Victoria Jackson: There's a Communist Living in the White House

Saturday Night Live has been on the air for 35 years, and has had its ups and downs. Right now--even though it shows glimmers of greatness--it's in a down mode. But it has had several "heydays," each not quite as good as our nostalgia paints them. There was the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" era, the Eddie Murphy era, and then SNL's third great age. That would be the stretch of years beginning in 1986, when Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson reigned.

The last two on that list were very funny, if a little limited in range on the show. Miller was mostly the snarky news guy, and Jackson the "dumb blonde." And both of them have now taken their personas into the political realm, with a pronounced rightward tilt. Now, political humor can be funny. But in my experience, comedy that starts out with a deliberate right wing intent tends to fall flat. Witness basically anything Miller has done since 2001. Or this dreadful attempt at political humor by the once adorable, now batshit crazy Victoria Jackson.