Saturday Night Live opened with a spoof of The Rachel Maddow Show. Abby Elliott played Maddow, one of MSNBC's liberal extremist hosts.
"Maddow's" guests were John Boehner (Bill Hader), Nancy Pelosi (Kristen Wiig), and Charlie Rangel (Kenan Thompson).
Transcript
RACHEL MADDOW: Hello, and welcome to The Rachel Maddow Show. I'm Rachel Maddow, and in a cross-promotion with the new Harry Potter movie my haircut will look like this forever. Joining us today, new Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner.
JOHN BOEHNER: Thank you for pronouncing it right. You can imagine, people have a lot of fun with it.
MADDOW: Current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
NANCY PELOSI: Hello, Rachel. Hello, Boner.
MADDOW: And last but not least, a man recently found guilty of 11 ethics violations, Charlie Rangel.
CHARLIE RANGEL: I am somewhat innocent!
MADDOW: John Boehner, we start with you. Your party claims it wants to lower the deficit but won't extending the Bush tax cuts to the top earners add $700 billion to the deficit?
BOEHNER: Rachel, on election night, the American people spoke and they spoke loudly. And the words they spoke were 'Stop the tax hikes and stop the spending.'
MADDOW: But surely you don't think you can close the deficit gap solely with cuts in spending.
BOEHNER: Rachel, the American people could not have been louder or clearer. True story - On election night, I was asleep, and suddenly I heard voices. I went to my window and I opened it up. It was the voices of the American people, and they were saying loudly and in unison like a great big barber shop quartet, 'Stop the tax hikes and stop the spending.'
MADDOW: So if your only measure to lower the deficit is reducing spending, what are some of the programs you would be willing to cut?
BOEHNER: On this, sadly, the American people were not clear. I yelled from my window, 'American people, what specific programs should we cut?' Their voices faded away into the night. The last thing I heard was: 'Stop the tax hikes. Stop the spending.'
MADDOW: One last question: 'Orange' you glad I didn't mention the color of your face?
BOEHNER: Very funny.
MADDOW: We turn now to the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
PELOSI: Hello, Rachel.
MADDOW: Madam Speaker, Republicans are saying that America spoke in the midterm elections, and Democrats need to completely change the way they do things.
PELOSI: And it's such a good point, Rachel. And I do intend to follow the wonderful example of Republicans who after the 2008 elections when the Democrats took the presidency and both houses completely changed the way they did things. I think we all remember how helpful they became, so willing to reach across the aisle. Oh wait, I have that backwards. They turned into a pack of feral dogs guarding a turned over trash can.
MADDOW: This week you held off a challenge from within your own party for your own leadership position. That bother you?
PELOSI: Nothing bothers me, Rachel. That's why I always have the same expression. But I want to assure my enemies that it will take more than one election to take me down. If you want to get rid of Nancy Pelosi, you better be ready to cut off my head and bury it separately from my body.
MADDOW: Nancy Pelosi - a woman who always looks like she's watching someone not use a coaster.
Joining us now, the Democrat who had the toughest week, Charlie Rangel. Welcome, Congressman.
RANGEL: Hello, young man.
MADDOW: Congressman, what was your reaction to Thursday's censure?
RANGEL: Rachel, I did not deserve this treatment. I am a 20-term congressman. I'm a decorated war hero. I was awarded both the Bronze Star, as well as the Silver Pompadour, yet still I am attacked.
MADDOW: Well, you're under attack for your legal troubles.
RANGEL: I'd like to make a distinction. People keep saying I'm having legal troubles. These are ethics violations. I did nothing criminal. I just did things that were unethical. Did I kill someone? No. Did I lie for the purposes of getting money? Perhaps. When I say perhaps, do I mean yes? I do. But I am not a criminal. I am just a person that can and should not be trusted.
MADDOW: Charlie Rangel, if you lived in the Old West, he'd be the bartender.
RANGEL: You got me.
MADDOW: Final thoughts, John Boehner.
BOEHNER: (On the phone) Excuse me, Rachel. It's the American people. Stop taxes... What else? Stop spending? What spending? Hello, hello? You're breaking up. Hello? Lost 'em.
MADDOW: Nancy Pelosi.
PELOSI: I'm sorry, Rachel. It seems my necklace has gone missing.
MADDOW: John Boehner?
BOEHNER: Don't look at me.
MADDOW: Charlie Rangel?
RANGEL: What?
MADDOW: Give that back.
RANGEL: No, thank you. Rachel, in closing, I just want to say I'm proud to live in a country where a man like Charlie Rangel can be a congressman, and a 12-year-old boy like yourself can have his own TV show.
MADDOW: And that's all the time we have, and Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!
