Less than an hour after Sarah Palin's nomination was announced, the comparisons to Tina Fey [1] started. The glasses, the hair, the highlights – Sarah Palin is indeed a dead ringer for Tina Fey, who rose to fame as a writer and comic on Saturday Night Live and left the show in 2006 to star in her own television sitcom, 30 Rock.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) has had a long a tradition of mocking politicians ever since Dan Aykroyd [2] put on his game face [3] to portray Richard Nixon [4]. In the past 25 years, no major political figure has escaped SNL's clutches; therefore, it wasn't long before people started asking [5] if Tina Fey would be returning to SNL to play her doppelganger, Sarah Palin.
And indeed she did. On Saturday, September 13, Fey made her triumphant return for the show's season opener. Although she was only featured in the opening sketch (which pitted Palin against Amy Poehler [6]‘s Hillary Clinton), that sketch made waves across the Internet over the weekend.
European Avenue was amazed [7] at the resemblance:
She looked like her, Moved like her, Talked like her … It is making love both even more. The Comedian and the Character that is Sarah Palin.
Blogger American TaÃno, who identifies as an American Latino, declares that “Tina Fey IS Palin on SNL” and goes on to say [8]:
Tina Fey returned to SNL yesterday to play a dead on Sarah Palin. Fey's enormous comedic talents soar as she captures Palin's flat accent, looks, dominionist certitude and Alaska sized vacuousness. Bravo!
Canadian blogger Pelalusa remarks [9] on the effect SNL might have on the media:
The biggest effect of the ongoing SNL skits through the election will be to continue to mock the hypocritical sexist and elitist media coverage of Palin. Most in the media still haven't realized just how far they've jumped the shark with their pathetically biased coverage. They're slow learners though. Extreme arrogance tends to have the effect of obscuring facts that otherwise would be blatantly obvious.
Kuwaiti blogger Jandeef hopes [10] that Fey will return again as Palin:
It was fun watching Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond debate each other as Bush and Gore in 2000.
I suspect it'll only get more fun this year!
Yet not everyone is excited. Canadian Scrawled in Wax implies [11] that the hullabaloo over Fey's return was simply too much:
You are, no doubt, aware of the timeline. First, John McCain announces Sarah Palin as his running mate. Then the internet-o-sphere immediately remarks on the physical similarity between Governor Palin and comedian/writer Tina Fey. There is a feverish build-up – and no, feverish is not too strong a word – to the season premiere of Saturday Night Live as people wait, with bated breath, to see whether ex-SNLer Fey would impersonate governor Palin. Sure enough, as if they almost didn’t have a choice, Tina Fey appears with Amy Poheler in the opening sketch doing a bang-on impression of Palin. The internet goes wild.
Fair enough. What I’m a bit baffled about is why we all seem to care so much. Are we so desperate for a repeat of Dana Carvey’s four year run as Bush Sr. that we now are salivating at the prospect of Fey as Palin? Are we so giddy at the coincidental resemblance between the two that everyone from CNN to a local Toronto news station felt it newsworthy to report – shock of shocks – that a contemporary comedian did an impression of a politician suddenly thrust into the international limelight?
Whatever bloggers think about the skit, there's no doubt that many are waiting with bated breath to see if Fey will return [12] this coming Saturday as Palin. Only time will tell.