SNL, the 2012 Election, and Learning about Parody
There's a great article in today's New York Times about the influence of SNL during a competitive election season. As we've been learning in my TSEM class(Popular Culture and Politics: Comedy, Entertainment, Celebrity, and Democracy) this semester, journalists and the public alike look to the cast of SNL to offer their parody version of each general election debate. Parody is a reinterpretation of an original text -- a mockery that is easier to understand if you're familiar with the original event or script. According to the SNL writing team, this past Wednesday's debate failed to offer genuine comic inspiration. From the NYT article: "But the debate itself turned out to be a challenge. There were no big gaffes or obvious springboards for comedy. Instead, the first debate of this election offered up a blizzard of policy details and a lackluster performance from President Obama. At home Wednesday night, Seth Meyers, one of the show’s head writers, watch...