NEW YORK (AFP) — Barack Obama, after a bruising week of lipstick on pigs and other taunts on the White House campaign trail, returns to the cult TV show "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, aides said late Thursday.
Obama will tape an appearance for the show's season premiere on Saturday in New York, after he was the star turn for a Halloween skit featuring an impersonator of Hillary Clinton last November.
Quite what the Democratic presidential hopeful will do on the program this time is still being worked out, the aides said, but it is a safe bet that the hosts will extract comedy value out of some of the recent campaign sparring.
John McCain's rival campaign accused Obama of a sexist "smear" against the Republican's running mate Sarah Palin after the Democrat, on Tuesday, said their promise of change was like putting "lipstick on a pig."
On the popular "Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday, Obama quipped that he meant to say Alaska Governor Palin was the "lipstick" gloss to McCain's "pig" policies.
Asked by Letterman if he had ever actually applied cosmetics to a porcine, the 47-year-old Illinois senator said: "The answer would be no. But I think it might be fun to try."
The writers of "Saturday Night Live" meanwhile have proved that the long-running show is not just for laughs in this election season.
The program prompted much navel-gazing in the mainstream US media after one of its sketches showed TV debate hosts fawning over Obama during his hard-fought primary race against Clinton.
McCain has also tried his hand at satire on "SNL." In the season finale in May, the 72-year-old Arizona senator said voters should look to elect a president "who is very, very, very old."
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