lethargic and was definitely missing his classic brand of inspiration and hope. Republican candidate Mitt Romney was passionate and awake — sometimes a little too awake, verging on crazy eyes. But at least Romney seemed to remember he was at a presidential debate.

In the “SNL” opener, Obama, played by Jay Pharaoh, was more concerned with buying First Lady Michelle Obama an anniversary present than the fact that Romney, played by Jason Sudeikis with intense eye contact, said he had instead killed Osama bin Laden.

By the end of the sketch, Pharaoh was napping while standing up.

As a self-confessed Obama supporter, it’s hard to see “SNL” criticizing the president.  Not only because I’m not used to it, but because I know that images like a sleepy Obama will stay with viewers.

Whether people see the sketch while actually watching the comedy show or in a clip during a talk show, they’ll remember it. There are a lot of undecided and easily swayable Americans out there.

While they shouldn’t be getting their political opinions from TV, there’s a good chance that the image of a president acting too cool to care about the debate might pop up in the voting booth in November.

This week the vice presidential hopefuls are up to bat with their debate. “SNL” should react with an even more colorful opener this week. Both Vice President Joe Biden, played by Sudeikis as well, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, played by semi-newbie Taran Killam, are already characters on their own.

“SNL” will have no problem exaggerating their personalities even more.

Biden is known for his off-the-cuff remarks, like his “big f***ing deal” comment after the signing of the health care reform bill. Ryan is famous for his love of pro-capitalist author Ayn Rand and the P90X workout regime.

“SNL” will rightly be on the lookout for any faux pas from the next three debates. And if we’ve learned anything from this campaign season — from Romney’s 47-percent comment a few weeks ago to Obama’s drowsy performance last week —  somebody’s bound to drop the ball.

Ariana Romero is a junior magazine journalism and political science major. Her column appears every week. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @ArianaRomero17. 

 

Published on October 11, 2012 at 1:00 am