In cultural terms, Manchurian candidate does not = witch whose own husband can't stand her. One implicates a single person, the other a whole group of people (Americans of African descent, or who were raised partially in other countries). Rule of comedy is generally that you can be mean, but on an individual basis, rather than in a generalized way. Offend one, not many, unless you're willing to go after everyone (like South Park does).

her comment was puzzling to my family.  what pillow? was he a child or something we thought.  her mistake was to start out with this as part of her lauded kitchen sink barbs and most of us didnt even understand it.  the next day it was oh yes as we watched the snl outtakes,  that show is so lame.   maybe it appealed to the babysitters on saturday night.  

ummm, I don't think so.

I say we let humor be humor. After all, someone here (was it you, Jason?) suggested that the joke of the costume party skit was on Obama, not Clinton, because it was making fun of Obama's narcissism. Moreover, yesterday a talkbacker pointed out that a pre-writers-strike SNL skit, featuring Brian Williams himself, portrayed Hillary as the media favorite.

Obvisouly nothing follows from these skits, certainly not deep truths about the media's bias one way or the other.

New Rule: sometimes a joke is just a joke.

What CharlesFosterKane and ralphnelle said.  

And anyway, the best joke of this sketch was at Biden's/Dodd's expense.

Hillary wasn't the villian in that earlier SNL skit. It doesn't portray her as a witch, it protrays a bunch of jerks (Bill especially) calling her a witch. In fact, the only person who says anything nice to her is ... Barack Obama.

In that skit, she was the victim.

(So she probably approved of it.)

Is that the one where they put the fish in the blender? That was a good one.

Perhaps you guys have not noticed after sixteen years, but neither of the Clintons has a sense of humor.

They are joke challenged.  Mirthfully tone deaf.

Dead parrots, both of them.

What they do, is like androids:  when they see humans laugh, they laugh, too.  Their timing is so good, they often look like they get it.

If Obama's major theatre of operations is somewhere between audacity and hope then Hillary is at the corner of denial and delusional. Painted in a corner, she's lurching. And, like John Kerry (see: swiss cheese on a Philly Cheesesteak) and Mitt Romney (see: small varmints and many other regrettables) and others, her lurches are more marmy and martyr than funny and facile. Where's Lloyd Bensen when you need him: Senator, I've heard Mr. Obama be funny, and Madam, you are no Barack Obama. The distinguished New York Senator should do has her state mates sang years ago and "Slip Slide Away."

I enjoyed SNL's return last weekend. If you don't like SNL, you probably wouldn't have liked it, but I thought that the post-strike debut with Tina Fey hosting was contained a satisfying number of laughs. I think Tina Fey is...

Okay, I just watched that sketch and I thought it was sympathetic to Hillary Clinton. It portrayed her as being unfairly characterized as a witch by stupid misogynistic white men. And it portrayed Obama as humorless and self-absorbed. At least he recognized her costume for what it was and was a gentleman.

Seems to me that SNL is betraying it's pro-Hillary bias. At least in this latest one they "endorsed" her so that we know where they're coming from.

I'm with WoodyBombay and asnevitt on this one.  This sketch is generally sympathetic to Hillary for the reasons both of them cited.

"Perhaps you guys have not noticed after sixteen years, but neither of the Clintons has a sense of humor."

I heard a story from Joe Lockhart on C-SPAN...their former press secretary, so you can't really trust him...but he seemed to say that while Bill is able to deliver a joke and have it be funny, he really *doesn't* have a sense of humor and half the time he doesn't even get the joke. "Is this funny?" he'd ask people after receiving a speech. "Okay, good." Whereas Hillary isn't as funny or charismatic, but will actually laugh at jokes genuinely when the cameras are off. (He claimed that it had saved his ass in a particular PR campaign.) As in, Hillary's a human who comes off as a robot and Bill's a robot who comes off as human.

Again, that's Joe Lockhart and you have to figure he has an angle, and I'm sure he probably didn't want it to come out that way, but to the extent that a former press secretary can be honest, it was very telling.

guyminuslife, that's an interesting insight from an insider, and it sounds credible to me.

One thing for sure, Bill Clinton was no Jack Kennedy.  Eight years in the White House, all those press conferences, and the man never said a witty thing in the entire time.