Divided by Politics, United by Leno and Letterman

In the midst of this fall’s electoral chaos, judicial rancor and bipartisan befuddlement, at least one major American institution stood firm in our darkest hour: “Saturday Night Live.”

Yes, our shoddy voting system was exposed to global ridicule. Yes, the Supreme Court may never again be viewed as the constitutional equivalent of Robert Young, a soothing paterfamilias who always knows best.

But as the dark histrionics played out in Washington and Tallahassee, “SNL” was a model of centrist consistency. With their spot-on impersonations of Messrs. Bush and Gore, cast members Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond channeled the skeptical, at times mirthful mentality of much of the nation.

Operating in a spirit of equal-opportunity derision, popular culture once again was able to prick the pretensions of the nation’s movers and shakers. “Any time you can see through the veil of illusion you’ve reached a higher state of nirvana,” observes L.A. comedian and yoga enthusiast Beth Lapides.

Pop culture is nimble and facile where democracy is slow and plodding. Keeping pace with events that changed hour by hour, “SNL” and its brethren Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher and “The Daily Show” whoopee-cushioned voter anger and anxiety with a jumbo supply of one-liners. Drive-time disc jockeys invited us to grin and bear what the doomsaying hotheads were calling a “constitutional crisis.”

Pop culture’s role in tempering angst went beyond comic potshots. Indeed, while we, the people, groped toward a half-hearted resolution of the electoral stalemate, it was semi-comforting to know that at least TV, movies, music, fashion and advertising hadn’t failed us.

Partisan politics may divide the electorate into squabbling factions, as the Founding Fathers feared. But in the end Americans are all products of the same mass-culture reference points and media-manufactured buzz terms, as pervasive and powerful as any political ideology. Why get worked up over a few miscounted ballots when we’re all agreed on what really matters: “Meet the Parents” rocks, “Malcolm in the Middle” is cool, but “The 6th Day” is so last millennium.

“We turn to popular culture like we turn to religion, to mythology, to sports, to politics -- to give us answers,” says Michael Marsden, past president of the American Culture Assn. “Popular culture creates order out of chaos.”

The farcical, slapstick nature of the Florida fiasco probably demanded a low-culture response. This highly compressed soap opera largely failed to ignite eggheads’ and artists’ imaginations, leaving the field to the cultural proles.

While the Beltway fretted and fumed, the pop merchandising machine swung into high gear. Chad earrings and cuff links began selling on the Internet. And since no political crisis, natural disaster or celebrity scandal can be said to exist anymore without a commemorative T shirt and mug, one Internet site hawked souvenir coffee cups inscribed with George W. Bush kicking Al Gore (or vice versa) and shouting, “Recount this!”

While Washington insiders were transfixed by the Leon County clerk of courts web site, millions of their countrymen were firing up their SUVs and heading off to the malls. At movie theaters, the public has been passing up the political drama “The Contender” in favor of the family-friendly escapism of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The “Grinch” also handed editorial cartoonists an early Christmas present, providing a template for Seussian caricatures of both Bush and Gore as larcenous killjoys.

Even Al Gore, his political career hanging by a thread, found time to see “Men of Honor.”

Prime-time television also rose (or bowed) to the occasion, alchemizing the mud of political intrigue into the spun gold of must-see TV. John Wells, one of the executive producers of the hit White House drama “The West Wing,” said he couldn’t imagine how his fictional show could top the reality of the past few weeks. Yet the public kept tuning in and the producers capitalized on the electoral melodrama by urging viewers to cast Web site votes for Bush, Gore or the fictional President Bartlet.

Pop entertainers likely won’t surrender their sacred right to view politics through a bent looking glass.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the ever-irreverent “South Park,” are already at work on a new half-hour live-action sitcom spoof titled “Family First,” a satirical behind-the-scenes look at the Bush household. A Comedy Central publicist says Stone and Parker had been waiting to see which candidate won before casting and scripting the show. No doubt the Gores would’ve served just as well.