In a Saturday Night Live parody this weekend, a dancing, laughing faux Gov. Rick Perry (Texas) blamed rival candidate Herman Cain for his actions that spurred a viral video last week and speculation among commentators that he was intoxicated during a speech.
"Right before the speech, Herman Cain shows up with a Godfather's Pizza and he's like 'hey man, you like pizza?' And you know me, Seth, I love pizza. And it wasn't until after I ate it that I realized that the pepperonis were Ambiens and the tomato sauce was beer," said the Perry impersonator in a skit on SNL Saturday night.
The video in question features a montage of clips from a speech Perry gave in New Hampshire last month, which has now been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube.
The eight-minute video shows an animated Perry joking about how "cool" New Hampshire's state slogan is, making fun of Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan and giggling when presented with a bottle of maple syrup from the event's organizers.
The release of the video prompted commentators to criticize his communication abilities and late-night comedians to question whether the Texas governor was drunk during the speech.
The real Perry blamed selective editing for the way he appeared in the video and said he thought he got his message across to the audience during the speech.
"It was a great crowd, a good response. I guess you can do anything you want with a video and make it look any way you want, but I felt good, felt great, and I think the message got across very well, so it was a good speech," said Perry to reporters last week in Des Moines, Iowa.
The executive director of Cornerstone Action, the conservative group that hosted the New Hampshire event, came out in Perry's defense last week, saying the GOP contender was completely sober during the speech.
"I can tell you unequivocally he wasn’t drinking at the event and he hadn’t been drinking prior to the event," said Kevin Smith. "I was sitting with him, and I found him to be very engaging with all of the people he was talking with, he was very
articulate."
To watch the original speech in full and listen to Perry's response to the video that went viral, click here.
