March 6, 2008

TIMES HUMOR: BOROWITZ REPORT

‘Saturday Night Live’ abandons comedy format to focus on endorsements

Change in mission for venerable late night show

Basking in the success of its endorsement of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, NBC’s late night warhorse “Saturday Night Live” announced today that it would abandon comedy to embrace its new role as a political kingmaker.

Lorne Michaels, executive producer of the venerable late night show, said that the election returns from Tuesday night were enough to convince him that the show should stay away from comedy altogether and focus its energies on making political endorsements.

“We want to be able to do one thing well,” Mr. Michaels said. “And if it’s a choice between doing comedy and choosing the next President of the United States, we’re going to drop the comedy part.”

Mr. Michaels said that the decision to get out of the comedy business and move towards full-time political endorsing should come as no surprise to its viewers: “We’ve been gradually moving away from comedy for years.”

The Emmy-winning producer added that NBC viewers who are disappointed by his show’s format change and want to look elsewhere for laughs “can always watch Tim Russert.”

Arguing that fans of the show will ultimately be “delighted” by its new mission, the late night pioneer touted what he called “a really exciting” lineup of future guest hosts leading up to the Pennsylvania primary: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and musical guest George S. Clinton.

Elsewhere, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain accepted a congratulatory call from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and then immediately changed his phone number.

For more from Andy Borowitz go to www.borowitzreport.com. Andy Borowitz is a nationally syndicated humor columnist whose work can be found in Newsweek and other publications.