[QUOTE=Prime95;440943]or the terrific SNL Bush/Gore debate featuring "strategery" and "lockbox"

I haven't been watching SNL much. I should tune in. Surely they can come up with something hilarious with the wealth of material provided by T & H.[/QUOTE]

Indeed, no shortage of highly parody-able material from this year's dismal duo of major-party presidential candidates. NBC missed a golden opportunity to line up viewers for the new season of SNL ... what they should have been doing this summer is filming just 1-off sketch parodies related to the presidential race, perhaps using those as intros to repeat episodes of old SNL broadcasts.

In the meantime, given the long lead time Ross mentioned, suggest folks hungry for parody of the state of U.S. politics check out the CBS summer series [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4877736/]BrainDead[/url], which has been airing on Sunday nights - I expect back eps. are available on Hulu or a similar streaming on-demand service.

I was recently reading [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda"]Prisoner of Zenda[/URL] for the first time and noticed similarities to two of my favorite movies that somewhat fit here even though they are more directly romantic comedies and less starkly parodies:
[QUOTE]Moon over Parador (1988), adapted by Leon Capetanos and directed by Paul Mazursky. More directly a remake of The Magnificent Fraud, the story is set in Latin America with Richard Dreyfus as the President and as the actor Jack Noah, Raúl Juliá as Roberto Strausmann (the "Black Michael" character), and Sonia Braga as Madonna Mendez (the Flavia character). It is a romantic comedy.

Dave, a 1993 film version adapted by Gary Ross and directed by Ivan Reitman that places the story in contemporary Washington, D.C., with Kevin Kline as the President and as his double, Frank Langella in the "Black Michael" role, and Sigourney Weaver as the modern American Flavia. Like Moon Over Parador, it is a romantic comedy.[/QUOTE]

Sparky's Nightmares. Mine, too.

"Dave" is one of our favorite movies.

Thanks for reminding us. We will go watch it again now.

:tu:

[QUOTE=kladner;440988]Sparky's Nightmares. Mine, too.[/QUOTE]

I tend to read more than watch TV. But I found this bit of video falling-off-the-chair funny!

[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpycsCYa7Ls"]With John Oliver on Message to Donald Trump - Last week tonight[/URL] (YouTube link. Warning: many "f-bombs"....)

[QUOTE=chalsall;441092]I tend to read more than watch TV. But I found this bit of video falling-off-the-chair funny!

[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpycsCYa7Ls"]With John Oliver on Message to Donald Trump - Last week tonight[/URL] (YouTube link. Warning: many "f-bombs"....)[/QUOTE]
John Oliver nails it. I guess it's better to laugh at the US political mess. It is hard not to lament how low we have fallen.

I like the guy and watched all his "tonight" stuff, including the 3 or 4 which are banned/blocked here, I watched them using "outside" secure proxies (btw, he is "persona non grata" in Thailand, following one of his "issues" where he was attacking the royal family, you can find that on youtube, with some clever search, it is really-really funny!).

Trump to visit Mexican President. They can bond by exchanging plagiarism stories:
[URL="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/08/29/university-mexican-president-copied-texts-in-thesis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fworld+%28Internal+-+World+Latest+-+Text%29"]University: Mexican president copied texts in thesis[/URL]
[QUOTE]MEXICO CITY – The university that granted Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto a law degree in 1991 says he copied texts and ideas without crediting their authors in his thesis.

The PanAmerican University said Sunday that Pena Nieto's failure to properly credit parts of texts included in his thesis did not violate university rules in force at the time.

The university's statement did not use the word "plagiarism," but did say his thesis included "textual reproductions of fragments (of other works) without footnotes or mentions in the bibliography."[/QUOTE]
Trump can say "you know that exact same thing happened in a speech by my wife..."

