In the newly updated book, Live From New York, former SNL Horatio Sanz boasts about the show’s political influence. In an interview for the book, he said:
I always kind of felt bad when Will Ferrell did his Bush impression because he was such a good old boy that you really didn’t think, “Oh, this evil little rich prick whose dad and his friends got him in office.” You thought, “Oh, he’s just a good old guy I’d like to drink beer with.” As funny as Will’s impression was, the audience as a whole, the whole country, would probably see that as, “Oh, I like Bush. Because he’s Will.” You know, if Will hadn’t done that impression, or at least made him likable, it may have tipped it the other way. I honestly think so. We made up for it. I think Tina’s impression basically killed Sarah Palin.
So, he felt bad that SNL had fun with the portrayal rather than be overtly political with it? And that the show is so influential that it killed the McCain-Palin ticket. Obama’s team can’t be too happy with that political analysis.
As I wrote in my Townhall column this week, when the political message — conservative or liberal — comes before the entertainment, the average, apolitical American tunes out. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t seen much of Horatio Sanz on TV or on the big screen since he left SNL.