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Amy Poehler leaves "Saturday Night Live" with tears, laughterThey say if you can't laugh, you'll cry. Well over the weekend, Saturday Night Live personified that laughing through the tears sentiment with Amy Poehler's simultaneously emotional and hilarious farewell to the show she has called home for eight seasons.
In September, Amy announced her departure, and Saturday's show was her last. It was memorable, to say the least. Amy joined the cast in 2001, and in 2004 took her place alongside Tina Fey at the "Weekend Update" anchor desk. Over the years she has appeared in more than 140 shows and created numerous characters from Dakota Fanning the TV host, to Kaitlin the hyper 10-year-old, Amber the one-legged model and — of course — Hillary Clinton the presidential candidate.
So, to mourn Amy's departure, let's do as she did and laugh a little through the tears. Please enjoy a few of her best performances. The genius of Amy's Sarah Palin rap in rhyme, flow and overall awesomeness may never be duplicated. Fierce! No, tranny! No, hot mess! Tranny! What's not to like about Amy as JoJo the valet telling Drew Barrymore, “Your boobs, I want to touch them”? Sadly, one of my all-time favorite Amy clips is nowhere to be found online. It was in December 2006 when she took the Paris-Britney-Lindsays of the world to task for flashing their most private of parts all over town. She also decrying the trend of, um, “deforestation” among today's starlets by saying: “You need hair down there! It’s a backup system for underwear!” If someone can find me a clip, I'll be eternally grateful. The new mom (Amy and husband Will Arnett's son, Archie, was born Oct. 25) still has plenty on her plate after leaving SNL. Poehler is moving on to her own, as-yet-untitled documentary-style sitcom by The Office's Greg Daniels starting in April. She also still produces an animated children's series, The Mighty B!, for Nickelodeon. And she just started work on the digital series Smart Girls at the Party, a web project that spotlights young girls doing extraordinary things.
And, if there is any justice in this world, Amy will find time to slip another movie with her former co-anchor and Baby Mama co-star Tina into the mix.
So, your turn. Share your favorite Amy skits. How will SNL manage without her? Submitted by on December 15, 2008 - 10:00am. |
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boo hoo hoo hulu
hulu
So, lately there's been a lot of hulu vids on the site, but a whole bunch of us can't watch those since we're not in the US. Any chance of using youtube or anything else?
The Way The Cookie Crumbles
No Borders AllowedUnfortunately, no
We have problems embedding YouTube videos into our articles and blog posts, so we can't use those. That doesn't leave much left, since we can't usually find the clips we need anywhere else, so we have to take what we can find. Sorry for all our international viewers — we try not to use geo-blocked videos unless we absolutely have to.
But we (and everyone else) try to (and should) use officially posted clips of shows, movies, and music videos whenever possible, because that supports the online video industry and encourages TV networks and music labels to actually post clips online, instead of spending all their time trying to get them taken down (similar to the music industry suing Napster several years ago when their time would have been better spent getting iTunes up sooner). Plus, we do want actors, writers, producers etc. to get paid for their work, when possible, and that will only happen if we post official clips. (OK, technically almost no one's getting paid for online video yet, but the sooner there are enough people watching officially posted episodes and clips, the faster the online video industry will grow.)
A recent problem
This does seem to be a recent problem, however. Vids from TV shows posted on AfterEllen up until now have mostly been viewable abroad, now the opposite is increasingly the case. Oh well, at least we got to see Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL before the shutters banged down; it would have been a tragedy to have missed those.
Of course, geo-blocking just means that those of us abroad who wish to view this stuff have little alternative but to seek out illegal uploads on YouTube and the like, so it seems kind of counter-productive in some ways.
Please see my (long) comment below
Bummer
I understand...
Too bad though...:( Would've loved to watch this, and some other stuff I haven't been able to watch on AE lately. I hope there'll be a solution some day. Untill then I'll just have to deal with it.
BetweenThaLines on youtube & livejournal
So hard to say goodbye
For me, there are two segments from Amy's SNL career that will forever top all others.
First, there has been no recurring character, played by any SNL castmember, that has made me laugh as hard as Amber, the one-legged reality show contestant. I fell in love with her when she was dissed and dismissed on the Top Model spoof, but her appearance in the Rock of Love spoof (on the episode Fey hosted to open last season), was the pinnacle of humor. My friends and I STILL quote her from that skit:
Jealous? Oh yes, I am.