Video
5 comments:
Thanks for posting the transcript of last night's SNL skit. It's obvious to me after glancing at your site that we will not agree on much of anything. But the skit was hillarious. I have a lot of respect for Maddow's show - and rarely miss it. She is thorough in her research, polite to her guests, and an asset to the dialogue of a given day (to off-set the right-wing cable giants and radio talk show hosts like Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and others). Here's a challenge: site for me a topic where Maddow has been factually incorrect. I bet if documentable evidence exists, Maddow herself would cover that and concede (I've seen her do it several times - corrections to things said on previous programs). You may not like her because she is progressive, smart, hardworking, well-read or other reasons that are personal in nature...hard to say - you posted the transcript without comment...so besides the comic value, I'm not sure what your point is. And the links to the "rachel push-up bra" is supposed to mean what? (There is no connection to Ms. Maddow.) Personally, I thought it was a nice rebuke to the GOP position (listening to America) and the lunacy of allowing Congressman Rangel to continue to serve.
First, I don't control the "LINKS TO THIS POST." When I read your comment about the "rachel," I had no idea what you were talking about, knowing I didn't link to anything like that. Then I noticed the link. It's spam. Someone linked to it and it shows up on the page.
I thought the sketch was funny, too.
When I've seen Maddow as a guest on Jimmy Fallon's show, she seems like a nice person. Based on clips I've seen of her on MSNBC, I can't say she brings that same persona to her own show. However, not even being an occasional viewer, I admit I'm going by a very limited sample.
There was an instance recently where Maddow was factually incorrect. She claimed that, unlike FOX News, MSNBC wasn't a political operation. She called her network a "news operation," insisting that its hosts didn't shill for political candidates.
This video refutes that. To my knowledge, Maddow didn't make a retraction.
Maddow is a smarmy, arrogant, one-sided whackadoodle that has no business being part of the "media." She's no different that Hannity.
Mary: Just watched the video clip you sent (Mary said...There was an instance recently where Maddow was factually incorrect...To my knowledge, Maddow didn't make a retraction.)
I don't agree a retraction is called for. Maddow states she is progressive - MSNBC has a variety of hosts providing in effect some degree of balance. Commentators like Schultz & Olbermann are definitely over the top and more like a Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, & Limbaugh. The morning crew is largely conservative (Geist, Scarborough, Brzezinski), the mid-day gang is neutral, standard journalist-types (Todd, Guthrie, Brewer, Mitchell, Ratigan). Evening hosts tend to be more left-leaning, though Matthews is more left-center...and O'Donnell is more like a political science professor given his work in the Senate.
Anyway...who does Fox have to "balance" their broadcasts? No one. And their list of "commentators" goes much deeper than MSNBC - at Fox, anyone and everyone reading the "news" takes the same liberty. The distinction between the 2 networks is pronounced. Aside from Schultz and Olbermann I do not hear MSNBC promoting a specific candidates, events or cause in the same way Fox does. It's a matter of degree...there is no way you can equate the limited boosterism of 2-hours of combined Schultz & Olbermann up against Fox News 24/7 campaign. To her credit, the newscast you reference listed the specific donations and support Fox broadcasters have given to candidates and causes which Maddow was speaking of - further supported by her website. Olbermann's wrist slap by management for his violation to network rules was too weak - but at least they a) have such rules, and b) did something (2-day suspension w/o pay), and c) Fox doesn't (have such rules that I am aware of). Enough about distinction between Fox and MSNBC.
My note to you was specifically about Maddow - the last thing I'd ever want to attempt to do is explain or defend the sickening production that is Fox.
As I said in my initial post, I doubt there is much we'd agree on - except perhaps what a beautiful state Wisconsin is. The shear volume of stuff you've posted in the past few years is amazing. I'm curious....how do you capture the transcripts so quickly? Is there a site or service that provides that? I did notice that someone has misspelled John Boehner's name - am assuming it was simply a copy/paste error. There are some quotes you have on your main page down right margin that I think are unfair. Such as "Obamacare: You Will Lose Your Current Insurance. Period. End of Story." the article is referring to a version of the bill that was modified upon final passage. Actually, there are a ton of these type examples, but that just further proves the point.
BTW: I'm not a card carrying Democrat....call me a solid Independent now. After voting Republican every election from Nixon through Dole, I could not support George W. Bush. Broadcasts like Maddow's are about all that I find on radio or TV to preserve my sanity these days. I listen to Hannity & Limbaugh more than I should - about every 15 minutes I reach for the dial and tune them out - frustration and aggravation levels get seriously high listening to either of them.
Nonetheless, I admire the shear volume of your work.
Best of luck; happy Thanksgiving!
Mike
Let's see, Harvey...Rachel Maddow graduated from Stanford. Rhodes scholar, Doctorate in Philosophy. Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award winner by The Interfaith Alliance, Oct 2010 (previous honorees include Tom Brokaw, Larry King, and the late Peter Jennings). Seven yrs in radio 2003-2010. TV the past three yrs.
Compared to...Sean Hannity's background - academic achievements: high school graduation. Work exp: bartender, general contractor. Radio broadcaster since '92. Hannity received Marconi Award in 2003 & 2007 as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Common thread: radio & TV political commentators.
Post a Comment