N.Y. Governor Turns a Critical Eye to SNL Parody
Live from New York, it's another offended politician.
Gov. David Paterson, who's legally blind and is known for having a charmingly self-deprecating sense of humor about it, didn't take too kindly to Fred Armisen's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, during which the actor kept his right eye largely closed and let his left eye wander.
"The governor engages in humor all the time, and he can certainly take a joke," Paterson's communications director, Risa Heller, said in a statement Monday.
"However, this particular Saturday Night Live skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities."
In the sketch, which was part of SNL's "Weekend Update," Armisen talks about choosing someone to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, preferably someone who has economic experience, has pull with the suits in Albany, and, like Paterson himself, be "caught comically offguard and be entirely unprepared to take office."
Then he proceeds to hold a chart illustrating the state's employment rate upside-down.
"I'm tired of all these fancy, two-eyed smart alecks from the big city running the show," Armisen-as-Paterson says.
"They don't have to be blind. I mean someone with, like, a gamy arm," or "maybe the giant gums with the tiny teeth."
He then recommends himself for the open Senate seat.
"Hell, I'll go to Washington," he says. "Anything to get further away from New Jersey."
Pretty funny, right?
"The governor is sure that Saturday Night Live with all of its talent can find a way to be funny without being offensive," Heller's statement concluded.
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