Coming in second is any and of the Weekend Update segments where she and Seth did a "REALLY?!?" bit. CLASSIC.
Thank you, Amy!
LegallyOut
i fell in love with amy back
i fell in love with amy back in '02 or '03, when she played "susie" in a little movie called wet hot american summer. it's not everybody's kind of humor, but after spending 9 years working at a summer camp, i can't help but count it as one of my all-time favorite funny movies! one of my favorite susie moments is about 4:45 into this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0D3GAscV9g
Same here!
Here come the water works...
I only recently started watching SNL. After watching Tina's Palin impersonations I started downloading episodes of the show so that I can cut the Palin parts out and stick them in my iPod, and since I had nothing better to do I decided to watch the whole SNL episodes. Very shortly after starting I went serching the internet for every episode I can find with Amy in it.
For me she is the best part of SNL. I love every single character she does. Especially the Bronx Beat one, and her Weekend Updates are the things I looked forward to the most.
I'm really going to miss her on the show, and I'm happy her tearfull shakey voiced goodbye was rudley interupted in a funny way or I'd probably start crying and even the singing shooting lamps would not cheer me up.
it's seriously starting to
it's seriously starting to be more than just a drag to always read these interesting posts and not being able to view the embedded videos. everyone at AE knows that you have a huge international readership. so maybe you'd consider doing something about excluding them like this in the near future. I know this trend has been going on for quite some time and I was waiting for it to be fixed. are there plans to fix it or should I start looking for another site? oh wait, there is none. having the monopoly on lgbt, especially lesbian and bisexual news on the net, doesn't mean you don't have to cater to your audience anymore.
I realize it's hard finding the appropriate clips online, but you also have to realize how frustrating it is as an international reader to stumble across "this can not be viewed outside the US"in every second article/blogpost.
done ranting. and good luck to amy poehler, one of the funniest ladies on tv.
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My Photography
Video and international viewers
This is not a problem we created — we're not the ones geo-blocking content (which is the technical term for excluding viewers from specific countries, which networks/labels do in order to sell the rights to those shows/videos internationally) — and we've gone out of our way over the last 6 years to explicitly include international viewers by covering international shows, music, news, etc., and to run video that's viewable by everyone.
The reason we have such a large international audience is because I've deliberately cultivated that, for years (unlike almost every other American-based lesbian site out there, that pretty much only covers U.S. content).
You have no idea how much we don't post on AfterEllen.com simply because it's geo-blocked and I have a rule of not posting geo-blocked content on AfterEllen.com unless it's absolutely necessary. For example — Logo has offered to let us post episodes of Exes & Ohs on AfterEllen.com, but I won't do it because they're geo-blocked to U.S. only. Ditto the thousands of music videos in MTV's database that we could post, but choose not to because almost all of them are geo-blocked by the music labels (of course, when we do post the handful that aren't geo-blocked, we get complaints from readers about the videos being too "old", like in the last JenRO video).
I could give you a hundred more examples of content I've turned down over the last few years ONLY because it's geo-blocked to U.S.-only. We bend over backwards to accommodate our international readers, to the point of disadvantaging our U.S. readers (by not running things like Exes & Ohs), and increasing our workload significantly because we're turning away the easy-to-find geo-blocked content, and spending time our time instead trying to find non-geo-blocked videos or topics to write about. Since we stopped being able to use YouTube clips two years ago due to compatibility issues with our website and their code, and no one uploads clips almost anywhere else, our hands have really been tied.
So if we occasionally need to run geo-blocked content, like Pink's latest video, or Hulu clips of SNL, I expect our international readers not to take it personally, and definitely not to complain that we're not "catering to our audience anymore." The U.S. viewers are losing out just as much by us not running lesbian content that is geo-blocked, so everyone has to compromise unless or until all content becomes non-geo-blocked by the companies that create them (which I don't see happening anytime soon because of the complicated financial structure around how content is sold).
I understand why international folks are frustrated at not being able to see the content, but target your frustration at the TV networks and music labels that geo-block this content in the first place, not at us.
I'd like to be the first in
I'd like to be the first in line after that little rant to say that it doesn't matter how much stuff you can't add. We (now) know that it's not by choice, and if it wasn't for the 6000 miles between me and the majority of the AE staff, i'd like to personally hug every one of you for making so much effort that many other people on sites such as AE don't have the empathy or intelligence for. AE is a lifeline for many and your tireless effort is appreciated, even if we take it for granted some times. Thank all of you. If i had an address there'd totally be cake for you all tomorrow morning!
