In Popular Culture
The show has been spoofed by Saturday Night Live, with Darrell Hammond portraying Chris Matthews. One of the first instances was during the Florida election recount following the unclear results of the 2000 United States presidential election.
Hardball appeared on the October 9, 2005 episode of The West Wing, "Message of the Week" (which was written by frequent Hardball guest Lawrence O'Donnell), with Chris Matthews playing himself. He interviews fictional Republican Presidential candidate Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) and pressures him about his views on immigration. The tough nature of Matthew's questions prompts the character of Josh Lyman, a strategist for Vinick's opponent, to shout: "Yeah! Welcome to Hardball, Arnie!"
The show was featured in the February 22, 2007, 30 Rock episode "Hard Ball", in which series character Jenna Maroney came on the show to explain about how she was misquoted in Maxim magazine about US military troops, but embarrassed herself even further when she confused Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden after she mentions whom she would support for US President in 2008.
The 2008 film Swing Vote contains several segments of Chris Matthews delivering commentary on Hardball that relates to the film's plot line. Matthews received a credited cameo for recording the segments.
Read more about this topic: Hardball With Chris Matthews
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“The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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