Live From New York - James H. Miller [238]
I thought our first Bush-Gore debate piece was perfectly evenhanded. I think maybe some people were used to a more traditional approach where we’re only rough on Republicans — at least really rough. The old style of the show was that the way you’d hit Democrats would be to say guys like Carter and Dukakis were just too brainy and intellectual and didn’t understand that ordinary people weren’t following them, or that they were too detail-oriented and needed to slow down. I guess that’s a criticism, but it’s nothing like portraying the other side as cretins or criminals.
Over the years I think there have been some heavy-handed elements to the political stuff we’ve done. I think we’ve done a lot of good stuff too. To me it’s most fun when the tone is silly and there’s no anger and our stance is wiseass, uninvolved detachment. I think that works better for everybody. We don’t like to think we’re getting laughs by just saying, “George W. Bush is an idiot.” There has to be more to it than that.
RUDOLPH GIULIANI:
I actually think Saturday Night Live’s political humor is among its best. When you think of the imitations of President Ford, plus they had two different great imitations of President Clinton — yeah, I think their political humor has been absolutely terrific. Do I think it has an actual effect on people politically? Gee, I don’t know. It doesn’t for me because I take it as humor. So when they’ve made fun of me or made fun of basically my heroes or the Republicans that I like, I know they’ve made equal fun of Democrats, so it doesn’t offend me. I think some people kind of watch it selectively. I don’t think it has a big political effect in that sense.
They made equal fun of Gore and Bush, so I think politically it ends up a wash. They never did anything about me that I objected to. They did a great skit of my first inaugural, where my son disrupted the ceremony. I always saw it as humor.
Since the night I hosted the show, I’ve probably dropped by it half a dozen times. Four to six times. I enjoy watching it. I enjoy watching it live as well as watching it on television. I’ve enjoyed it from the very beginning. I remember Chevy Chase playing President Ford. Now, I worked for President Ford, and loved him, and I still thought the humor was great. It was just great.
DARRELL HAMMOND:
I got to meet Clinton in the White House, and it was like seeing the largest, strongest, smartest dog in a compound. He was so sure of himself and he so loved being the president, and he seduced everybody in that room. I mean, this guy would walk down the rope line and remember the shit about your sister or your brother that’s most crucial to you. That instinct for creating a moment is just gigantic. I’ve studied Bill Clinton for years, and I haven’t once ever caught him posturing or being phony. He just can’t. And yet when you see a guy who’s that gifted, you think, “Well, he’s got to be staging this.”
I guess I went about three months before I ever got a handle on him. He was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and then my instinct told me: He’s doing John Kennedy. He’s doing John Kennedy! So I learned Clinton by practicing JFK’s inaugural address in a southern accent. At one of those correspondents dinners in Washington, I opened with this joke about Clinton’s charisma: “He’s the kind of guy that would say to a woman, and get away with it, ‘If you would only take your clothes off and let me see you naked, there would be no more white racism, I swear to God.’ And in that split second I looked out the corner of my eye, and it was almost as if I could see that machinery clicking and whirring, and he reached over to the African American woman sitting next to him and gives her a big kiss on the cheek. It was beautiful and the place went nuts and I thought, “How does he do it?” Clinton said something at another