P.S. The TV networks suck balls. (Unless they're airing something really good...)
I'd like to be the second...
Many thanks to all the AE staff for all that you do.
I can kind of see both sides. I do not have cable television; so I basically have four channels, one of which is Latin mass all day every day. AE and its staff provide for me my daily entertainment, and for free! In fact, when I do turn on my TV, there's nothing showing people/issues that are indicative of my life. In my mind (and on my grad student salary) I can't see paying for cable television when there are hours of entertainment on AE that is geared towards topics that directly influence and interest me, at no cost. So I can understand how that would be frustrating to not be able to enjoy all that AE has to offer. I just think that it is important to pause and think about all that AE and its writers and vloggers provide for us and how they ask for nothing in return; before posting a comment that criticizes what they are doing for us.
I'd like to be the second...
also, but I couldn't comment at the time of reading :P
I agree. Every now and then people have a little rant and I just don't get it! There is constructive crit. or questions and then there is worse. I'm way sad when i can't access the vids put here and i have also noticed it becoming more frequent but I also have noted that the site has such a nice attitude towards.. stuff.. in general, ican't fault it, and although focused on the US it isn't just that, and its nice. I do notice! I mean Australian vloggers right? wish there were UK ones, but can't make a new vlog just for location purposes i guess
Understandable
Maybe my earlier comment wasn't handy formulated. I didn't know youtube coding gave problems on the site.
It is too bad such a thing as geoblocking excists. FOr the life of me I can't figure out why. Besides perhaps advertising, but then I still don't get it.
The Way The Cookie Crumbles
No Borders Allowedthanks for clearing that
thanks for clearing that up, Sarah. Shame you can't use Youtube vids as Youtube is THE video source on the net. Guess there is no way around that code. Having a website of my own it would piss me off if I couldn't include Youtube vids. That's kinda not going with the times. And I do value everyone at AE going out of their way trying to find non-geo-blocked (thanks for the official word, Sarah ;) ) video content for their blogs, which I didn't know how hard it was to come by. The amazing research work in the past just makes the increasing blog posts with geo-blocked content now seem to occur even more often....
what I'm trying to say is it sucks reading an interesting blog post and not being able to get the full experience. you have some amazing writers that brings us the most interesting and hilarious stuff to read and it's a shame so many of us have to miss out. but thank you for clearing it all up as to why that is. one of the many reasons I like the comment section here at AE ;)
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My Photography
Thanks for your response.
Thanks for your explanation. Sorry if I was overly defensive in my response — I get really frustrated at how much content is geo-blocked to the U.S. only, too, because it leaves large groups of people out of the conversation. But I imagine it must be ten times more frustrating for international readers.
I appreciate everything our international readers have contributed to the site — I never would have learned about all these interesting women, shows, and movies without all the tips, comments and English recapping provided by our readers outside the U.S. So thanks to all of you for that!
So Long Amy!
I think my all-time favorite Poehler moment would be the Palin rap, which I've seen about a thousand times now and still makes me laugh hysterically. And while I thought Saturday's Really?! segment was rather lackluster--it's hard to make something that over-the-top even more over-the-top--that part of WU was generally a highlight.
I'm definitely going to miss Amy on SNL--though, I suspect, not nearly as much as SNL producers will miss Amy on SNL. She's been the saving grace of the show for the last few years and she's left big shoes to fill.
That said, I thought the Fred Armisen/David Paterson bit during the middle of Poehler's farewell was a tad unseemly, if not offensive.
Completely agree...
I completely agree about the Fred/David bit. I realize they were trying to make a seriously sad moment funny but it was offensive to the loyal fans like myself who have only continued to watch SNL because of Poehler. For those of us who have sat through hours upon hours of nonfunny almost coma inducing TV just to catch one of her skits I think it was very uncool.
I love pretty much any character she plays but always and forever my favorite character of hers is Kaitlyn. RRRRIIIIICCCCKKKKK!!! I wanna play the drums RICK!!! RICK! RICK! RICK!
