Keith Olbermann Reacts To "SNL" Sketch, Proves Palin Altered "SNL" Script

Keith Olbermann reacted to the "SNL" sketch in which Ben Affleck portrayed him as a cat-loving pompous freak Monday night, and also to a report that the McCain campaign was "tickled" by the sketch.

He had previously told Time's Ana Marie Cox, "Honestly, everybody deserves a laugh but if on the weekend before the presidential election they spent more than seven seconds bothering with ME, the campaign staff has even less of a clue than I thought." He had also blogged at DailyKos about the incident, saying:

In terms of my whole career I really haven't been doing this that long (1997-98, 2002-date) but don't presidential campaigns have more to worry about on the day before the election than me?

Am I misunderstanding? Aren't two breaths spent on a sketch done on Saturday Night Live, two breaths not spent calumnying Obama?

Monday night, Olbermann continued with this "Who, me?" line of attack, but also brought evidence — in the form of cue cards — that Sarah Palin was scripted to compliment Tina Fey for her impression when she appeared on SNL but ad-libbed and left the line out.

Watch:

Comments

[Wutang4ever]

Does anyone ever notice that Countdown is basically this webiste??

[FirstShirt]

Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson, concurring in part
and dissenting in part, American Communications Association, CIO v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 423, 70
S. Ct. 674, 696 (1950):

Parties, whether in office or not, are often irresponsible in their use and abuse of
freedoms of speech. They all make scapegoats of unpopular persons or classes and
make promises of dubious sincerity or feasibility in order to win votes. All parties,
when in opposition, strive to discredit and embarrass the Government of the day by
spreading exaggerations and untruths and by inciting prejudice or unreasoning
discontent, not even hesitating to injure the Nation’s prestige among the family of
nations.

[tidalfist]

Let's back up on this a little bit... Keith Olbermann here wasn't knocking SNL, and not even for mocking him in a sketch ( which, like an actual intellectual sport with a sense of humor that ISN'T Sarah Palin or Mark Wahlberg, graciously took to the joke, and NOT demanding a cameo for the next time ). What he's doing is scathingly pointing out McCain's disproportionate fixation with this stuff - and the satisfaction they get out of their critics getting savaged. Which is quite worrying, and terribly wasteful, especially for a bunch of people running for the most powerful political office in the land. I think that's the point he's trying to emphasize here - of those who are arrogantly incapable of laughing at themselves, they pick on comedy shows like they're battlefields. Especially when they should be making the effort of connecting with VOTERS and WINNING ELECTIONS .....

Speaking your mind or voicing your opinions don't automatically make you a pompous a$$. That would be media-hating Sarah Palin and her disreputable ' pro-America areas of this nation '.

I'm not really gonna knock much on McCain perse because he lost well. Classy guy.

[johnnyjust]

Alrighty, Keith!

You, sir, are well on your way to taking your rightful place among Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.

Yes sirree, with more breaking stories like this, the whole Damn COVER will come off this cover-up. Or cover-off. Whatever.

You stay with it, man. You're so close, you're getting warmer, warmer....­or maybe it's just global warming.

[tidalfist]

What do you want him to do ? Throw his dignity away for a sketch ?

[ImpalaSuperSport]

K.O. is a pompous @ss.

[gdkzen]

A television host?! A pompous @ss!? Say it ain't so!

My perception of reality is shaken to its core!

"PH&*CK IT! WE'LL DO IT LIVE!"

[ImpalaSuperSport]

Pot meet kettle.

[AZTrueBlue]

Olbermann, Maddow, Mattews, Todd, O'Donnell and Schuster should start their own network and let all the rest go!

[tidalfist]

Dork.

[cobraxus]

Linda Bloodworth­-Thomason(­Of "Designing Women" fame)hates Keith Olbermann and would rather dine with Sean Hannity(Hey Linda,I hear they're serving crow today.Eat Up!).She's a personal friend of the Clintons and a self-professed southern "hick".Of course Edward R.Murrow was universally despised by those who bent over gladly for Joe McCarthy.

[longislandlol]

Noticed Wolfson yucking it up with Billo the day after the Election..­.

[pauleric]

Keith O. is a treasure -- and he kept me sane throughout this crazy campaign! But there's no denying that Ben A's riff was excellent and inspired. He was nothing short of amazing. Keith and Ben rock!

[NationalTreasure]

so this is why Palin wanted the SNL cue cards

[tidalfist]

If anything, that whole ' cue cards ' scandal sorta confirms the nagging feeling I've had with her appearances : 1. ) she's apparently too egotistically spiteful for good old sketch show ribbing, 2.) the entire purpose of her appearance was to make audiences know it, and 3.) SNL people ( i.e. Lorne Michaels ) are such bad Clintonite losers they'd let that stuff pass. You know, apparently to take it on ' the other guy '. And ' the other guy ' is now the 44th president of the United States.

Sarah Palin was obviously NOT gonna go along with the jokes ( unless they're pranks and she don't know it ). She's obviously too far gone in her neo-pente ultradominionist Jesus belief towards her own importance that she won't let just about anything stand that says otherwise. I mean, that Keith guy hit the mark speculating on whether saying that single line - ' I like Tina Fey's sketch ' - would have changed the elections. I actually wondered about it meself. What actually worried me about the SNL thing was it would've been an opportunity for her to endear herself to the audience beyond that infantile, puissant , and yes, POMPOUS, dire need to get back at comedians. Not that she would have had anything to endear them all with.

[tidalfist]

Besides, the mainstream of American people has clearly moved on from that hollow showbiz image nonsense, on account that they just voted someone named Barack Obama as their leader.

The Palin/ John McCain campaign was so visibly insecure inside their own shell it was almost.... funny.

[armyman72]

The KO skit just was not funny...

[Barryson]

Yes, it could have been better written.

[lisakaz2]

It could have gotten the goofiness and humor of KO -- yet didn't. Like comments on an "Oddball" segment that were gratuitous.

Still, KO has to like that Affleck impersonated him, being that he's known as a good looking guy.

[Secularist]

I sort of agree. The sktech was two things that most SNL skits are not. Waaaay too long (and therefore repetitive) and also surprisingly mean spirited. I mean even the skewering of Sarah Palin was not really vindictive. I think Ben did an OK job, but this wasn't exactly a dead-on impersonation. Also, the sketch's version of Keith misses a key element of his show and personality and that is the humour.

[flyingbuffalos]

Love you, KO. My husband knows about it. I thought it was a hilarious rendition. Of course it was a little over the top--this was comedy, people, not drama. Satire. And the chair spins, camera changes, Churchill quotes--perfection!
Keith is out there every night, digging for the facts, and making a difference. With wit and humor, with total humility.
Wonderful, wonderful.

[munki]

Keith...
You are the BEST

[Lee323]

I agree.....­I love Keith's unique, perceptive, and zany view of politics! He and Rachel made this year's election halfway tolerable. Keith is "matter" and BillO is "anti-matt­er"....(ma­ybe just another way of saying that BillO doesn't matter. Hahahaha..­.

[decm]

Keith, "I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting lessons". Though admittedly, Ben seems to be doing OK without acting lessons.
PS Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad

[DocKenny]

Keith is soo cool!

[ldm56]

to all the people who think keith was upset by the parody...p­lease watch the video again.

[Doofus]

Imitation is ALWAYS the sincerest form of flattery, no?