Robert Smigel Talks Hillary Clinton’s Reaction to His Cartoon Joke About Bill

A new edition of Live From New York, a book on the history of Saturday Night Live by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, has been released, with 200 additional pages of new material compiled since the original 2002 edition.

An exclusive excerpt was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, and among the commentary by current & former writers, cast members, producers, and the politicians they lampooned, was an interesting nugget of info from cartoonist Robert Smigel about an awkward moment with Hillary & Bill Clinton.

Smigel: “My last cartoon, in February 2008, was ‘The Obama Files’ — about candidate Obama’s efforts to distance himself from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton without alienating them. It turned out that on the same show, Hillary Clinton made a cameo in the cold open. She was planning to leave right after, but Lorne liked the cartoon and asked her to hang around for 20 more minutes and watch it. She was laughing a lot at the cartoon. Then about halfway in, I remembered that the ending might not be as much fun. It had Sharpton and Jackson falling through a trapdoor and landing in a ‘community van’ with other political liabilities, including Bill Clinton, who then asks the driver to head for spring break. Relatively tame, but still it’s her husband. Fortunately, Poehler walked in just before then. Hillary still saw it and chuckled politely, but her focus was split and awkwardness was averted. Later, I saw Lorne, and the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I forgot about the Bill part.’ I assure you, the fact that it was my last cartoon is a total coincidence.”

Smigel is currently working on Jack and Triumph with Jack McBrayer and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, one of Smigel’s most famous characters.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]