SNL's Michaels defends choice of Armisen as Obama - VIDEO

Published: February 29, 2008, 11:01 am

Tags: amy poehler, barack obama, darrell hammond, darrellhammond, featuredvideo, fred armisen, fredarmisen, hillary clinton, jesse jackson, keenan thompson, lorne michaels, snl, tim meadows

Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, VideoIn today's Washington Post, Saturday Night Live kingpin Lorne Michaels defended his choice of Fred Armisen to play Barack Obama, starting with last week's episode. After the much-publicized search for an Obama impersonator (or Fauxbama, as some are calling it), Michaels decided on Armisen, who is of white and Asian origin. Armisen, who's talented enough to do excellent imitations of people ranging from Prince to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, did a credible job playing Obama, a man who is somewhat hard to pin down, imitation-wise.But some critics, including the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, have very bluntly wondered why an African-American didn't play Obama. "They couldn't find an African-American performer who was funny enough to play the junior senator from Illinois? They couldn't find one in New York? Not anywhere in the country? Really?" wrote Ryan on her Tribune blog.Continue reading SNL's Michaels defends choice of

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