I just watched the Saturday Night Live Presidential Debate special that was on Monday night this week and I’ve discovered another reason for us to feel ashamed of our collective selves. If SNL is to be any sort of bell weather for our life and times, we’ve been re-living political history for at least the last 30 years without even knowing it. For example:
- In the ’76 Debate spoof, Belushi’s Rolling Stone reporter accuses Dan Ackroyd’s Jimmy Carter of being a “flip-flopper”
- In ’88, Dana Carvey’s Bush stumbles over himself horribly, yadda yadda yadda, something about a “thousand points of light,” at which point what’s-his-name’s Dukakis says, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.”
- In ’92, Bush-Clinton-Perot, well… Carvey’s Perot is almost funnier than Ralph Nader, playing himself, debating puppets.