atkinreport.com

Betty White didn’t—and couldn’t—physically bound out on stage to take the reins of Saturday Night Live, but her highly-rated hosting gig Saturday will go down in history as one of the 35-year old show’s sweetest moments.

See what a little Facebooking can do for a gal? Hard to believe the 88-year old comedienne had never hosted the venerable late night show, although truth be told,  it turns she turned down the offer several times—until the onslaught of online pressure finally got to her. 

A new groundswell has already started urging Lorne Michaels to book her as a host next season. If there is not a precedent for a host doing the program twice in one season, perhaps it should start now, because sadly, there is not infinite time. For Ms. White, with her instant iconic hosting status, there can numerically be no rivaling of the multiple emcee gigs of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Highs and lows have marked SNL’s recent history, from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s takes on Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton– and the general bullseyes struck regularly during Campaign 2008– to Gabourey Sidibe’s  stumbling and bumbling through most of her sketches just a few weeks ago.

From the moment White took the stage and ragged on Facebook for being a waste of time for losers that she’d never heard of before, viewers knew they were in for some great comedic moments. What else did you expect from a consummate pro who’s been in the business for six decades?

White alternately charmed, cajoled and cussed in sketches ranging from amusing to hysterical. Talk about physicality. Even though she didn’t dance frenetically in sketches, there was barely a moment in the all-too-fast 90 minutes when she wasn’t killing on camera–in guises ranging from a batty cat lady being interviewed by census taker Tina Fey to the star detective of ”CSI: Sarasota.” Three delectable times she appeared as MacGruber’s grandma, the one with the tendency to reveal embarrassing personal information just before things totally blow up.

With SNL’s Mother’s Day edition also featuring female alums like Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, all of whose talents are missed—and a reuniting of Amy Poehler with Seth Meyers on “Weekend Update,” White had an elite supporting cast to back her up.

As Shannon and Gasteyer took their roles as the geeky hosts of a public radio cooking show, you just knew you would be on the edge of your seat—waiting for a reference to the infamous “Schwetti balls” so deliciously showcased on the segment by Alec Baldwin. But the “muffin” schtick was right up in there. As White said, it hadn’t had a cherry on it since 1939.

Jay-Z’s two lengthy medlies of Blueprint material added to the special-occasion quality of the show, and as he shouted out after his performance of “Forever Young” with the mysterious Mr. Hudson, “This is for the incredible Betty White.” And to quote Neil Young, Betty, long may you run.

Just about when I got done chuckling about “Saturday Night Live’s” opening sketch spoofing the Salahis continually interrupting a presidential speech to take even more photos of themselves, a mini controversy breaks out on the heels of a major scandal.

Seems that some people are offended by the sketch depicting Tiger Woods holding a series of news conferences, while his wife, Elin Nordegren, looks on (click here to see it). A caricature Wolf Blitzer on CNN keeps tossing back to the scene as Tiger, channeled by Keenan Thompson, gets continually hospitalized and increasingly more injured and ends up with a golf club around his head and holding up papers saying “I’m scared,” “she is strong.” and “help me.” “SNL” host Blake Lively plays Nordegren.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is not laughing, and its executive director said the show made a mockery of abuse, and that she hopes “SNL” refrains from using this kind of skit in the future, because it diminishes people’s support for victims of domestic violence. Um, probably not so much. ?

Others have complained that the subject matter should have been off limits because that night’s musical guest was Rihanna, who suffered severe physical abuse early this year at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown.

These viewpoints mirror a disturbing trend on television towards skewed political correctness and attempts at censorship. A recent case in point: the CBS “Early Show” digitizing the video of Adam Lambert kissing a male bandmate during his grantedly controversial AMA performance as if it was some kind of porn –while in the next moment running the 2003 girl-on-girl kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears.

While CBS may worry about offending its early morning audience, here’s a news flash: “SNL” is a late-night comedy show.

Does it need to be tasteful? Absolutely not. Does it strive to be funny? Of course. Should it tailor its humor so as not to potentially offend the night’s musical guest? No. Are some people going to be rubbed the wrong way by its skits or impersonations? Sure. Those people are not “SNL’s” target audience.

For those watching or not, in all likelihood, no one is actually in favor of minimizing the tragedy of domestic violence–except those who perpetrate it. No sane person would find anything about physical abuse remotely amusing.

Instead of what some have interpreted as making fun of victims of domestic violence, the Tiger Woods sketch could be read as being about a man who had been caught cheating on his justifiably angry wife, and his lame attempts to make amends. And this was even before tabloid news broke of even more women who claimed to have had affairs with the mega-millionaire golfer. He’s in much hotter water now.

In addition to all the late-night ribbing, it’s easy to predict another hysterical “SNL” sketch as long as the Tiger Woods story is big news. The Salahis probably aren’t going away for awhile, either.

Thanks, Lorne and cast. This season couldn’t possibly top last year’s biting campaign brilliance. But the laughs do keep on coming.

Only two more weeks, and then she’ll be gone, consigned to the pantheon of great SNL characters throughout the years, at which point Ms. Fey can focus all of her attention on 30 Rock. But it’s been a gloriously fun ride….and the real governatrix’s appearance Saturday brought SNL its biggest ratings in 14 years. For those too young to remember, that was when Nancy Kerrigan hosted and queen of soul Aretha Franklin was the musical guest. The numbers were so huge that SNL was actually the the third highest watched program of the week, after DWTS and CSI. Hey Sarah Palin: I “betcha” could get a talk show gig after the election. Or be a hockey mom lipstick spokesmodel.  Anything but VP, or, god forbid…..P.