![]() (In Saturday’s skit the Clinton character is roughed up by Vincent D’Onofrio, a star of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”) He said he probably favored Obama over Clinton, but that he genuinely felt she was receiving tougher treatment from the news media. “These days, I imagine, they’re looking for help wherever they can find it,” he said. While Downey appreciated the shout-out from Clinton, he said his Clinton-Obama parodies were not intended as a lifeline for her campaign. ![]() “He said, ‘I need you to be over the hill and kind of dissipated,’ ” Downey recalled. During his “SNL” tenure he has written or appeared in many memorable skits that had no political content: a fake advertisement for a bank that only makes change a talk show with the irrepressible Chris Farley as host.Ī self-admitted eccentric who prefers to write in longhand on legal pads, Downey said he had enjoyed a charmed career, even on breaks from “SNL.” During a 2005 sabbatical, he was cast by the director Paul Thomas Anderson in the film “There Will Be Blood” as a business adviser to the Daniel Day-Lewis character. Downey left in 1980, going on to become head writer for “Late Night With David Letterman” before returning in 1984. “And Jim’s piece would not have worked if the audience didn’t see some element of truth in it.”ĭowney joined “SNL” in its second season, alongside another new hire, Bill Murray. “Our job is, whoever is in power, we’re opposed,” said Lorne Michaels, the show’s longtime executive producer. Bush coined the Bushian malapropism “strategery,” an invention that is sometimes attributed to Bush.Īnd as Clinton’s complaint illustrated, the 2008 contenders are clearly paying attention to Downey’s work even if the show has no interest in offering them advice. Bush in 1992, who then appeared unbeatable in the polls.īut when Downey has taken aim at the presidential debates, he has consistently defined the candidates before they could define themselves: His sendup of the 2000 debates between Al Gore and George W. In other instances he has missed the historical mark: A sketch about Democratic aspirants has them trying to avoid running against President George H.W. “Something that passes muster as a common-sense understanding of the state of play.”Īt times his work has been prescient: In a 1984 skit about the war room of Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential nominee, the candidate fastidiously plots a victory in Minnesota (the only state he carried that year). “My approach is to do something that’s funny and not politically idiotic, as opposed to saying something profound,” he said. In an “SNL” career that has spanned 27 seasons over 32 years, Downey has written much of the show’s most enduring political comedy, anticipating the sentiment of the moment as often as responding to it. “Some things make you laugh because they’re funny, and other things, the effect is: ‘Hey, that’s right. “It tells you that you might have articulated something that was vaguely out there, but had yet to be stated in a comedy form,” he said in a telephone interview. But after receiving several congratulatory phone calls from friends and colleagues that evening, Downey realized he had struck a chord. Most comedy writers are loath to admit that their work has any lasting value or influence. “If anybody saw ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ” she said, “you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.” Barack Obama.Ĭlinton even cited one of Downey’s “SNL” sketches during a debate last Tuesday, when she complained that she seemed to be receiving tougher questions than Obama. After all, she was just agreeing with his handiwork: a pair of comedy skits in which debate moderators give the candidate a tough grilling while fawning over her Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, satirically protesting the treatment she has received from the news media.īut Downey, 55, a veteran writer of the show, must have been flattered by Clinton’s cameo. ![]() Like many of his fellow Americans, James Downey was a bit surprised to see Sen.
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