<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Jumped The Snark]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://jumpedthesnark.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[skeim01]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://jumpedthesnark.com/author/skeim01/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[An &#8216;SNL&#8217; Holy Trinity: Politics, Jon Hamm &amp; Sports: AKA An &#8216;SNL&#8217; Hamm&nbsp;Sandwich]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Earlier this week <a href="http://comedy.com/" target="_blank">comedy.com</a> published their list of the <a href="http://snl.comedy.com/2010/01/27/10-funniest-snl-sketches-inspired-by-presidents/" target="_blank">10 Funniest <em>SNL</em> Sketches Inspired by Presidents</a> and I wanted to share it with you for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>1. As was the impetus for the list in the first place, it&#8217;s relevant, as it was uploaded in anticipation of President Obama&#8217;s State of the Union Address this past Wednesday night.  Now I don&#8217;t have much to say about the address, as I only saw about the last 20 minutes of it, and it was closed-captioned at a bar, but I feel pretty confident that on tonight&#8217;s <em>SNL</em> they will lead with a parody, mining jokes from Joe Biden&#8217;s seal clapping and Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s emphatic, frenetic applause.  Sorta like this:</p>
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<p>2. In my recent list of the <a href="http://jumpedthesnark.com/2010/01/14/belated-top-10-snl-of-the-decade/" target="_blank">Top 10 <em>SNL</em> Sketches of the 00s</a>, I decided to only include one political sketch, so the comedy.com list rather fills that void (and saves me from doing more work).  If I were to add one more in, it would probably be a debate, but in terms of personal preference I have a real affinity for this Obama commercial:</p>
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<p>3. This is something to whet your appetite for tonight&#8217;s new episode, featuring the return of, you guessed it, a <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/ranking_the_mad_men_casts_off-.html" target="_blank">beardless</a> Jon Hamm!  First hosting last decade, in October of 2008, Hamm proved that he&#8217;s more than just a handsome face, just as skilled at comedy as he is <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/24/madmendondraper.jpg" target="_blank">staring into the nothingness</a>, drinking whiskey and smoking a cigarette, and looking dashing doing it.  I&#8217;ve already included many of the sketches from his last go-round, so here&#8217;s one from later in the show that I have yet to employ:</p>
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<p>4. On Sunday night NBC goes back to the well and serves up another <em>SNL</em> compilation special, this time, in honor of the Super Bowl and in lieu of a game, it&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/snl-presents-sports-all-stars/1196660/" target="_blank">SNL Sports All-Stars</a></em>.  Like the Christmas special, a show made up old sports-themed sketches is nothing new.  However, also like the Christmas special, <em>Sports All-stars</em> will be &#8220;hosted&#8221; by characters who originated in the last two seasons and are already over-exposed.  In the Christmas special it was Gilly, whom I&#8217;ve already wrote many words about hating, and whom <a href="http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/12/08/way-to-ruin-christmas-snl/" target="_blank">I thought might actually ruin Christmas</a>.  This time around it&#8217;s ladies&#8217; sports commentators, Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink (Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte respectively), with Twinkle always finding a way to plug the latest feminine hygiene sponsor and Stink being generally clueless, unprepared and often a bit creepy.  When these characters first debuted in <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/101512/saturday-night-live-ladies-billards#play-queued-show-by-original_premiere_date-asc#continuous_play=on" target="_blank">Ladies&#8217; Billiards</a> last October, I thought it was a success, an unorthodox sketch that Sudeikis and Forte made it work.  The kind of sketch that comes late in the show for a reason.  So I was alarmed when the sketch turned up again so quickly, this time in the form of a <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/113214/saturday-night-live-ladies-bowling" target="_blank">Bowling</a> final, and again two weeks ago in the <a href="http://jumpedthesnark.com/2010/01/17/snl-sigourney-weaver-old-tricks-aka-the-worst-snl-of-the-decade/" target="_blank">Sigourney Weaver</a> episode in the guise of a <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/121072/saturday-night-live-espn-classic-ladies-darts" target="_blank">darts</a> competition.  It was a fun sketch to start, but now they&#8217;re stretching it thin, showing it three times in half a season, and it&#8217;s only a matter of time before they exhaust these characters.  However, I will say that Twinkle and Stink are a much better choice to host a compilation show, and I&#8217;m actually interested/excited to see how they might expand these characters.  Can&#8217;t be any worse than Gilly.</p>
<p>And here&#8217;s one of my favorite sports sketches, an all-time classic that I assume will be included in the special:</p>
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<p>And don&#8217;t forget: Jon Hamm tonight.  There&#8217;s a 50% chance it&#8217;s going to be funny!</p>
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