Dana Carvey

Tuesday

October 8, 2024

Saturday Night Live is helping Trump

“Me and Vice President Harris are the same!” concluded Saturday Night Live veteran Dana Carvey, in character as Joe Biden, when he returned to NBC’s legendary sketch comedy show for the first episode of its fiftieth anniversary season. After Carvey, who left SNL’s regular ensemble in 1993, uttered those politically unhelpful words, former cast member Maya Rudolph, playing Kamala Harris, nervously gave him the bum rush off stage, only for him to wander back on to smell her hair — one of Biden’s stranger campaign trail moves — before the two delivered the show’s signature, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” line to a cheering studio audience, millions of viewers at home and millions more who (like me) caught it later via social media streaming.

Tuesday

April 4, 2023

Cockburn

Did CNN censor America’s top comics?

“Thanks to the woke police, in 2023, Mark Twain would never win the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.” This David Spade joke isn't exactly L-O-L funny — it sounds more like something a crotchety senior citizen would growl at the TV about those wokey hokey cancel culture snowflakes. But nonetheless, people, particularly comics should feel able to speak freely. But sadly, there's some truth to Spade's gag, which he delivered on March 19 as part of his remarks at the awarding of the 2023 Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Comedy to his longtime collaborator Adam Sandler. It’s 2023 and that means that certain ideas are viewed as unfit for wider consumption.