McCain’s first skit on SNL, which was a hit. His second skit, below, wasn’t quite as effective

After a serious ten straight minutes of political commercials, Saturday Night Live finally kicked off with John McCain and Sarah Palin. The real McCain, but not the real Sarah Palin. Tina Fey was back with what will be, if she sticks to her word, her final performance on the Saturday show as the Alaska Governor.

McCain and “Palin” were on QVC on the skit, in rebuttal to Obama’s Wednesday night 30-minute ad, because the time came cheap as long as they would hawk a few products. As Tina-as-Palin explained as she stroked her lovely, designer jacket, running a Presidential campaign is expensive.

Senator McCain announced the pair’s first product, a 10-piece collector’s set representing the ten town hall meetings the Senators McCain and Obama had. He stepped over to reveal ten blank, white plates, because, as he explained, Obama refused to do town hall meetings.

The second product was presented by Palin, a complete set of Joe action figures, plumber, six pack, and Biden. Her favorite being the Biden doll, whose string you could pull and he would talk for 45-minutes straight.

McCain then took the opportunity to talk about the crossroads in American history we all find ourselves in this election year… until Palin interrupted to announce that there were only two minutes left to order the Washington Outsider jewelry!

Which brought McCain to his “Fine Gold” line of jewelry, presented by Cindy McCain. That joke wrote itself. The next one had to reach a bit further, Sarah Palin’s Ayers Freshners, to plug in when “sumthin’ doesn’t quite smell right.” Plus, as Tina said, it keeps on reminding you of William Ayers!

The final official product was John McCain Pork Knives, to “cut the pork out.”

Then Tina’s Palin goes rogue, taking the camera to the side with “PALIN in 2012” t-shirts, “just wait til after Tuesday to wear them.” Whether they win or not, she says, Palin isn’t going anywhere, she’s either going to be in the White House or be White Oprah.

From off camera, McCain asks, “What’s going on over there, Sarah?”

“Oh, just talkin’ ’bout taxes.”

Before the Senator delivers the obligatory line for opening Saturday Night Live, he tells the QVC audience that he is a true Maverick, a Republican without money, so had no choice but to go on QVC. And unlike Barack Obama, he doesn’t have Hollywood connections, his only showbiz supporters are John Voight and Heidi from the Hills.

He closed with, “When you go to the polls remember “Country First”, and as a reminder, all undergarments are unrefundable.”

John McCain was as willing and funny as I knew he would be. He really seems to have a sense of humor, it’s just been markedly missing, or strangely askew, for the past couple weeks. He got plenty of laughs and alot of applause. He seemed to be a hit.

But then he came on Weekend Update. There was actual booing when he was introduced. Senator McCain delivered an interesting array of “last minute strategies.” The “Reverse Maverick”: where he does whatever anybody tells him. The “Double Maverick”: going totally berserker and freak everybody out. The “Sad Grandpa”: Obama has a lot of time left to run for president, voters should give him a chance. People laughed at his bad ideas, but not in the good way. When Seth Myers asked which he was going to use, McCain got serious for a minute and said he was going to stick with his basic strategy… connect with the voters, stand by his record, etc. And if that doesn’t work, probably the Double Maverick.

One sketch too many, Senator.

Ben Affleck was not as good as I’d hoped he’d be. He had a couple of funny moments, but more than not, he was disappointing. Singer David Cook, on the other hand was excellent.

Update by Celebitchy: Here’s Ben Affleck as Keith Olbermann, and as Alec Baldwin stopping by The View. (Thanks daisy424!)