From 1981 to 1989, I made my living mostly as a comedy writer and performer. I wrote, performed and produced material for morning radio shows in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Oklahoma City. I worked with Howard Stern in DC, and I was the top writer for a comedy team that has a star on Hollywood Blvd. I was signed on to write for ill-fated television shows (remember "Thicke of the Night?"), wrote a comedy revue for the stage, and studied Improv at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago.
So even though I’m a committed Barack Obama supporter from his days in the Illinois state legislature, I could appreciate the humor in Tina Fey’s "Bitch is the new Black" bit on Saturday Night Live. Yeah, it was funny. And so was the opening bit with the softball questions for Obama.
In comedy, you always tend to go for the punch line. Even as a staunch Democrat, I made Dukakis-in-a-tank jokes, Tip O’Neill as a boozy Boston pol bits, and Jerry Brown "Governor Moonbeam" references. In my high school talent show in 1977, at age 14, I did a parody of Jimmy Carter’s attempts at fireside chats. I imagine that if I were still in The Biz, I’d be doing elaborate take offs on The Cult of Obama and bits with Hillary making the absolute wrong decision in every possible way. But also, as a comedy writer, I took great pleasure in using comedy as a way to make a much deeper and profound point.
In one job I had, I was the "designated" Democratic comic to act as a foil to the Republican host. This was during the presidency of the first Bush, so I turned my comedy commentary on Dan Quayle, made stinging parody of the motives behind the Willie Horton attacks, the Bush family retreats to ride cigarette boats off the coast of Kennebunkport, and the ne’er-do-well sons of Bush.
But while I was there to make jokes at the expense of Republicans, I laughed and acknowledged the quality comedy from the other side, because, as I said before, the punch line is the thing.
A recent example of this was the SNL bit after Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House. She was addressing the nation about the Democratic takeover of Congress, and her legislative aide wore leather chaps and engaged in bondage off-camera while she was speaking on live television. I’m a confirmed Democrat, I have close family members that I love very much who are gay, and I hate homophobia. But it was hilarious.
So while I love Tina Fey—- a fellow Chicago improv veteran, a writer I admire, and a feminist with a deft touch of using self-deprecation as a comedy device--- and while I grudgingly admit that the subtle and way not subtle bits on the Democratic primary were funny, it seems a little bit like a stilted presentation for SNL to be so one-sided in their comedy commentary with so much rich material on the other side.
Maybe she was just going for the irony-- the writer of "Mean Girls" celebrating the efficacy of so-called "bitches" in politics.