SNL Weekend Update Thursday -- Sketch by Sketch Review -- 10/9/08

The sketch really captured the idiocy of the town hall debate and rightfully skewered Tom Brokaw (poor Chris Parnell, surely Lorne has enough money to hire you back) for his concern more about time limits than fostering an interesting discussion about the questions. Also funny was McCain's assurances that he was a maverick because he'd angered his GOP brethren by stealing their cars, flushing cherry bombs down their toilets, and ruining their credit.

Darrel Hammond has really come alive this season, doing a spot on McCain, and Fred Armisen's getting increasingly better at capturing Obama's speech patterns, but still falls short at portraying his "cool." And it was nice to see Bill Murray back at SNL, but man does he look OLD!

Funniest line, McCain's continuing diminishing jabs at Obama, referring to him not as "That one" but rather as "Peepants."

Only miss: Why not parody those stupid meters at the bottom of the screen.

Weekend Update -- 8

Good ratings have apparently helped Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers have more confidence doing Weekend Update. The jokes were almost universally smile getting if not laugh out loud funny, which is unusual for a full Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. I'm glad to see Amy and Seth return to doing their "Really" segment, which this time was about the AIG bailout.

Fred Armisen and Will Forte's Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True" was classic as well. Have we seen the birth of a recurring SNL Weekend Update guest?

Classic Lines:

Seth -- "A woman in England paid over $17,000 for her cat to spend six days in an oxygen tent to cure its paralyzed larynx. The cat showed its gratitude by briefly holding eye contact."

About the AIG bailout and the trip they made to an expensive resort:

Amy -- "You defended the retreat saying it had been planned before the bailout. That's like going ahead with Grandma's birthday party even though Grandma died three days ago."

Seth -- "Here's a cheaper way to do team building. You know those empty sacks that used to be filled with money? Get in those and race."

Amy -- "The original Carvel store is closing after 70 years......... of promoting cruelty of whales."

Overall -- 9

The writers seem energized by renewed popularity and quite possibly the need to come up with fresh and topical humor in a hurry. This episode was laugh out loud funny and makes me wonder what SNL is going to do after Election Day when their source of inspiration dries up.