by Nathan Empsall, Sun Nov 02, 2008 at 09:01:45 AM EST
While my opinion of Keith Olbermann has not dropped quite as dramatically as some other folks', I figured there are enough people around here still angry at him from the primaries to make this worth sharing. Here is Ben Afflek's amusing angry man impression of KO on last night's Saturday Night Live.
Tags: Keith Olbermann, Saturday Night Live (all tags)
The voice needed to be deeper and the script wasn't great, but I thought he had the mannerisms pretty well.
it's just that he's too handsome and appealing, so the invective is way too charming. Keith is way worse, does a far more scathing impression of himself. Keith and Sarah can't be mocked more than they already always self-parody.
oh that darn keith, he practically invented manufactured outrage. And who does it more unpleasantly? (hint: he's no. 1).
I haven't heard anyone say it was good.
What would have been funny if they had thrown in a "special comment", and gotten ridiculous with the switching cameras. That's also when he gets his most histrionic.
Exactly my thoughts. I like Olberman a lot, and I found this hilarious too.
You have to be able to laugh with this parody; I don't think you can laugh at it.
People who enjoy Olbermann (or, at least, don't hate him) would probably find it funny. But it just didn't have the "if you hate him, you'll love this" vibe to it.
It's interesting, though, that almost the entire sketch was centered around the guest star. Eight some-odd minutes where only two of the main cast showed up and, even then, only briefly.
I guess we all forget when KO said that HRC plan to be president was to hope BO was killed???
Or when KO said someone should take HRC into the back room and beat some sense into her???
The guy is scum and there is a reason he was kicked off the debates. Because he is a hack. He is not diffenent that Hannity, Billo, can Coulter. He is a hater, period.
Sorry i must be a troll, McCain supporter, or a concerned troll and i need to go back to red sate dot come for saying the trugh. Because you cant be a democrat unless to buy into KO, sorry.
david
"Because you cant be a democrat unless to buy into KO, sorry."
Sorry, I can't like, parse that semiotically.
You are a troll. We have seen it constantly, so thank you for pointing it out.
And suggesting that Olberman actually wanted to see someone deal with HRC violently is deliberately obtuse at best and completely dishonest at worst (knowing you it is probably that though.)
No more deliberately obtuse or completely dishonest than those who said Hillary actually wanted Obama to be killed because she said RFK's campaign went into June.
tre, but it was a really fucking stupid thing to say, because there were far more better examples to provide instead of the one where a democrat was killed. Talk about OBTUSE
I'm fairly certain she mentioned several other examples (Teddy Kennedy, Bill Clinton, etc.). She was listing examples, got to RFK and realized why his campaign ended and said something to the effect of "Robert Kennedy until he was tragically killed."
You have to try pretty hard to make that something bad.
Then again, so people have no trouble making that effort if it allows them to bash Hillary.
You know I must admit that I only heard of this as an isolated incident (as in she referred only to RFK's primary for describing her reasons for staying in the race), which actually changes the nature of her comment dramatically. Thanks for pointing that out and putting more context to it, it shows how out of hand things can get. And yes, bashing Hillary seems to be a sport. I will say that her campaign managers were crappy though, they seem to be a bit outdated and really did a poor job on her behalf. A shame indeed but hopefully she drops those people so she can focus on getting some positive things accomplished.
crap they pulled during the primaries long after it was mathematically impossible for her to win. I wouldn't have had problems with her continuing her campaign if she didn't intentionally try to hit Obama below the belt whenever she could. Also, by going into deep debt to try to defeat Obama after Obama was clearly in the lead would have badly handicapped her in the general election, if the superdelegates had given her the nomination, and she would have lost to McCain in 2008.
Hillary and her band of loyal Clintonistas blew the 2008 nomination on her bad judgment of picking Mark Penn as her chief campaign adviser. He had no clue how the Democrats ran the Prez primary. Her bad decisions during the campaign sealed her fate and thank Goddess, we found out about them before she had a chance at winning the nomination. She would have been a disaster in the 2008 general election.
comment half a dozen times, from half a dozen different directions, but none of them seem sufficient.
Scum for running for an office? After YOU decided it was mathematically impossible for her to win.
100 pledged delegate lead is miniscule relative to other campaigns.
She had every right to continue. She won PA, OH, TX, IN, SD etc. long AFTER you decided she couldn't win.
Clearly the voters in those states hadn't written her off.
You know I used to think similar things, but now I am relieved that she pulled out the big guns in the primary, it has helped Obama ride out similar charges from McCain and crew. It has toughened him up and allowed him to explain himself in a friendlier environment than the GE. In hindsight, her campaign was a blessing for Obama's GE run
Uh, when Hillary stayed in the race for months after she LOST, it was because her only plan was if Obama was assassinated. He was spot on about Hillary.
You have no basis for making this remark other than to slime Hillary.
Just because you have an irrational hatred for someone doesn't mean they actually are all the terrible things you imagine them to be.
Yeah, I dont see that either, my thought is that she could've provided better examples - and I thought that was KO's point, that it was a dumb comment, but I don't think he ever said she was thinking he could die. That's a ridiculous accuation from both sides. and yes, his (KO's) horse is pretty high, but I appreciate his research into corruption and douchery of politicians and mainly neo-cons
See my response to your comment above. She DID list other examples. She was listing, that's the thing, so I really can't see how when going down a list, you have to leave someone out because some people might twist it.
It was innocent, reasonable people (like you) see that. Its unfortunate people are still peddling it at this point.
