Ba(ra)ck on 'SNL'

... So Kates has been sick all weekend, and because of it we skipped church this morning ...

And watched last night's "SNL."

HA-larious. An instant classic. Easily one of the top episodes od the year, along with the Brian Williams show.

With the news that Loren Michaels was auditioning cast members to play Barack Obama, we were beyond eager to see the results ...

And, boy, did Fred Armisen get it. The mannerisms. The slow speech. The curled eyebrows. ... Then combine that with Amy Poehler doing her Hillary Clinton impersonation, Kristin Wiig as Campbell Brown and the characters gushing over Obama -- the skit was brilliant ... (For the record, going in, I hadn't even thought of Armisen as a possible Obama ... But if he can pull it off as well as he did, who cares whether the impersonator is black. That's where SNL's amazing makeup team comes in.)

Combine that with the charm of seeing Tina Fey back with her SNL buds -- We couldn't have asked for a better return from the writer's strike ...

Tina Fey's opening monologue with Steve Martin emboldening her to be a performer was entertaining ...And her "Women's News" bit at the Weekend Update desk was seriously funny -- complete with a plug for Hillary Clinton ...



And that was after Mike Huckabee's wickedly funny appearance on Update... Huckabee showed off his comic chops and kudos to him for doing the bit ...



The Celebrity Apprentice. Andy Samberg as Mathew Lesko and Amy Poehler as the dancing guy from the Six Flags commercials -- HA-larious.



... Along with the "I Drink Your Milkshake Skit" -- complete with a Kenosha reference at the end. Nice.



Though I can't say I was impressed with new featured player Casey Wilson ... She's going to annoy me, I think.

The burning question of What happened to Maya Rudolph!? led me to this ...

But hey, next we've got Ellen Page hosting! Can't wait!

Good reads ...
a Weekend update: 'SNL' is back in the race
a A Comedian and a Candidate Share a Big 'Saturday Night'
a 'SNL' has highest rating in two years