Also, with the huge success of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impersonations it appeared that McCain decided to joke around with his biggest critics. I am sure that the McCain camp made this decision in order to inject a more youthful humor into the campaign but the success of this move is still debatable. In my exploration of the appearance I found two blogs that were extremely impressive and thorough. The first, Maureen Ryan's blog "The Watcher" presents an in-depth look at McCain's appearance and also features an actual transcript of the sketch as well as video highlights. Ryan, a Chicago Tribune contributor, offers the facts clearly, succinctly and fairly. Secondly, James Hibberd's blog "The Live Feed," features an overview of the skit as well as ratings and commentary. Hibberd, a reporter for "The Hollywood Reporter" offers keen insight and interesting information. In addition to commenting on each of these blogs I have included my responses below.
Comment:
Thank you for such an informative, thorough and entertaining post on McCain's "Saturday Night Live" appearance. I thought the entry was especially effective in highlighting the key quotes within the skit, especially in regards to the banter between McCain and Fey-as- Palin. You mentioned that Obama purchased airtime on "seven networks to show his half-hour infomercial," but I believe only NBC, CBS and Fox featured the ad at the cost of $1 million per network. I also appreciated your focus on Fey and Cindy McCain as hilarious side-kicks to McCain's performance. Furthermore, I enjoyed your incorporation of quotes from Ben Affleck, the host of the night's show. I thought your entry did a wonderful job of showing the overall political tone the show took on Saturday and your inclusion of quotes from Affleck and Baldwin were interesting additions that I found to be unique to your blog. Finally, I was impressed with your inclusion of NBC's press release as well as the actual transcript of the skit. I think these elements added a lot to the entry and informed the reader of every hilarious detail of the performance even if they weren't able to catch it on TV. What I felt was missing most from your post was your personal impression of the effectiveness of the skit. The entry left me with a lot of questions: how was the show received in terms of ratings?What did the Obama campaign have to say in response to the skit? Have polls showed an increase in McCain's popularity since the Saturday appearance? All of these components would have made for nice additions to your information and offered a broader view of the skit and its effects. Overall, I found your post to be full of interesting information and successful in determining the highlights of the skit. Your supplemental information also added to this impression and I look forward to continuing to reading your thoughts on political TV campaigning as well as other pertinent Entertainment News issues.
Comment:
Thank you for an engaging and informative entry on McCain's SNL appearance. I was really interested to read your opinions on the skit since I follow your blog and know you always have fresh and entertaining information. Primarily, I liked how you focused on the contrast between McCain and Obama. I thought it was definitely a highlight when McCain mentioned Obama's purchase of primetime air versus his appearance on the "QVC" and I am glad you included this in your entry. The quote really gives a context as to why McCain decided to be on SNL: he had to compete with Obama's primetime purchase somehow. I also really enjoyed how you noted that the skit could have been an Obama bashing act but instead only briefly touched on Obama. I agree with you in your assertion that "most of the material had McCain playing off his own image," but I wonder how effective you think this was? I would have enjoyed hearing more from you on what you believed the results of the appearance would be and why you believe McCain should or should not have appeared. Finally, I thought it was great that you featured the ratings from the episode. They put the success of the episode into context and I also thought it was incredibly interesting and pertinent that the episode was the "second-highest rated episode in more than a decade." It seems to me that even if he wasn't on primetime air, McCain succeeded in garnering attention just a few days before the election. Overall, your entry was lively and interesting and I look forward to following your posts in the future.
1 comment:
Thank you for the comical yet educational post regarding Senator McCain's 'Saturday Night Live' appearance. I really enjoyed your topical focus this week. It immediately grabs my attention as it mixes the seriousness of politics with the humorous side of media. I am still in disbelief that McCain appeared with Tina Fey as Palin's stand-in! Your writing is extremely fluid and reads well making for brilliant blogging. You do well in connecting the reader of the post to the topic at hand while maintaining the informative and scholarly aspects of McCain's appearance. How he may be doing this to "in order to inject a more youthful humor into the campaign". The two blogs you chose to comment on balance out well as the first focuses more on the fundamentals of McCain's appearance such as a transcript of the sketch and what the whole show that night was really about. While your second blog focuses more on how the viewers reacted to the skit while offering a different reasoning as to why McCain made such an appearance, in order to "compete with Obama's primetime purchase". Furthermore, I liked how you used a blog you were familiar with, "The Live Feed" and expressed this in your post. Being someone who is interested in the media and the entertainment industry as a hobby, I know very little educationally about which blogs and websites are more resourceful while also being reliable.
Your first comment does well in leaving critical commentary as you end by posing questions to the writer which he could have used in order to make for a stronger blog. However I would have liked to have a read a little on why you liked the incorporation of quotes by Ben Affleck and Baldwin. your second comment also does well in engaging with the writer as you agree with many points of his blog and highlighted which parts you liked.
Although I also enjoyed your second comment I thought your first was stronger. You maintain a more scholarly approach where you go further into engaging with the post. Overall I highly enjoyed reading your post though I would have liked to have read your thoughts on McCain's appearance, whether you thought it helped his campaign, if you liked it and if he should have done it or not.
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