I saw a number of teaser news items that Sarah Palin was going to be on SNL this week. One story even reported that the Secret Service was walking through 30 Rock for security. She was nowhere to be found.
My theory -- the Palin camp tried to lighten the satirical force of the cold open sketch, and Lorne Michaels actually stood his ground. I mean, it's not like the material was overwritten to the point of absurdity -- 95% of her lines were straight out of the actual interview!
Palin needs positive exposure DESPERATELY -- I can't imagine that the campaign walked out. Maybe she couldn't do lines and they kicked her ass out. One thing though -- SNL's little "celebrity being impersonated walking in on a sketch where they're being impersonated" schtick is very worn out. It was funny when Janet Reno did it, but it has gotten very weak.
Some notes on the show on the flip...
- Sarah Palin sketch - Tina Fey is SOOO brilliant. I'm a bit torn as to whether they should have used more original material to mock Palin, but if you knew the words were her own, it makes the satire doubly effective, and if you didn't know the words were her own, it didn't matter anyway.
- Debate sketch - The McCain material wrote itself, and they had to really strain to come up with some Obama-unfriendly material to make a claim to even up the satirical-score. The Chicago/Rezko stuff is dead in the water. The takeaway from the sketch will be McCain's desperation, the "tactics without a strategy" nature of his campaign. Talk about not knowing the difference between a tactic and a strategy...
- It was very nice to see Chris Parnell come back to play Jim Lehrer. He played him in previous debate sketches, notably the Gore/Bush sketch parody in 2000. Every two-bit impressionist does a Jimmy Stewart, but a really great impressionist can do people that you didn't even know could be impersonated. That said, I seem to recall that his Lehrer was more accurate in 2000.
- Another brilliant Bill Clinton piece by Darrell Hammond
- The non-political sketches were of very high caliber. The Hitman Musical and Couple After a Double Date sketches were VERY funny, and Anna Faris was excellent. Kenan Thompson also had a very strong show.
UPDATE Link to the Palin sketch on HuffPo