Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

television show Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

aired several sketches parodying then Alaskan Governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...

in the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election. The sketches featured former cast member Tina Fey

Tina Fey

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...

, who returned as a guest star to portray Palin. Fey won an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin.

Background

Soon after the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign

John McCain presidential campaign, 2008

John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a...

's August 29, 2008 announcement that Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

governor Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

would be McCain's vice presidential nominee, people noted a physical resemblance between Fey and Palin.

Viewers began to speculate who would play Palin on SNL during the run up to the November 4 presidential election. Days before the broadcast of the sketch, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

said "there are [ongoing] discussions" about Fey playing Palin. On September 13, 2008, NBC announced that Fey would appear in the thirty-fourth season premiere.

"A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton"

The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton," aired during the thirty-fourth season

Saturday Night Live (Season 34)

The thirty-fourth season of the variety series Saturday Night Live began airing in 2008 and concluded in 2009 on NBC. This season of Saturday Night Live consisted of 22 episodes, in an attempt to compensate for episodes lost during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike...

premiere of SNL on September 13, 2008. The sketch starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler

Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...

as Palin and Clinton, respectively. Fey, the series' former head writer

Head writer

A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...

and repertory player, made her third appearance on the series since officially leaving SNL in 2006 to work on 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...

, a series which she created. The sketch was written by Poehler, Fey, and head writer and Weekend Update
Weekend Update
Weekend Update is a Saturday Night Live sketch that comments on and parodies current events. It is the show's longest running recurring sketch, having been on since the show's first broadcast, and is typically presented in the middle of the show immediately after the first musical performance...

anchor Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers

Seth Adam Meyers is an American actor and comedian. He currently serves as head writer for Saturday Night Live and hosts its news parody segment Weekend Update.-Early life:...

.

Poehler and Fey are featured in a fictional speech playing New York Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, respectively. The pair discuss the presence of sexism

Sexism

Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...

in the 2008 United States presidential election, and the differences between Palin and Clinton. Governor Palin was the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

vice-presidential nominee and Senator Clinton recently lost the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

presidential nomination. Through the course of the message, Palin tries to present herself as the candidate for the job, and Clinton gets progressively more and more disgusted at Palin's sudden rise to fame as John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

's running mate, despite her background. It also features references to Clinton's campaign. The sketch received good reviews from various critics, with many reviewers commenting on Fey's impression of Palin, with Palin herself commenting that "the visual was spot on" after allegedly watching it without sound, while Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina is an American business executive and a former Republican candidate for the United States Senate representing California. Fiorina served as chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 and previously was an executive at AT&T and its equipment and technology spinoff,...

, a spokeswoman for John McCain, dismissed the sketch as sexist. Clinton has not commented on the skit.

Critical reception

The sketch was well received by critics. Erin Fox of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

wrote that Tina Fey "nails [Sarah] Palin's mannerisms and accent. [Amy] Poehler is amazing as Hillary [Clinton]; her timing is better than ever. My favorite line was Tina saying 'I can see Russia from my house!'" Fox added that "this was a much anticipated and hoped-for pairing and we got it!" Annie Wu of TV Squad thought that Fey's "impression wasn't perfect but it was more accurate than Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton, which [she] still find[s] incredibly off." Wu added that "the mugging for the camera was absolutely hilarious." James Poniewozik of Time Magazine wrote that "Fey's Palin was perfectly good enough" and that "the skit itself did a good job of what SNL—which has lately cultivated a strong set of female comics—tried hard to do through Hillary's campaign

Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2008

New York junior Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had expressed interest in the 2008 United States presidential election since at least October 2002, drawing media speculation on whether she would become a candidate. No woman has ever won the nomination of a major party in the...

, which is try to address sexism without either simply going for the easy stereotypes or letting female candidates off the hook". The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

's reviewer wrote that "Fey bears a striking resemblance to Palin and nailed the candidate's distinctive accent."

Palin's response

When asked how she felt about Fey's portrayal, Sarah Palin replied, "I watched with the volume all the way down and I thought it was hilarious... I didn't hear a word she said, but the visual was spot on." Palin "and the press corps watched the sketch in the back of her plane, laughing at Tina and Amy's satirical take on the two politicians", and Palin later claimed that she had once dressed up as Fey for Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

. However, Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina

, a spokeswoman for the John McCain campaign

John McCain presidential campaign, 2008

argued that the sketch portrayed Hillary Clinton as "very substantive", but Fiorina thought, in the case of Sarah Palin, that she was portrayed as "totally superficial". Fiorina thought the sketch was "disrespectful in the extreme" and "sexist".

