The Gospel According To Carl

Others have noted (especially SNL's scriptwriters, in a fake commercial some years ago) how much U.S. men of a certain age depend on lines from films such as "Caddyshack," "Animal House," and "Airplane" just to get through the day. On our recent St. John's pilgrimage to Israel and the West Bank, I learned that pilgrim Damian, though only 12, had already mastered a surprising amount of the canon but not yet the text which yields up such riches as "I've got that going for me, which is nice" and "big hitter, the Lama." Bill Murray plays assistant groundskeeper Carl Spackler. It's an Independence Day classic, a Cinderella story.

The Ostrich Policy Never Materialized

Will Ferrell on SNL, before the 2000 election

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

Republicans Are More Fun

Updating Army Archerd's coverage of President Nixon's famous 1968 appearance on "Laugh-In" ("Sock it to me?"), "Variety" provides this detail:

"Laugh-In" hoped to get opposition candidate Hubert Humphrey to appear, saying "What a good IDEA!!!" in response to Nixon's "Sock It To ME!!!" But they could never get the Demos to OK his appearance.

On Dec. 29, NPR's Terry Gross, on her "Fresh Air" program, rebroadcast a fall 2008 interview with "Saturday Night Live" head writer Seth Myers (available here on a podcast) in which Myers describes how easy Gov. Palin and her staff were to work with during her famous SNL appearance. As a matter of fact, he said Republicans were typically easier to work with than Democrats. When Gross asked why, Myers replied that Democrats are afraid that Republicans will use comedy show appearances against them, whereas Republicans know Democrats won't reciprocate.

What a deft and impossible-to-prove way of turning Republicans' game attitude against them. There's an alternative theory Myers ought to consider. It was offered by legendary LA Times political reporter Bill Boyarsky when he visited the Nixon Library about 15 years ago. He'd partied with politicians for years, he said; "Republicans are more fun."