Bitch is the New Black

Okay, who didn't like SNL's return last Saturday? Tina Fey - Barack Obama - Spoofing There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men - Annuale - I laughed my ass off!

When Tina Fey got on to the American public for calling Hilary a bitch, I laughed. "Bitches get things done. She's a bitch!" Fey said, pointing to Amy Poehler who said, "Yeah, deal with it." before going on to add that Bitch is the New Black.

I loved that. I'm not a bitch per se, although I can see why some who know me would snicker at that, but I get things done. Sometimes that means inhabiting the space of "bitch" for a few minutes (or days) so that what needs to happen happens, but in the end, I'm a pretty nice person. But Hilary being (or not being as the case may be) a bitch was not where the controversy was.

Controversy started with the opening sketch, a pretty funny look at how nice the media has been to Obama (makes you think they're setting him up for something - like the fact that Bush just increased the deficit times 50) with hard hitting questions like "Is Senator Obama okay? Can we get you anything?" Obama was played by Fred Armisen and, as I watched, I found his look, his gestures and sometimes the words that he said were creepily close to Obama's. The problem? Armisen is not black. Check out this Washington Post article for more info and a clip of the sketch.

So, is it important? I found Armisen's impersonation funny and I realized, with the cast they have, that he was most likely the best choice. They added a new girl, so I believe Lorne Michael's assertion that they auditioned for the best Obama. While SNL is about being political and being edgy and being on top of pop culture, in the end, they care the most about being funny.

Do you think SNL was trying to comment on Obama's "blackness"? Does this highlight the lack of black cast members SNL has? If it does matter that the person portraying Obama isn't black, how much does it matter? Is it worth not being funny to be accurate? 

Despite the word being thrown around, Armisen's impersonation was not close at all to going blackface. 

So yeah, I found SNL's first outing after the writer's strike to be both controversial and funny. And for a comedy show, what more can you ask for?