In a series of interviews, Palin made some "flubs" leading her to joke that "[she] was just trying to give Tina Fey more material". She also joked that it was to provide "job security for SNL characters." Sarah Palin later remarked that she should appear on SNL to spoof a series of American Express

American Express

American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...

commercials which featured Tina Fey.

Further Palin sketches

Due to the popularity of the sketch and Fey's impression of Palin, Fey reprised her Sarah Palin role during the September 27, 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live. That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric

Katie Couric

Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as Special Correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials...

who was played by Amy Poehler; that sketch parodied an interview

Sarah Palin interviews with Katie Couric

The Sarah Palin Interviews with Katie Couric were a series of interviews of the 2008 U.S. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin conducted by CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. They were recorded and broadcast on television in several programs before the 2008 US presidential election....

which took place between Palin and Couric which aired days before the sketch's broadcast. In the sketch, Fey quoted verbatim one of Palin's answers from the actual interview and mimed Palin's gestures. The following episode featured a skit parodying the debate between Palin and Joe Biden

Joe Biden

Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...

(played by Jason Sudeikis

Jason Sudeikis

Daniel Jason Sudeikis is an American actor and comedian currently starring as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:Sudeikis was born Daniel Jason Sudeikis in Fairfax, Virginia, the son of Kathryn , a travel agent who was president of the American Society of Travel Agents, and Dan...

). Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...

also appeared in the skit as moderator Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill

Gwendolyn L. "Gwen" Ifill is an American journalist, television newscaster and author. She is the managing editor and moderator of Washington Week and a senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. She is a political analyst, and moderated the 2004 and 2008 Vice...

.

Palin herself appeared on the October 18, 2008 episode of SNL, along with Fey in the cold opening. Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin

Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...

and Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg is an American actor, film and television producer, and former rapper. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier years, and became famous for his 1991 debut as a musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He was named No. 1 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of...

also appeared in that sketch as themselves. On the October 23 episode of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, Fey as Palin appeared alongside Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...

as John McCain and Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

as President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

.

On November 1, 2008, Fey once again portrayed Palin, this time in a sketch featuring the real John McCain, the last of numerous sketches featuring the Arizona Senator. In the sketch, McCain poked fun at himself and his campaign, as well as Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

's purchase of airtime on several major networks earlier in the week. In the sketch, McCain and Palin can only afford to buy airtime on QVC

QVC

QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...

, a home-shopping channel. McCain's wife, Cindy, also made an appearance in the sketch as herself.

After Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life
Going Rogue: An American Life
Going Rogue: An American Life is a personal and political memoir of Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican candidate for U.S. Vice President. The book became a New York Times #1 bestseller in its first week of release, and remained there for six weeks...

, achieved best-seller status through pre-orders, Tina Fey announced she would resume impersonating the former Governor despite having "retired" the act months previously. On April 10, 2010, Fey hosted SNL, and once again played Palin, who unveiled her own television network featuring shows such as "Hey Journalist, I Gotcha", "Todd!" starring her husband Todd Palin

Todd Palin

Todd Mitchell Palin is the husband of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. He is an American oil field production operator, commercial fisherman and champion snowmobile racer, winning the Tesoro Iron Dog race four times.-Early life:Palin...

(Jason Sudeikis) and "Are You Smarter than a Half-Term Governor?" Another time, Fey hosted SNL in May 2011, while pregnant. A new sketch was made in which parodies of Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney

Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...

, Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....

, Palin (Fey), Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...

(Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond

), and Jimmy McMillan

Jimmy McMillan

James "Jimmy" McMillan III is an American political activist, perennial candidate, Vietnam War veteran, and karate expert, as well as a former postal worker and private investigator from Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as the founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, a New York-based...

fought in a Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

debate between undeclared candidates, with Shepard Smith

Shepard Smith

David Shepard Smith, Jr. , known better as Shepard Smith, is an American television news anchor. He is host of Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B weekdays on Fox News Channel. In addition, he anchors the 5:00 p.m...

coordinating.

External links

Palin and Hillary Open at NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

.com
Couric and Palin Open at NBC.com
Biden and Palin Open at NBC.com
Real Sarah Palin Open at NBC.com
Bush, Palin and McCain Open at NBC.com
Tina Fey Guest Stars On Saturday Night Live Season Premiere As Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin (September 13, 2008 sketch transcript)
Presidential Parody Dominates Saturday Night Live (September 27, 2008 sketch transcript)

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