Saturday Night Live (Saturday, October 13, 2012)

Four years ago, Saturday Night Live presented a hilarious skewering of the Vice-Presidential debate between Joe Biden (Jason Sudeikis) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey), in which Biden ripped into the "hellhole" of his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Four years later, he does it again.

Last night's SNL once again presented a hilarious parody of the Vice-Presidential Debate.  This time Republican nominee Paul Ryan (Taram Killam) is on the listening end of Joe Biden's (Jason Sudeikis) tearing into Scranton.  

The following exchange begins at around the 1:55 mark in the clip below, where moderator Martha Raddatz (Kate McKinnon) questions each candidate on getting the unemployment rate to under 6 percent and how long it will take.

Paul Ryan: 

Martha, Vice-President Biden and I come from very similar places.  I’m from Janesville, Wisconsin and he’s from Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Do you know what the unemployment rate in Scranton is right now? 

Joe Biden:  

Sure do. 

Paul Ryan:  

It’s 10 percent.  And I just wonder what the Vice-President would say to the hardworking people of towns like Janesville and Scranton. 

Joe Biden: 

Well, I’d know what I’d say to my friend AND the people of Janesville.  Things may be bad where you live, but I guarantee you it is a paradise next to the burning coal heap that is Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Do you know that show Walking Dead, The Walking Dead?  It would make a good tourism ad for Scranton.  I mean, if you went to the lowest circle of hell, you’d STILL be 45 minutes outside of Scranton.  And I grew up there.  I love it.  It’s the single worst place on Earth.

Bossypants by Tina Fey (2011)

On page 219 of Tina Fey's hilarious new memoir Bossypants, the comedienne discusses her Emmy-winning impersonations of Sarah Palin during the 2008 election on Saturday Night Live; and Fey mentions the mock Vice-Presidential Debate of Sarah Palin (Fey) and Joe Biden (Jason Sudeikis), with Queen Latifah as moderator, as her favorite of all the sketches she did:

Three, I thought the speeches that Jim Downey wrote for Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden was brilliant. Especially the stuff where Biden is trying to prove he's not some Washington elite by talking about how he's from Scranton, Pennsylvania, "the most godforsaken place on earth." I thought that was ingenious , because not only was the ad hominem attack on Scranton a hilarious comedy left turn, it also exemplified what the election had become. Instead of talking about issues, everyone was trying to prove how "down-home" they were. "I'm just like you" was the subtext of every speech.

In addition, Fey also includes a reference to Hazleton (page 250) when describing her many adventures traveling over the Christmas holidays:

...It got even more magical and glamorous when the baby became a toddler. One year, I believe, she screamed all the way from Hazleton to the Moshannon State Forest.

Bossypants by Tina Fey is available to borrow from the Lackawanna County Library System; to place a hold, click here.

To watch the original SNL sketch that aired October 4, 2008, click here or view the video below.

Saturday Night Live (Saturday, October 4, 2008)

Tina Fey made her third triumphant appearance this season as Sarah Palin on this past weekend's Saturday Night Live in a send-up of this past week's Vice-Presidential debate between Palin and Joe Biden.

Though it was hysterical (even featuring a cameo by Queen Latifah as debate moderator Gwen Ifill), I have to admit I was a little unnerved when SNL regular Jason Sudeikis (as Joe Biden) made a somewhat shockingly negative speech about Scranton. Granted, it was quite funny, but shocking nonetheless.

Saturday Night Live: Season 25, Episode 6 (November 20, 1999)

The kickin' John F. Monahan from Wilkes-Barre -- who is also the Assistant Sports Information Director at Goucher College in Towson, MD -- sent me an email on Sunday about a 1999 episode of NBC's long-running Saturday Night Live (hosted by Friends star and Brangelina victim Jennifer Aniston):

"Hey:

I love your blog. There's a Saturday Night Live reference about Scranton that I think you've missed. It's from a Nov. 20, 1999 episode featuring Jennifer Aniston as a guest host. The skit is called 'Roberta's Thanksgiving.'

John from Wilkes-Barre"

"Roberta's Thanksgiving" was the final segment of the November 20th, 1999 episode of SNL hosted by Jennifer Aniston (whose long-running sitcom Friends included a Scranton reference in its first season) and (featuring Sting as that week's musical performer). It featured Aniston as Sarah, Cheri Oteri as Roberta and Ana Gasteyer as Mother. In the segment, a family (Aniston, Gasteyer & Darrell Hammond) are made uncomfortable during their Thanksgiving dinner when the father (Chris Parnell) is bullied into inviting a socially inept and annoying coworker (Oteri) to spend the holiday with them.

The segment below features the Scranton reference (from Cheri Oteri's Roberta):

Mother: Oh, that's so exciting! Our Sarah jetting off to Paris!

Roberta: Have ya ever been to Scranton?

Sarah: Nope.

Roberta: Don't count it out. The beauty of the skyline alone made me do a double take. (demonstrates) I stayed, I stayed at the airport Ramada.

Sarah: (sarcastic) Oooh, Ramada.

Roberta: It's funny, because they hadn't washed the sheets.

Sarah: I'm sorry, how was that funny?

Roberta: You didn't let me complete the tale. Apparently the previous guest shot himself in the head.

To read the transcript for Roberta's Thanksgiving, click here.

To read the transcript for the entire November 20th, 1999 episode, click here.

To view transcripts from every episode of every season on SNL from 1975 to the present, click here.

A great big ol' Thank You again to Mr. John F. Monahan of Wilkes-Barre for this fantastic Scranton reference.