Biden Mocked On SNL: How High Was That Gaffe On The Blunder Scale?

On "Saturday Night Live," Jason Sudeikis, playing Joe Biden, mocked the vice president-elect's tendency to make gaffes and strained to emphasize that he'd be just as entertaining as Sarah Palin.

"You don't think I can give a train-wreck interview with Katie Couric? Just name the time and the place and Joe Biden will bring the train!"

Click here for the other SNL skits, including Justin Timberlake and a kissing family

WATCH BIDEN SKETCH:

Comments

[sepiasiren]

I personally like to see all politicians skewered be they Dem or Lib--it's all funny if done well...

[kissthestick]

i thought the skit was pretty funny, the only gaff that really hurt me from him is the clean african american comment from jan 07 and the new attacks that would happen when obama would take office (which is right in a way but still a stupid thing to say back then)

[LizM]

If you look up that comment and read and/or listen to it in its entirety then I'm willing to bet the farm that you will have a change of heart on this matter. The only individuals who should have felt the heat on this one were those who interpreted Biden's remark to be something it was not and it is their integrity and intelligence that has become suspect.

[LizM]

Here's a little something for all those who would carelessly and thoughtlessly buy into the media-conceived and driven national myth of epic proportions about Joe Biden - hook, line and bloody sinker.

http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=Joe%20Biden&mm_audio=0&mm_video=0&sort=default&page=1

The incompetence and ineptitude with which the media and blogosphere - with notable and rare exceptions - have covered Joe Biden during this presidential primary and election campaign and, indeed, throughout his distinguished career as a public servant who exudes wisdom, honor and integrity has demonstrated a dereliction of duty and responsibility and has meticulously cultivated a dangerously ill-informed electorate that threatens the very survival of American democracy.­..and that's not hyperbole!

[rockyersocksoff]

Whereas Tina Fey underplayed Palin, Sudekis totally OVERplays Biden.

Whay do guys think the only way to do an impression is to drop your voice half an octave and talk louder?

[Brandij]

Biden skit is funny

[harhar2]

I don't know if anyone will agree, but I've looked at old footage of Biden in his younger years, and he reminds a little bit of Chevy Chase in his mannerisms. This guy does and OK job of Biden, but I wonder if Chevy could do even better?

[skatscan]

I'd like to see Chevy Chase do Barack Obama like he did Gerald Ford, no make up, no impressions, just him and a pratfall.

[doxpin]

that was hilarious, though not as good as the one where he is stumping in Pennsylvania.

"I want you to mark well the words that I say! The words that I say -- and remember that I said them here today. In the second year of the Presidency of Barack Obama, a young child shall come from out of the North, from a city of steel! And this child shall rule for a time! But the child shall rule falsely! In deceit! By the trident of Neptune! What I have spoken is the TRUTH!! "

[emncaity]

Now _that_ was kinda funny, I thought, because it was so over the top that it actually satirized the silliness coming from the right about the messianic qualities that Obama followers attributed to him (which, to be completely honest, is not always completely silly). "Biden's" lines in this instance took the form of what he said, but the substance came from a different place.

[hamchunk]

I am interested in which comedy show will finally lampoon PE Obama (for an unpopular decision he is bound to make) and watch the charges of racism levelled against the media begin.

[OutsourcedAgain]

OH Please, buy a brain!

[Minako]

Jason Sudeikis just doesn't do a very good impression of Joe Biden. The smile is there, but he's just shouting. He needs to study the debate and some interviews to get down Biden's mannerisms and speech patterns better.

Otherwise it was a cute sketch, I laughed at the pitbull line.

[luxotron]

I don't get why dems are upset, I'm a dem, I voted Obama and I think this guy is hilarious. Lighten up!

[AmbivalentGuy]

I like Joe Biden.
One thing I like about him is that he is 99 out of 100 in the senate for personal wealth.

I think they've got some work to do on Biden's physicality,
but I think it's hilarious. I'll bet Biden laughs at it.

It's also a smart thing for Obama. Let Joe float the crazier ideas,
and see what happens.

[emncaity]

Incidentally, just to give credit where credit's due: Biden's comments regarding Hezbollah and Lebanon at the VP debate really _were_ way off track, and I have not seen any sufficient explanation of those. I love the guy, but those comments were misaimed and nonfactual. (It does get a bit confusing if you're talking about Hezbollah as armed groups versus Hezbollah as a political entity, and he may have been talking about ousting Syria rather than Hezbollah, but still--a detailed explanation was in order, and I haven't been able to find one.)

As to the larger point he was making: The question from Ifill was about whether the Bush administration was doing the right things with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and whether a two-state solution was best. Biden's answer (consistingly only partly of the Lebanon-Hezbollah thing) was to say that Bush's policy had been an abject failure. But as evidence, he offered mostly the nonfactual statement above, plus a criticism of the West Bank elections that led to "legitimizing" Hamas. This latter thing bothered me a bit too, since I don't think we should be against democratic elections generally. If democratic elections lead to the legitimization of elements we think are radical, it ought to make us examine our own positions and reassess whether we're being fair in our dealings and whether we're doing anything to push entire populations toward radicalism.