And then we can respond properly, Giusd. But I'll give you a preview: Kitchen Sink, Mark Penn, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan.
And dont forget that JJjr said that Hillary did not shed one tear for katrina. I guess you forgot that one.. What do you think Jackson jr was hinting at?
david
she said on Fox News, "If Obama was a white man, he wouldn't be in that position?" (And there are quite a few more choice quotes to mine from Ms. Ferraro, as well.)
And who would have guessed that bill and hillary clinton were racist. Funny how that happens. I guess the memo from david alexrod telling his supporters to play up comments by bill and hillary as racist NEVER happened. Funny how many democrats are racist. Most OH, KY, WV all racists.
Donna Brazil ring a bell. If hillary wins i will have all of BO supporters stay home in nov??? I guess you forget that as well.
david
I saw it last night, it was decent. The voice was off, but the mannerisms were similar enough. I have to say that McCain was pretty entertaining, though SNL took some shots at Palin in McCain's very skit, so I'm not sure if that reveals anything about his feelings towards her at this point in time.
I agree -- he realizes he won't win, and is just having fun from here on out. And maybe he has a future in late-night comedy. The Olbermann impersonation was good, but I thought McCain's QVC sketch beat him.
Agreed, but I thought KO was better MyDD material... I put the QVC sketch on my blog, though.
Does it matter how funny he can be?
Is there anyway his legacy comes out of this unscathed?
I think not...
I guess that depends on how much he cares about "legacy." If he loses, he's a Senator married to a much younger, attractive multimillionaire. He can joke around on national television whenever he wants, and also influence federal policy. And he only has a decade or so left to live, anyways.
He would be a terrible president, but any way you look at it, he's got it made. Why not have some fun?
heard that KO was in the audience when it was filmed...wonder what his reaction was.
what i noticed is Afflek had trouble not breaking out in laughter several times.
What i figure is KO keeps some sort of "balance" with Fox's "fair and balanced" Bill O, except KO is not ALWAYS outrageous.
KO was hyping it on his show this week, saying the rehearsal was hilarious.
Can't really agree with his assessment, but I think he just wanted to give his seal of approval to the parody to be a good sport.
(I think Affleck is a fan of his too.)
To be honest, I LMAO.
Affleck did a great job, and yes, he is a fan of KO's. He's been on Countdown at least once that I've seen. KO saw the rehearsal and said he thought it was going to be funny, so I stayed tune to SNL longer than usual to see it. I wasn't disappointed. It was a great parody.
As for the dead-enders, Hannity and O'Reilly are annoying assholes and I disagree with them profusely, so I don't watch them. If you Olbermann haters do the same, I'm sure your blood pressure will return to normal soon.
HAHAHAHAHA... just for the look he gives after he rolls the George Bush tape.
It's a really good imitation.
his outrage gets a bit tedious b/c it's so heavy-handed.
Ben Affleck's version of KO wasn't funny. Stopped watching about 90 seconds into it.
KO can get pretty heavy handed, but the way it was played you would think he was the left's version of O'Reilly, he's not.
He clearly voices opinions, but not in a way that is so blatantly misleading like Bill O'.
This is yet another example of how we are so damn eager to toss anybody who rises to any prominence and spreads opinions to the wolves, while the Republicans circle the wagons.
If this would have actually been funny, I'd be into it.
I don't really see where KO needs to be treated with such heavy handed "satire"
the special comment was pretty good, but maaaaan, the rest of it was just tedious to me.
Affleck did a decent enough job though.
I guess since I supported Obama in the primaries i'm not so eager to see him torn down, eh?
The parody about the condo board was a good idea, even though it wasn't executed that well.
KO kind of devalued his Special Comments when he stopped differentiating between major outrages(Bush shredding the constitution) and minor outrages (Hillary kneecapping Obama in the primaries).
I'm a KO fan, so of course I don't see him as 'our Bill-O.' He does go over the top sometimes and he can be a little pompous occasionally. Sure, some of the Special Comments are not called for.
Nevertheless, overall it's a good show and I rarely miss it or Rachel.
The impression was spot on at times, not as good at other times. When he leaned over the desk and shook his face, it was funny as hell... though KO is usually being sarcastic when this happens so it's kind of a sarcasm-of-sarcasm deal. The special comment and over-the-top outrage in the Special Comment over his apartment was very very funny, camera changes and conflation of personal disappointments with historical tragedies was funny as well.
Of course, I didn't see everything there as a personal critique of KO, some of it I saw as them just cramming a joke in where one would fit. Ben seemed to think it was really funny, and I personally like it when the actors giggle a bit.
Maddow's a whole different deal. She piles on a bit more sarcasm than I would like, and she definitely has a liberal viewpoint, but she doesn't channel the O'Reilly/faux-outrage vibe nearly as much as Olbermann. With a Democratic President and Congress, she has a real chance to target smart people rather than just partisans.
I wonder if KO will parody the parody of himself on SNL or invite Affleck on his show to talk about it?
I love KO's passion and have no problem with him not being a moderator or anchor on election night. He's really best at being passionate about politics and Oddball stuff. I generally find the anchors boring. Let KO be KO and offer his opinions for us to enjoy.
I watch KO most days, and didn't think the sketch was that great. I didn't perceive it as an attack on him or unfair, (there were bits that were way overblown, but I figured the goal there was comedy rather than an exact replication of Olbermann's personality,) I just thought the jokes were meh.
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myDD - skin
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