Nobel Committee disagrees with SNL

Soon after being mercilessly lampooned on Saturday Night Live for doing "nothing, nada, jack squat" to date (SNL's words, not mine) President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel committee obviously disagreed with those savvy political satirists who write the skits on SNL and heralded Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Again, their words, not mine. The committee went on to say that Obama "has created a new climate in international politics." Personally I am still trying to figure out exactly what that climate is and whether the bestowment of this award might not have been a bit premature.

Here is the SNL skit. What I find interesting is that usually SNL tries to use actors who have mastered the art of mimicking the subtleties of the character they are portraying. This has always been at least part of the appeal of their political satire, making fun of the personal characteristics, nuances, tonality, nervous tics and gestures of the political figure being parodied and not just what they are saying. Here the actor doesn't work very hard at any of this because the focus is entirely on the content of his speech.