His colleague Paula Pell, a 13-year veteran and another head writer, added: “It was uplifting. So much of what the strike is about is valuing the creative brain.” Like the other writers Ms. Pell had been on the picket line; she and Ms. Dratch improvised some strike-oriented material for Debbie Downer, Ms. Dratch’s sad-sack character. Strike talks are to resume on Nov. 26.
One sticking point is residual payments for online content, particularly relevant for this show, which has spawned several Internet triumphs. After flashing a card that read, “An SNL Digital Short,” Andy Samberg and Mr. Armisen performed one, a gay-oriented rap by Mr. Samberg starring Mr. Armisen as the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Ms. Jones and the hairy rear cameoed.)
Lorne Michaels, the show’s producer, watched and occasionally laughed from the audience, but Ms. Poehler noted that he was not involved, and he left immediately after. (It was his birthday.) Tickets for the show were going for as much as $300 each on Craigslist (officially the price was $20), but many in the standing-room crowd were comedy cognoscenti: writers from other late-night shows and actors like John Krasinski of “The Office.”
“This is the show I would’ve been crushed if I’d heard about it the day after,” said Samm Levine, an actor (“Freaks and Geeks”) from Los Angeles who performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater when he’s in New York.
(I'm referring, of course, to the reappropriation/expropriation of the workplace and the technologies of work, "valuing the creative brain" as what a young Toni Negri might have called 'self-valorization,' rather than the presence of the inimitable Samm Levine, which deserves commentary in its own right, but you won't find any here.)
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