For Me
...it was a mixed bag of frustration. First, I thought Amy Poehler should've been allowed to have a moment to express her sadness and appreciation for her tenure on SNL, unabated by some comedic sketch. But also, there are plenty of things to make fun of David Paterson about--the governor tends to be rather self-effacing anyway--but I thought aimless wandering and meandering was rather insulting.
And lastly, Fred Armisen is not funny. His imitations of Barack Obama and David Paterson aren't just bad compared to Tina Fey's Palin or Poehler's Clinton or even Darrell Hammond's Jesse Jackson (though that's true too), they're just bad. He doesn't sound like them at all and the sketches just aren't funny. I'd like it if SNL found an actual black guy to play Obama or Paterson, but in leiu of that, I'll just take someone who is actually funny.
for everyone not in the U.S.
who has problems watching hulu and everthing else that is geo-blocked just install hotspot shield
http://www.hotspotshield.com/
works perfectly for me.
and i will miss Amy but wish her luck with everything she plans to do next.
Thanks!
Did your internet become
Did your internet become really slow after installing this program? mine did and i had to uninstall it :(
the hulu problem
hey international viewers, I'm in Germany, so I suffer from this problem, too. One workaround is Hotspot Shield, a little program/toolbar you run that 'hides' your IP Address (the address of your computer), so that sites like HULU don't know you're not American. It's free, but to use it you have to put up with a bit of ad-toolbar stuff. I think it's a small price to pay to be able to watch what I want. Get it here: http://www.hotspotshield.com/
(works on windows and mac, hooray)
UPDATE: d'oh! stephcologne beat me to it!
:D
i just beat you by seven minutes.
And i agree with the add-toolbar stuff totally worth it :D
Yay!!!
oh, thank you! both of you!
does it work if you're in
does it work if you're in the US and you want to watch stuff else where? mainly i've been wanting to watch stuff on ITV in the uk.
And remember that, in a world of ordinary mortals, you are a Wonder Woman!
watching brit tv
No, this solution won't work for you. The program assigns you a US IP. If you're up for some fiddling with your browser settings, you could try a UK proxy server. A bit of googling will definitely dig you up a link on how to do that. However, that sort of thing could be illegal, so neither I nor the afterellen team would be telling you to go do that.
ITV?!!! whatever for? only
ITV?!!! whatever for? only joking :P but seriously.. I never watch ITV! most older ppl seem to watch BBC and and younger C4 and mianstream BBC, i like both, BBC better though
i'm avtually glad a non-UK wants to watch our stuff! i just think ITV is pretty poor usually! most ppl agree!
Rick, Rick, Rick !!!
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/kaitlin-at-the-mall/31382/
geo-blocking headaches
My apologies for hulu's geo-blocking headaches. As Sarah said, there is not too much we can do to bring you the content other than play by their rules. And, you totally didn't hear this from me, but stephcologne and mel.p's comments above are interesting and informative reads for those who are so inclined.
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Why I Don't Sleep Much: Dorothy Surrenders
LOL
i love The Bronx Beat with
i love The Bronx Beat with maya rudolph. one of the best was when brian williams was the guest host. he did just a good job keeping a straight face. i dont know how he did it. they are hilarious together.
And remember that, in a world of ordinary mortals, you are a Wonder Woman!
Aw, emo tear.
Wait she has been on a
I absolutely love Amy and
SOOO MANY!!!
I love Amy Poehler... probably a little too much... she's second in my list of favorite female SNL cast members (Molly Shannon tops my list). She's actually a genius... at least in my eyes. I have so many favorite characters... Kaitlin and Amber (my friends and I quoted her for approximately a month, and I still do sometimes). I think her Hilary impression is fantastic. In the now beyond famous Palin/Clinton sketch she had the BEST quote... "I didn't want a woman to be president, I wanted BE president," my friend and I played that back about 20 times because it was RIGHT and perfect.
I will be the first in line to purchase the Best of Amy Poehler DVD.
One of my favorite Amy
One of my favorite Amy Poehler moments is her doing the bronx beat. It is a simple skit and probably forgetable in most people minds. But when Amy Poehler says it sweater weather, it cracks me up every time. I miss Amy so much. She was one of the main reasons I stayed watching SNL after Tina Fey left.
They are my favorite pairing of weekend update.
the link to Amy's comment of Britney-Paris about private part
You guys can watch Amy's about Britney-Paris-Lindsey flashing their most private of parts all over town
http://www.redbalcony.com/?vid=19350