Top 5 parodies of ABC News Democratic debate
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
ABC News’ handling of the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania has drawn a tremendous amount of criticism online (see Los Angeles Times reader reactions here). But it has also spawned a handful of amusing online parodies. We had hoped to add a ‘Saturday Night Live’ debate burlesque later this evening but it’s in re-runs. If you have some winners, please add your links in the comments.
5. ABC News: Politiks iz hard
In this clip, Election08 argues that ‘only one network brings you all the scandal, gossip,’ then asks what ABC can do for the national political dialogue.
Mediabloodhound crafts a faux transcript that includes winning exchanges:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Obama, your childhood friend Jimmy Choi told us that as a six-year-old boy living in Honolulu, one day you were both engaged in a typical game of cops and robbers, running around your yard with plastic guns, when suddenly little Jimmy tripped and fell. Before you helped little Jimmy back to his feet, you stood over him and said, ‘Pow! Pow! Pow!’ over and over again, seemingly taking great pleasure in unloading your fake gun into your supposed friend. How can Democrats vote for a candidate who has shown, beginning at the age of six, to have such little regard for human life? OBAMA: You’re serious. STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, Senator, I am serious. But not bitter. CLINTON: If I may, George, I feel Senator Obama’s response, to what I consider a legitimate question, is once again indicative of an arrogance and elitism that has offended many, many hard-working and proud Pennsylvanians. By the way, Charlie, my father once shot a man dead in Scranton just to watch him die. (LAUGHTER.)
3. Jay Smooth’s Soulja Boy remix: ‘ YAHHH! Charles Gibson, you’re preposterous, acting like a toy with your boy Stephanopoulos’
As LAT’s Web Scout notes, nearly ‘everything Sen. Obama says gets set to music and special effects,’ particularly by Jay-Z fans. The ABC debates were no exception.
Stephanopolous: ‘Does Rev. Wright love America as much as you do?
Stewart: ‘And if so, why doesn’t he marry it then?’
Note: Viacom pulled the cut-down version of Stewart’s ABC Debate coverage from YouTube offering instead two clips that open with advertisements (below). See Crooks and Liars for a concise cut-down clip. An even more concise cut-down of the debate itself is 236.com’s ‘The Pennsylvania Democratic debate in 1 minute.’
A late-breaking bonus entry from Obsidian Wings runs the ABC News debate through a time machine, now starring two candidates for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois in 1858: Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. A current-day Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos remain to tart up the proceedings.
GIBSON: If your love for America were ice cream, what flavor would it be? LINCOLN: (pausing with disgust and turning back to camera) Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South. DOUGLAS: He didn’t answer the question Charlie. This fall, that question is going to be on the minds of the American public. I’ve proudly stated that my love for America is Very Berry Strawberry.
For more of the latest news on the presidential nomination see also the Los Angeles Times’ Top of the Ticket blog. -- Sheigh Crabtree