The sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live aired several critically acclaimed sketches parodying then Alaskan Governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin in the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election. The sketches featured former cast member Tina Fey, who returned as a guest star to portray Palin. Fey won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin. [1]
Soon after the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign's August 29, 2008 announcement that Alaska governor Sarah Palin would be McCain's vice presidential nominee, [2] several people noted a physical resemblance between comedian Tina Fey and Palin. [3] [4]
Viewers speculated 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 said "there are [ongoing] discussions" about Fey playing Palin. [5] On September 13, 2008, NBC announced that Fey would appear in the thirty-fourth-season premiere. [6]
The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton," aired during the thirty-fourth season premiere of SNL on September 13, 2008. The sketch starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Palin and Clinton, respectively. [7] Fey, the series' former head writer and repertory player, made her third appearance on the series since officially leaving SNL in 2006 to work on 30 Rock , a series which she created. [8] The sketch was written by head writer and Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers with added jokes by Poehler and Fey. [9] [10] [11] A famous line from the sketch, "I can see Russia from my house." was written by SNL producer Mike Shoemaker. [10]
Poehler and Fey are featured in a fictional speech playing New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, respectively. The pair discuss the presence of sexism in the 2008 United States presidential election, and the differences between Palin and Clinton. Governor Palin was the Republican Party vice-presidential nominee and Senator Clinton was a contender for the Democratic Party 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's running mate, despite her background. It also features references to Clinton's campaign.
The sketch was well received by critics. Erin Fox of TV Guide 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!" [12] 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." [13] 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, which is try to address sexism without either simply going for the easy stereotypes or letting female candidates off the hook." [14] The Huffington Post 's reviewer wrote that "Fey bears a striking resemblance to Palin and nailed the candidate's distinctive accent." [15]
When asked how she felt about Fey's portrayal, Palin herself 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." [16] 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," [17] and Palin later claimed that she had once dressed up as Fey for Halloween. [18] However, Carly Fiorina, a spokeswoman for the John McCain campaign 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." [19]
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." [20] Palin later remarked that she should appear on SNL to spoof a series of American Express commercials which featured Tina Fey. [21]
Due to the popularity of the sketch and Fey's impression of Palin, Fey reprised her role during the September 27, 2008 episode. That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric (also portrayed by Amy Poehler), and parodied an interview which took place between Palin and Couric which aired days before the sketch's broadcast. [22] In the sketch, Fey quoted near 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 (played by Jason Sudeikis). Queen Latifah also appeared in the skit as moderator Gwen Ifill. [23]
Palin herself appeared on the October 18, 2008 episode, along with Fey in the cold opening, and in the Weekend Update segment. [24] Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg also appeared in that sketch as themselves. [25] On the October 23 episode of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday , Fey as Palin appeared alongside Darrell Hammond as John McCain and Will Ferrell as President George W. Bush. [26]
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's purchase of airtime on several major networks earlier in the week. [27] In the sketch, McCain and Palin can only afford to buy airtime on QVC, a home-shopping channel. McCain's wife, Cindy, also made an appearance in the sketch as herself.
After Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life , achieved best-seller status through pre-orders, [28] Fey announced she would resume impersonating the former Governor despite having "retired" the act months previously. [29] 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 (Jason Sudeikis) and Are You Smarter than a Half-Term Governor? [30] Fey hosted SNL in May 2011 while pregnant. A new sketch was made in which parodies of Mitt Romney (Jason Sudeikis), Newt Gingrich (Bobby Moynihan), Michele Bachmann (Kristen Wiig), Palin (Fey), Donald Trump (Darrell Hammond), and Jimmy McMillan (Kenan Thompson) fought in a Republican Party debate between undeclared candidates, with Shepard Smith (Bill Hader) coordinating.
On March 11, 2012, on the episode hosted by Jonah Hill, Palin was impersonated by Andy Samberg in the Weekend Update segment. The dialogue leads the audience to think that it was supposed to be another appearance by Fey and that Seth Meyers wasn't aware of the change, but Samberg convinces Meyers to finish his part.
Palin appeared on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special , where Jerry Seinfeld jokingly mistook her for Tina Fey. [31]
Fey and Poehler co-hosted SNL on December 19, 2015, and performed as Palin and Clinton, transported through time from 2008, in yet another sketch that also featured Kate McKinnon's portrayal of Clinton. [32] For their performance, the duo won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series; this was Fey's second win in the category for her performance as Palin and Poehler's first Emmy win after 18 nominations. This was also the first time an acting category had been won by more than one person.[ citation needed ]
In January 2016, following Palin's real-life endorsement of Donald Trump, Fey returned to the role to parody the speech given by Palin in Iowa that endorsed Trump. This skit served as the show's cold open. [33]
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She was a cast member and head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1997 to 2006. After her departure from SNL, she created the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and the Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), the former of which she also starred in. Fey is also known for her work in film, including Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), Wine Country (2019), Soul (2020), A Haunting in Venice (2023), and Mean Girls (2024).
