Coming soon to SNL: Lydia Callis!
Or at least the version of Callis played by—fingers crossed—Maya Rudolph. Because Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sign language interpreter has become the face (and hands) of Hurricane Sandy, with her swaggy signing at the live press conferences (which have been aplenty since the storm swept in).
If a picture is worth a thousand words then a GIF is worth a million, and these GIFs feature sign language, which is actually words, so these are worth about infinity words. But just watch and fall in love, world:
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That kind of signing breaks down all language barriers. But if you hablas español and are still feeling a bit lost in translation, Mayor Bloomberg is here for you. Or at least his alter ego, El Bloombito (who even has his own Twitter!).
During those same press conferences, after Mayor Bloomberg finishes his announcements in English, El Bloombito surfaces to deliver the same announcement translated into Spanish. Or something that kinda sounds like Spanish.
A for effort. And T for Twitter, because the parody account of the Spanish-speaking Bloomberg is serving up comedy gold during the storm.