Anatomy of Wilson’s ‘You Lie’ Outburst

Anatomy of Wilson’s ‘You Lie’ Outburst

Anatomy of Wilson’s ‘You Lie’ Outburst

What if all the GOP congressmen were supposed to yell ‘you lie’ but changed their minds at the last minute while Joe Wilson was in the bathroom?

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It should come as no surprise that Saturday Night Live, marking its
return with a Thursday mini-spinoff last night, has managed to make the
already-tired week-long spotlight on Joe Wilson’s
five-second moment
seem newly hilarious. Re-imagining the
behind-the-scenes planning of the “You Lie!” cry, SNL satirizes a team
of uniformly Southern-drawled, blue-tie-wearing Republican senators, and
finally gives us a more reasonable explanation for Wilson’s comment. As
with the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
sketches last season
, the laughs come not from hyperbole, but from
the eerie accuracy to real events–and even though Palin is now out of
the picture, Kristen Wiig as Michele Bachmann provides a preview of what
might become material for a whole season.

Fernanda Diaz

Check out more great Nation videos on our YouTube channel.

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