Come Back, Sarah Palin!

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE writers have devastatingly lampooned Mitt Romney as a corny, coreless candidate who evokes an Eh, I guess response in voters. Now theyre worried that were heading, comedy-wise, toward an Eh, I guess election.

I dont think its going to be as much fun as 2000 and 2008, Jim Downey, the shows inimitable satirist, told me. When you have an incumbent president, its not wholly new. And because of the long Republican primary debate stretch, Im already tired of Romney. I wish there could be a crazy brokered convention with someone weve never heard of to keep it fresh. But you dont get a gift like Sarah Palin very often, and Im sure itll never happen again.

Youre telling me.

Comedy writers are incredibly promiscuous, and we want as many targets as possible, agreed Seth Meyers, the clever S.N.L. head writer and Weekend Update anchor. We really slowed down in the second four years of Bush.

Stuck with a Tin Man-versus-Spock race, the writers perk up at the thought of Romneys picking the crackling Chris Christie as his running mate. But Mitt seems too programmed to risk his hard-won chance at the brass ring on a brassy partner who might overshadow him.

Two of the most hallucinatory moments in S.N.L. history came in 2008, when Tina Feys Sarah Palin and the real Palin sashayed past each other, and when John McCain roguishly appeared in a skit with Feys Palin going rogue.

Sarah Palin was a once-in-a-lifetime situation, Meyers marveled. She was incredibly magnetic and came with a built-in catchphrase.

She, like Joe Biden, inspires what Meyers calls wet comedy (as opposed to dry), and they both have what Downey calls handles, quirks of speech and personality that both writers and performers can latch onto.

Having played John Kerry in ! 2004, Me yers has experience puncturing a stiff, rich guy who has a hard time getting anyone to like him.

The fun thing with Mitt Romney is, heres a guy who has to look in the mirror every day and see that he looks exactly the way a president should look, Meyers said, and yet he cant catch fire.

Theres a creepy youth minister kind of squareness to him, especially combined with that goofy eagerness to please, Downey said. People are perfectly willing to accept people different from them as long as they dont try to pretend otherwise.

In a sketch last week written by Downey, Jason Sudeikiss Romney pandered three exits past shameless talking to different groups. He told the American Diabetes Association, No one wants to get sick, you know, but frankly Ive always thought that if I had to develop a chronic disease, you know I hoped it would be adult onset diabetes, I mean what a fascinating illness.

The five Romney sons have also taken a ribbing. The hilarious Bill Hader, playing an Anthony Perkins in Psycho version of the Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, interviewed the S.N.L. sons, noting: I like creepy things and I love these guys. ... Our thanks to Stephen King for creating those boys.

Meyers says that theres something funny about a candidate with all these fully grown adult sons. When it comes to an adorable competition, they certainly dont beat Sasha and Malia.

Lorne Michaels, the shows executive producer, has offered a guest spot to Romney, who is considering it.

He was funny on Letterman, giving the Top Ten list, Downey said.

S.N.L. has always struggled with its Obama impersonation because Obama is smooth without big handles, as Downey puts it. To the dismay of the president, Fred Armisen plays it more as pedantic white guy than cool black guy. In The Times, the writer Jason Zinoman co! mplained : Whats frustrating about these performances is the same thing that has left many in Mr. Obamas base disillusioned. Mr. Armisen seems sometimes to blend into the background.

Meyers recalled that, after the Navy Seals raid that killed Osama last year, the show did a sketch with Obama getting his mojo back.

It would be really fun to see that Obama again on the show, the confident Obama who comes out on the campaign trail, he said.

When Rick Santorum dropped out, Meyers tweeted about the Santorum impersonator Andy Samberg: About to sit down Samberg and tell him hes not going to play the president. This part of the job is never easy.

But with rumors buzzing that Samberg, plus Sudeikis, who plays Mitt Romney, and Kristen Wiig, who plays Ann Romney, are leaving the show, will different white-bread Romney mimics be required? Im sure they would stick around for the pre-election shows, Downey said.

Maybe Stefon can moderate the debates. But meanwhile, Downey is leavening the prospect of an eh campaign by plotting to follow up his hilarious Keith Olbermann sketch (performed by the host Ben Affleck) with a send-up of Sean Hannity.

I think Im right in saying, Downey observed, that hes the dumbest person whos ever been paid to speak on television.