Sunday, December 01, 2002

My Favorite SNL Sketch



Abstract o' lanterns


Okay, I already love Wake Up, Wakefield. But I especially love this one, rebroadcast tonight, originally broadcast 10/19/02. The premise of the recurring sketch is a 7:45 a.m. public access middle school news show starring pre-teens Sheldon (Rachel Dratch) and Megan (Maya Rudolph); in this installment, it is Halloween. Senator John McCain is the perfect hippie middle school art teacher, complete with hawaiian shirt and long pony tail. He makes Steely Dan-O'Lanterns for the kids, saying he's trying to teach the estudiantes to use their imaginations; the principal (Horatio Sanz) responds that his clothes and hair reek of "imagination" and suggests that he limit his own use of "imagination" to the weekends. McCain even has the voice down pat. Heck, Lorne, hire him as a regular cast member, or at least an and featuring!

Some people say Saturday Night Live waxes and wanes; some say it hasn't been any good since the early years. Personally, I think the current cast is wry and smart, with a better deadpan than any of the earlier casts and a strong sense of minimalism in language, for maximum sustained effect. Sanz and Fallon turned out not to be the one-hit wonders they seemed at first, and the women -- according to a recent Newsweek article the largest compliment of female cast members in the history of the show -- clearly run the show to everyone's benefit.

posted by boyhowdy | 12:28 AM |

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