Trump's Mexico visit: Nafta sucks. There is a "tremendous [I][B]outlow[/B][/I]" of jobs and a wall is nicer than drugs.
[URL="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/politics/donald-trump-enrique-pea-nieto-mexico/"]Trump on Mexican trip: 'Who pays for the wall? We didn't discuss'[/URL]
[QUOTE]The Republican presidential candidate made a last-minute trip Wednesday to Mexico in his first visit after becoming the nominee to meet with a world leader -- one who has publicly insulted him and criticized his immigration and border policies.

Peña Nieto began his remarks in Mexico City alongside Trump by saying the two held a constructive exchange of views even though "we might not agree on everything." He then launched into a detailed explication of US-Mexican trade and the benefit to both countries delivered by the North American Free Trade Agreement -- a common punching bag for Trump on the campaign trail.

Trump, who listened to his host's long remarks with a somber look on his face while a woman stood beside him at the podium translating for him, said that Mexicans were "spectacular" people when it was his turn to talk.

But he laid bare disagreements between the two men when he said it was imperative to stop the "tremendous outlow" of jobs from the United States over the southern border, and that NAFTA had benefited Mexico more than the US. And he stood up for America's right to build a "physical barrier or wall" on its territory to stop illegal immigration and drug traffickers.[/QUOTE]

I find the chorus of outrage over the wall proposal amusing, given that the wall seems more akin to an Israel-inspired (== doubleplusgood, based on Obama/Hillary/Trump's similar kissing-the-AIPAC-ring past performances) upgrade to what is already there than some 'new barrier'. How quickly people forget:

[url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/16/1485965/-Before-the-Border-Wall-Hillary-Voted-for-a-Border-Fence]Before the "Border Wall," Hillary Voted for a Border Fence[/url] DailyKos
[url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/16/barack-obama/obama-says-border-fence-now-basically-complete/]Obama says the border fence is 'now basically complete'[/url] | PolitiFact

As I've stated previously, I'm a moat man myself ... walls and fences are just so unsightly. and the moat could be stocked with several suitable endangered species in addition to the 'working species' of crocodiles and piranhas, permitting for a simultaneous securing and greening of the border. Roughly half the moat is already there in form of the Rio Grande; digging a Big Ditch the rest of the way - especially through the mountainous parts of the border - could serve as a highly-GDP-stimulative government jobs program, FDR/great-depression style. If trenching proves infeasible, one could always do stair-stepped moat-sections up and down the mountains, maybe with attractive waterfalls and pumping systems to circulate water among them, and fish ladders to allow the crocs and piranhas freedom of movement.

Re. NAFTA, my take is that it was highly destructive to non-elites in both countries. Out-of-work American manufacturing workers, meet out-of-work Mexican farmers. Meanwhile, Obama & co. still shilling for all they are worth for the last great piece of the Obama legacy project, the sovereignty-destroying mother&father of all so-called-free-trade agreements, the TPP and TTIP. (Which Hillary staunchly supported while SoS, but now 'cannot support in their current form', a weasel-phrase meaning whatever its lawyerly utterer wants it to mean). Look for an all-out push to get those negotiated-in-secret pacts rammed through during the post-election-pre-inauguration lame-duck session of congress.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;441287]
As I've stated previously, I'm a moat man myself ... walls and fences are just so unsightly. and the moat could be stocked with several suitable endangered species in addition to the 'working species' of crocodiles and piranhas, permitting for a simultaneous securing and greening of the border. Roughly half the moat is already there in form of the Rio Grande; digging a Big Ditch the rest of the way - especially through the mountainous parts of the border - could serve as a highly-GDP-stimulative government jobs program, FDR/great-depression style. If trenching proves infeasible, one could always do stair-stepped moat-sections up and down the mountains, maybe with attractive waterfalls and pumping systems to circulate water among them, and fish ladders to allow the crocs and piranhas freedom of movement.[/QUOTE]Ernst, I'm disappointed in your penny-pinching, small-minded approach. Where's your vision?

You should make your moat at least 100 metres wide and 30m deep with the surface at sea level. It will be self-financing after initial construction costs by charging shipping to travel between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.