About
“I am not a witch” is a popular catchphrase that stems from a political advert for Christine O’Donnell, the Delaware Republican candidate who ran for the position of Senator in 2010 but lost. The 30-second promotional clip begins with O’Donnell clearly stating that she is not a witch, an overly defensive remark made in reference to her past admission of dabbling in witchcraft during her guest appearance on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect.
Origin
Prior to her political affiliation with the Tea Party movement, Christine O’Donnell worked in marketing, public relations and as a political commentator in a number of major news media outlets. In advocating a wide range of Christian conservative agendas, O’Donnell also appeared regularly on Bill Maher’s late night talk show Politically Incorrect. In the episode that aired on October 29th, 1999, O’Donnell stated:
“I dabbled into witchcraft — I never joined a coven … I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do”.
Over a decade later, Bill Maher dug up the archived footage and ran it on his new HBO talk show Real Time on September 17th, 2010.
On the very next day, the liberal political blog ThinkProgress.org cited Bill Maher’s talk show and posted the same footage on YouTube, which quickly gained viral status.
Spread
Parodies & Remixes
This ad soon became a cause of much hilarity.
Several of the parody videos combine footage of O’ Donnell with the famous witch trial scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
SNL Parody
On October 9, 2010, the ad was parodied on Saturday Night Live: