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?

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

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.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x