Paliin, Michaels and Fey on SNL

This election year just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

Did you watch “Saturday Night Live?” This past weekend, I thought it Saturday night surreal.

Governor Sarah Palin, fresh from her Indiana appearance at Verizon Wireless in Noblesville on Friday,  appeared on the NBC comedy show Saturday night.

Over the past few weekends, comedienne Tina Fey has been having a field day taking shots at the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. The bits have been a huge hit on the web and helped SNL to some of their biggest ratings in years!

Saturday night, Palin did a wonderful job poking fun at herself. If you haven’t seen the routine yet, click here for a peek. Funny stuff. But strange. There she was…a Vice Presidential candidate standing alongside Alec Baldwin (a frequent critic of Republicans) getting laughs. (It was also a show that featured an Oliver Stone cameo, too!) Those stinging SNL routines have NOT helped Palin’s overall standing in the polls…yet, here she was, taking those same routines head on with that knowing wink that Fey has made even more famous!

Weird. But immensely entertaining.

An apology on Letterman

It was a culmination of a week of unusual events where entertainment shows, particularly comedic shows, took over the political process…and in some bizzare way, I think are doing a service to the electoral process!

Think about it.

Senator John McCain humbly returns to the Ed Sullivan Theatre after standing up host David Letterman a few weeks ago. After admitting he “screwed up,” the Presidential candidate and frequent guest on the show faces some of the toughest and hard-hitting questions from host Letterman, particularly about McCain’s choice of Palin.

The advantage Letterman has over a traditional journalist? If things get a little too tense, he can lean back and interject some humor, something he did more than a few times during the exchange with McCain. A journalist couldn’t or hasn’t pushed questions like Letterman did.

Is it fair?

Why not? Letterman’s show was where McCain decided to announce his bid for the presidential race so many months ago. If Letterman is good enough to start a presidential run, it’s a fair place to ask tough questions.

And it’s paying off in ratings. The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS averaged 6.5 million viewers, the biggest audience for the Late Show in three years since Oprah Winfrey’s visit in December 2005. On the same night, VP candidate Sen. Joe Biden was on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno drawing in an average of 4.6 million viewers.

Saturday night’s appearance of Governor Palin on SNL brought in the best overnight ratings for the show in 14 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Comedy and politics. They just seem to go together!