Jimmy McMillan

I recently came across a video which I thought deserved its own post. Although I am sure this was a one time SNL appearance, it was so hilarious and so well done that it gets its own special place on my blog. The New York state elections occurred recently, and despite his best efforts to win, Jimmy McMillan only received 1 percent of the vote. This may seem like a small number, but given his very controversial stance on things it is quite impressive that Mr. McMillan even got that many votes. If at this point you are very confused as to who Jimmy McMillan is, then this video will clue you in:

Jimmy McMillan

Mr. McMillan is the man now famous for representing "The Rent is Too Damn High Party." And no, this is not a joke. This man seriously ran for governor as shown in the video and apparently achieved a somewhat large following, if not only for amusement.

The good people of SNL, in their usual manner, saw Mr. McMillan in all of his glory and decided that he deserved a parody of his own during a recent episode of SNL. The below clip is of Kenan Thompson portraying Jimmy on the "Weekend Update" segment of SNL.

Weekend Update- Jimmy McMillan

The parody portrays McMillan in his usual attire (extensive beard included). It is funny, however, when compared to the original video because the things that Kenan says as McMillan are not so different from what the real McMillan actually said in his gubernatorial debate. Although slightly exaggerated in terms of the figures that Kenan uses, the general picture that he paints of McMillan is not overly made up. The ability to parody a political figure without drastically changing their actual behavior and still keeping it funny is a skill that SNL has mastered over its long history. What makes the skit so funny is the fact that McMillan actually said those things and acted in that way in a real political debate. It is not that SNL is making him into a funny character, they are merely accentuating those characteristics which he holds that make him humorous.