Weekend Update is a Saturday Night Live sketch and satirical news program 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. Historically, one or two of the players are cast in the role of news anchor, presenting gag news items based on current events and acting as hosts for occasional editorials, commentaries, or other performances by other cast members or guests. In modern times, dedicated anchors are chosen among writing staff, often lead writers, in lieu of cast or featured players. Chevy Chase has said that Weekend Update – which he started as anchor in 1975 – paved the way for comedic news shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Amy Poehler is an American actress and comedian. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler joined the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade in 1995. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Seth Adam Meyers is an American comedian, television host, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. He hosts Late Night with Seth Meyers, a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to hosting Late Night, he was a cast member on NBC's sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2014, and served as the host's head writer as well as an anchor of the show's news parody segment Weekend Update from 2006 until he left in 2014.
The thirty-second season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 2006, and May 19, 2007.
Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday is an American limited-run series broadcast on NBC. It is a political satire news show spin-off from Saturday Night Live, featuring that show's Weekend Update segment. It initially ran for three 30-minute episodes in October 2008, during the lead-up to the 2008 United States presidential election.
The thirty-fourth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 13, 2008, and May 16, 2009.
Sarah Palin, while serving as Governor of Alaska, was nominated as the first female candidate of the Republican Party for Vice President of the United States. Following the nomination, her public image came under close media scrutiny, particularly regarding her religious perspective on public life, her socially conservative views, and a perceived lack of experience. Palin's experience in foreign and domestic politics came under criticism among conservatives as well as liberals following her nomination. A poll taken by Rasmussen Reports just after the Republican National Convention in the first week of September 2008 found that Palin was more popular than either Barack Obama or John McCain; however, this perception later reversed. At the same time, Palin became more popular among Republicans than McCain. A February 2010 ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 71% of Americans felt Palin lacked the qualifications necessary to be President of the United States.
In the run-up to the 2008 United States presidential election, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was interviewed multiple times by CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. The interviews were broadcast on September 24 and 25, 2008. Couric received the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award and the Walter Cronkite Award for Journalism Excellence for the interview.
The thirty-fifth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 2009, and May 15, 2010.
Saturday Night Live in the 2000s: Time and Again is a two-hour documentary television special that showcases the years of Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2009. It features interviews with the cast and crew from those years, and aired on NBC on April 15, 2010. It was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.
Game Change is a 2012 American political drama television film based on events of the 2008 United States presidential election campaign of John McCain, directed by Jay Roach and written by Danny Strong, based on the 2010 book of the same title documenting the campaign by political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. The film stars Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Ed Harris, and focuses on the chapters about the selection and performance of Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin (Moore) as running mate to Senator John McCain (Harris) in the presidential campaign.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 29, 2001, and May 18, 2002, the twenty-seventh season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 26, 2009, and May 15, 2010, the thirty-fifth season of SNL.
Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President of the United States was publicly announced by then-presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain on August 29, 2008. As part of the McCain presidential campaign, Palin, then the incumbent Governor of Alaska, was officially nominated by acclamation at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3. The McCain–Palin ticket lost the 2008 presidential election on November 4 to the Barack Obama–Joe Biden ticket.
"Live from Studio 6H" is the nineteenth episode of the sixth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 122nd episode overall. It features a return to live broadcasting from the season five episode "Live Show", both of which were directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller, and co-written by series creator Tina Fey. The episode originally aired live on the NBC television network in the United States on April 26, 2012, with separate tapings for the East Coast and West Coast audiences. "Live from Studio 6H" featured guest appearances by comedian Amy Poehler, musician Paul McCartney, and several actors associated with 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.
Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women is a 2010 non-fiction book written by the American journalist Rebecca Traister and published by Free Press. The book focuses on women's contributions to and experiences of the 2008 United States presidential election. Traister places particular focus on four main political figures—Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and Elizabeth Edwards—as well as women in the media, including the journalists Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow, and the comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who portrayed Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live, respectively. Traister also describes her personal experience of the electoral campaign and her shift from supporting John Edwards to Hillary Clinton.
The sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live (SNL) has for almost three decades aired a number of sketches parodying Hillary Clinton, from her time as First Lady, and during both her presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016.
The 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, has been parodied on Saturday Night Live (SNL) since 1992. Clinton was in office from 1993 to 2001, and has been portrayed on the show over a hundred times, most often by Darrell Hammond.
SNL alum and 30 Rock star Tina Fey returned to SNL tonight to reprise her wildly popular rendition of Republican VP candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin. Fey was joined in the parody of the debate by special guest Queen Latifah as moderator Gwen Ifill and cast member Jason Sudeikis took on the role of Democratic VP candidate Sen. Joe Biden in the opening of tonight's show[ dead link ]
After weeks of speculation, Vice Presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made her SNL debut tonight, shouting the program's signature opening line: "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night." Palin appeared as herself in the opening sketch of the show, alongside executive producer Lorne Michaels, surprise guests Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg as well as her SNL doppelganger, Tina Fey.[ dead link ]
Coming off the record breaking ratings of last Saturday's SNL —the highly-rated SNL live primetime Weekend Update Thursday finished its three-week run tonight with the return of SNL alum Will Ferrell as President George W. Bush, joined by the current talk of the political world—Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin. The show opened with President Bush giving a public endorsement of the McCain—Palin ticket.[ dead link ]
| |||||||
| Politics |  | ||||||
| Elections |
| ||||||
| Books and media by Sarah Palin | |||||||
| Book and media coverage | |||||||
| Parodies | |||||||
| Family |
| ||||||
| Related | |||||||
