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
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“And all the popular statesmen say
That purity built up the State
And after kept it from decay;
Admonish us to cling to that
And let all base ambition be,
For intellect would make us proud....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)