[emncaity]

So I do think Biden's mistake affected his point, in this instance. Bush has been an utter disaster in most ways, but his policy is surprisingly tolerant of the idea of Palestinian legitimacy, at least in a couple of aspects.

In sum, I'd say Biden was wrong on the Hezbollah-Lebanon point, he was probably at least a little off in the larger point, and he should have explained it clearly and publicly if there was some other explanation. Still doesn't make him a "gaffe machine." And throwing in stuff like "FDR/TV" or "three letters, j-o-b-s" or $80 billion a month" with something like this is not only illogical but proves the lack of evidence on the point.

[QueenOfScott]

The big question is - how many of you laughed at the Levi Johnston/Bristol Palin putdown by Bill Hader? And those two weren't running for anything..­.

[emncaity]

"The big question is - how many of you laughed at the Levi Johnston/Bristol Palin putdown by Bill Hader? And those two weren't running for anything..­."

You know why it's funny? Because at its root, it's so damn hypocritical. If that had been Barack Obama with his pregnant teenage daughter onstage, you can bet Republicans and Fox News wouldn't have talked about anything else for about two years. Cultural and moral decline! Our country in danger of destruction!

If Sarah Palin wanted to keep her daughter out of the celebrity limelight (which is what Palin herself is interested in, for sure), all she had to do was not use her to do the "look at my nice family" thing at the convention and elsewhere. When you drag your pregnant teenage daughter up on stage, especially at a political convention of the party that claims to be the party of morals-'n'-values, THAT is worth lampooning. And it's not based on a false impression or false stereotyping.

So there really is that aspect that Palin brought it on herself--and not only Palin, but McCain, for picking her.

[QueenOfScott]

If Palin didn't bring her daughter up on stage, she would have been criticized for being ashamed of her and trying to hide her/fool us. What Palid showed by bringing her on stage was the statement - "this is me, this is my family".

[SouthernBlueBelle]

Oh the republicans would have been all over how the black community lacks a moral compass, yada, yada. But on Sarah Palins daughter ......cric­ket.......­cricket...­..cricket

[MNCurler]

Wow- look at all the Dems getting upset becasue SNL is making fun of their guy. And what do you do- try to defend him by comparing him to Palin. That is pretty pathetic. Is this going to be yopur plan for the next 4 years as he keeps putting his foot in his mouth,

As many of the people posting on this site are fond of saying....­...But, But, But Palin (Clinton). Get over it folks and get a sense of humor.

[evgolightly]

I can see how you feel that way. I'm sure it made many Repubs cringed when Palin was getting skewered every week. You can't blame comedy writers though -- she provided so much material they left more on the cutting room floor than they used.

The Biden thing is too much of a stretch, that's all. And it's not that funny compared to the Palin and Clinton material. I supported Clinton but still laughed my heart out at some of the parodies of him. Hillary too.

If the Biden stuff was funny, trust me we'd be laughing.

[emncaity]

"If the Biden stuff was funny, trust me we'd be laughing."

On that point, I actually do think some of the Obama stuff was funny (esp. the debate skits). Armisen needs a much deeper voice, but aside from that, some of the material really is funny, specifically because it goes after things Obama actually does or actually has said.

[swyftdahoe]

I absolutely love the Joe Biden impersonation. I think it affectionately exaggerates Joe's traits. Go Joe!

[emncaity]

The impersonation just isn't any good. I love Sudeikis in general, but this just isn't good.

However, there _are_ things about Biden that could be satirized legitimately, that don't require playing into the false accusation that he's a "gaffe machine." You could go after the Scranton thing--you know, the whole hometown business--or the way he interrupts himself frequently with "Look--", or how annoyed he gets with interviewers who are stuck on their own talking points and really don't intend to get to an answer.

[emncaity]

Also, please notice the timing of the Biden sketches. NBC and MSNBC spent a lot of time chastising some of their commentators and even some of their newspeople for not being "balanced" enough during the campaign, and it wasn't long after this controversy occurred that you started seeing SNL come up with skits that took some of the most unsupportable criticisms against Biden and Obama and started writing them into their scripts, giving them more prominence, etc. It was utterly obvious to anyone who was paying attention to what was going on at the network.

I mean, Palin was lampooned with her own words, with entire skits being written almost entirely from what she herself said, and it was hilarious precisely because it was so based on fact. For Biden, they have to concoct ridiculous lines based on the "gaffe machine" myth. All in the name of "balancing" the satire.

This is more than a bad-comedy issue, too. It really does have to do with the failure of journalism, which is partly based on this ridiculous notion that "balance" is the be-all-end-all. What would have been the "balanced" position on slavery, for instance?

[evgolightly]

You're right. It's ridiculous to try to balance satire. They're trying to make Biden the new Palin but it doesn't work.

I didn't think last week's skip was funny or clever. The skit with "Murtha" and "Biden" was funny, but they dragged it on too long, as usual. Now they're repeating the same narrative on Biden over and over which is predictable and b o r i n g.