If you can’t stay up that late anymore.
(We’re trying to get these videos back. YouTube; it’s what’s for headache.)
One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less seriously.
But political satire has every bit as important a blade to wield as political analysis. People who were apprehensive about Palin‘s appearance on a comedy show were-so because they see nothing remotely “funny” about her candidacy; rather do they see unmitigated disaster for our country should McCain-Palin manage to wheedle their way into the White House.
Alec Balwin, who takes a stab at diagnosing the discomfort of viewing the “real” Palin appearing on SNL, doesn’t seem to get that, but he does get the “humor is as humor does” approach to reality.
Laughing in the face of appalling danger is difficult on a good day; on a really bad day, it’s well-nigh impossible. But humor can be a safety valve to prevent the building up of pressure from the intense struggle for genuine human progress. Through humor it’s possible to get the point and the insight as it mitigates the impact of rigid fact, or relative truth.
The delicious irony then, of watching Palin parody her own refusal to answer questions, but sit-dance like a political puppet to a prega-nant Amy Poehler parodying Palin, well; guess you have to go there only if you dare.
All humor aside, one thing is for certain. Hearing Sarah lie on the teevee day after day through that tightly-pinched voice box of hers will never make me want to see her on SNL ever again, let alone in the White House.
