Media Scribbler

In the past few weeks, “Saturday Night Live” has managed to squeeze every political parody that would’ve seemed very improbable just a couple of months ago. After all, who would’ve predicted in early July (outside Sen. John McCain’s campaign, at least) that a Tina Fey look-alike would randomly become a Vice-Presidential candidate?

But on a show where politicians making fun of themselves have become much-valued guest stars (remember Al Gore’s would’ve been Oval Office speech where he basically ruminated on what might have happened if he’d won the 2000 election?) Sen. McCain got an early start. He and Tina Fey (playing McCain’s running-mate Sarah Palin again) poked fun at McCain’s campaign money woes and his opponent, Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, buying a 30-minute commercial Wednesday night.

In the opening skit, McCain and Fey/Palin presented a QVC show where they sold political memorabelia from their campaign (including a 10-coin set to commerate the 10 town hall debates that McCain wanted to hold with Obama, all of which were blank) as McCain looked both bemused and in pain as he watched Fey/Palin sell a set of Joe action figures (Joe the Plumber, Joe Six-Pack and Joe Biden), helped his wife Cindy sell McCain Fine-Gold jewelry and, finally and hilariously, a set of John McCain Pork Cutting Knives (“They cut the pork out!”)

At the end of the skit, Fey/Palin “went rogue) and sold “Palin 2010″ shirts, saying she wasn’t going back to Alaska. “If I’m not going to the White House, I’m either running in four years or I’m going to be a ‘white Oprah.’”

Before tossing to the show, McCain said appearing on QVC showed he’s “a true maverick –a Republican without money”, without Obama’s celebrity support, his only Hollywood contacts are, “Jon Voight and Heidi from ‘The Hills’.”

Later in the show, McCain appeared on “Weekend Update” to outline his campaign strategies for the last three days. He said he was considering doing the “reverse Maverick”, where he goes anywhere anyone wants him to go and does what he’s told (some would-be campaign strategists might say he’s been doing that for months now…) or the “double Maverick”, where he goes “completely bezerker” (ditto.) Finally, he described doing the “sad Grandpa” where he basically begs for the job because Obama’s got more chances and says that if his real strategy of “connecting with the voters” doesn’t work, the “double Maverick” is his favorite.

Finally, more political joking was done by guest star Ben Affleck, who noted in his monologue his horrible history of endorsing losing Democratic candidates and then gave his endorsement to McCain. Later in the show Affleck impersonated MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, giving one of Olbermann’s long-winded “Special Comment” rants about being rejected by his Manhattan co-op board because of his cat and likening the perceived injustice to the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

(NBC Photo: Dana Edelson)

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