“Say hi to your mother for me”

Thank God Saturday Night Live is back in action. The mid-nineties saw it kind of die off as its brightest stars made quivering, uneasy leaps into mainstream filmmaking with results that ranged from temporarily successful (“Austin Powers”) to full-blown humiliating (“The Master of Disguise”). For a long time there, the series just sat around, because SNL is a creature that feeds on cultural relevance. 

So maybe another presidential election was just what they needed to pull them out of their stupor. Maybe not. In my opinion, the seeds of success were already sown with the discovery of Seth Meyers, Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, and (most of all) Tina Fey. With real talent in the house, everything was possible.

At first, McCain and Obama proved difficult to satirize with the kind of blazing effect necessary, because they aren’t really characters in the way that Al Gore and Dubya were. And then, like mana from heaven, came Sarah Palin, who is much easier to create a caricature of simply because she’s a louder, more forceful personality who thrives on being controversial. It also helped that Tina Fey looks an awful lot like her.

So, the Tina Fey Sarah Palin was born, and now SNL is up and running again, the way it used to. Palin herself, being a good sport, showed up for a guest spot on the show last week. It’s always nice to see that. And now that the momentum is going, juice has begun flowing to other skits as well.

Let me show you my favorite. You may have heard about this:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/mark-wahlberg-talks-to-animals/727504/

Watch it. Watch it and enjoy it. Got it? Now prepare to laugh even harder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOSioIQhszk

Don’t you just effing love Mark Wahlberg? Look at the way he casually fixes his tie as he makes that threat, the offhand manner of it. Some of you may know this was a guy who found himself on the wrong end of the law a few times in his youth, and there’s a certain…autheticity to his tough-guy act as a result.

That’s all on that subject. I’ll be back later with my review of “W.”