“Saturday Night Live” veteran Seth Meyers is shocked, shocked that some audience members are a tad more … sensitive … than others about his jokes.
Meyers shared his political comedy views with The Cornell Daily Sun:
Sun: Have you had any weird comments or negative reactions from political figures because of sketches?
S.M.: There haven’t really been any weird things, but the nice thing for me is that Lorne instills in us to try and never write a joke that you would be embarrassed to see the person. So it’s funny when you do the Correspondents Dinner and I’ll run into Sarah Palin and say hello, because we met when she did the show and John McCain’s such a friend of the show. I feel like the weird thing is when you make a joke about a liberal, they’re probably more sensitive about it because they assume it’s a safer place for them.
What’s really odd is that Meyers has a point of reference here. “SNL” has turned into the Bash GOP showcase, firing both barrels at Republicans while mostly holding fire on President Barack Obama. Of course it’s a safer place for liberals.
And if you need to ask why, consider this snippet from the same interview:
Sun: With this election, are you ever just tempted to transcribe entire debates or some of the more ridiculous things candidates say?
S.M.: This year we found it really interesting because we went into the year so excited about who the Republican candidates were, but they’re almost so silly that it feels mean when you write sketches about them. Whereas a lot of the time, we’re just sort of repeating what they said. Because, if you wrote a sketch about Rick Perry not being able to remember three out of three things it would be mean, but then when it happens you kind of have to.