SNL skewered Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on the stimulus plan via a satire that could reflect a growing perception that might not be helpful to the Democrats. The big news: it centered on the assumption that Pelosi is a mega-partisan who looks down on bipartisanship and is actually a stumbling block to it. Some cartoonists are already having a field day with this theme (see cartoon below).
The great comedy coach Greg Dean told me in some of my private sessions with him in my other incarnation that a joke is a “shattered assumption.” The joke or bit will die if the audience doesn’t share at least some of the assumptions behind it. That’s why watching SNL and late night comedians gives you a clue to a growing conventional wisdom (which may or may not be accurate but it’s out there…and growing).
And Pelosi — and the Democratic party — should ponder the perceptions this skit reflects: