Tina Fey's version of the witless, overmatched fraud that is Sarah Palin is perhaps SNL's most memorable parody of a political figure since Dana Carvey's GHW Bush. For three out of the season's first four episodes, Fey's Palin has made an appearance, complete with nonsensical answers and vapid beauty-queen self-assurance.
Considering how little else we know about Palin, SNL has basically jumped in to created a national image of her before she could fully do it herself. You know Fey's Palin has crossed over into the fabric of our pop-culture when even Chuck Hagel incorporates some of Fey's lines (knowingly or not):
"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense
about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know
something about Russia,'" he said.
Keep in mind that she never actually said that. Palin said you could see Russia from an island in Alaska (Little Diomede, which is correct, though completely irrelevant). Fey's the one who said Palin could see Russia from her house, but like Gore's non-lies or Kerry's non-Nascar comment, fiction has become the truth.
That's why it's so disappointing to see that, according to gossip maven Cindy Adams of the NY Post, Palin's a "done deal" to appear as herself on SNL:
SOCCER moms and Joe Sixpacks, listen up. Get your beer, mooseburgers and caribou dips ready. Sarah Palin is doing "Saturday Night Live." Not Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin doing "Saturday Night Live." But the Sarah Herself. She has already OK'd it. She's booked. It's confirmed. Done deal. Sketches are being sketched as we speak. She - eyeglasses, haircomb, designer jacket and trunkful of gosh-darns, golly-gees and gol-dangs - will be on "SNL" Saturday night, Oct. 25. Sarah's rehearsal time has already been penciled in for Friday the 24th. And it's because she wants to do it.
She may be right, though I doubt it's "sketches" plural. If anything, it would only be the cold-opening, as Hillary did in the primaries, or Weekend Update as Huckabee and McCain have.
But the fact she's appearing at all kills the joke. Why do you even need the genuine article when Fey does it so well? I understand that they kind of have to let her on the show, as it's probably bad form to snub a presidential ticket candidate. But this is just lame, considering how Palin has an obsessive hatred for all things East Coast and "elite"--you know, like SNL, its Harvard Lampoon-alum writers, the NY audience, etc.
You know they'll go easy on her and give her a bunch of comedic softballs. So all Palin has to do is show up, smile and make it look like she's in on the joke. Demonstrating that she can laugh at herself will help her immeasurably. And no, perhaps not in 2008, as I doubt 5 minutes of SNL time can save their ticket, but maybe for 2012/16/whenever. (Nonetheless, you know she'll be wishing witchcraft curses on SNL afterward, no matter what happens.)
The media bobbleheads just LOVE when a politician appears on SNL. They give it enormous import, analyze the impact, and talk about it as if it was an international summit. "You betcha" they'll be crowing about her and attempting to rehabilitate her image--"She's a real person! She was likable and funny! What a good sport she is! This is like how Nixon won the presidency by doing Laugh-In! Now we see why the right loves her! Watch out in 2012!" (Those bobbleheads are all pop-culture experts in their own minds.)
Bleh. I just hope Obama re-schedules his Gustav-canceled SNL appearance pronto.