I can't get enough of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin. I feel about her the way I felt about Dr. Evil in the first "Austin Powers" movie. My eyes light up whenever she's on camera. And then, of course, there are those little starbursts she sends through the screen that go ricocheting around the living rooms of America, as first reported by Rich Lowry of the National Review.
Something strange is happening, though: Fey's Palin is not only sharper and funnier than Palin's Palin, she's also more vivid, more... real (maybe because she's on TV more). It's as if she's the main Palin and the other one is the paler surrogate Palin. In other words, for you baby boomers, Tina Fey's Palin is the Dick York and Sarah Palin's Palin is the Dick Sargent. Sure, they're both bewitching in their own ways, but Fey's is the real Darrin. If you know what I mean.
I was looking forward to the VP Debate opening sketch on "SNL" as much as the debate itself, and I was not disappointed by either. I'm guessing that former "SNL" head-writer Fey contributes to these because they're "30 Rock" precise -- more pointed than what usually passes for "SNL" political humor. (I didn't make it through the obviously obligatory finanical bailout sketch in the first half hour of the show, even though Fred Armisen's Barney Frank was a hoot).
Jason Sudeikis made for an extra-creepy Biden and the writers targeted the right angles -- the strident repetitions; the expressions of warm feelings toward McCain combined with horror and alarm at the prospect of somebody so bonkers as president; the desperate relief at having escaped from a place as undesirable as Scranton (hellhole setting of NBC's version of "The Office"); the frustration and humiliation of being a longtime Senator/insider and policy wonk having to control his loose tongue while debating a functional rutabaga in a beehive and pretending that it's normal....
On her third time in the role Fey again caught the essential Palin, a character who does think everything that's happening to her is normal. She's just a big ol' sixpack of clueless narcissism-in-a-can. It would never occur to her to feel the least bit out of place. She's just real happy to be in the international spotlight where she can see Russia from just about anywhere. Look, there's Putin rearing his head right over there! Sic some Alaskans on him!
"Hey, can I call you Joe?" she asks at the top of the sketch, shaking his hand as if he were a towel rack. "Of course," he replies. "OK," she chirps as if he isn't there, " 'cause I practiced a couple zingers where I call you Joe." In the actual debate she didn't have to say that last line, but it was plain as day.
My favorite Falin moments are when she emits showers of sparks, shooting off buzzwords and concepts ("maverick," "outsider") followed by a random spray of verbal mist. Because one word do just as well as another and who's gonna get picky about what ones they are or what order they're in. (This was a reminder of the debating style favored by Dana Carvey's GHW Bush, which seemed to consist entirely of phrase fragments: "Not gonna do it," "Wouldn't be prudent," and "Thousand points of light.")
Compare this (from the actual debate): "Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position."
With this (from the SNL sketch): "Gwen, we don't know if this climate change whoozy-whatzit is man made or if it's just a natural part of the End of Days. But I'm not gonna talk about that because I wanna talk about about taxes. Because with Barack Obama you're gonna be payin' higher taxes, but not with me and my fellow maverick. We're not afraid to get mavericky in there, and ruffle feathers, and not got to allow that, and also to, the great Ronald Reagan."
I would have been happy if the opener had lasted the whole show. (The gay marriage question, again, cut right through to what was expressed, almost as directly, in the debate.) As format-neutralized moderator Gwen Ifill, Queen Latifah set things up nicely, especially when explaining that if Palin fails to melt down or run away the debate should be considered "a tie." Later, though, she milks the double-takes too much. But the missed opportunity here was the cheap and obvious schtick of having Ifill plug her Obama book (a non-issue after the debate itself). Rather, the writers should have zeroed in on her silly, third-grade either/or questions: "A nuclear Iran or an unstable Pakistan, which is more dangerous?" "Brushing or flossing, which is more dentally hygienic?" "Skeleton or ghost, which is more scary?" "Raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, which is more favorite?"
Very good post. Put a smile on my face. I am going to social news this on:
www.palinspin.com the scandals, palinisms, incompetence, lies and deceptions of Sarah Palin!
www.obamamate.com social news for the Barack Obama nation
This reminds me of an experience I had while living in Brazil. I worked on developing teaching materials for Brazilian students and my boss asked me to get a speech from President Bush so he could use it in a class about public speaking. I got a transcript of one from the whitehouse site and gave it to him. He was looking over it and said "I can't use this! There are too many mistakes." I laughed and told him that I cheated a little because I went ahead and corrected some of the worst mistakes. So much for using "real" language in a teaching environment from a President like Bush.
Tina Fey should run for President next time, she obviously has enough experience at playing one and she would probably manage the "filter" of media a lot better too. She would have a great excuse for any possible gaffes as well - "What did I mean when I said that? Oh, that was just a joke, come on Katie, keep up."
Jim, you hit the nail on the head regarding the debate being called "a tie". Since Palin did not flee the stage following another nonsensical answer, she is being praised. How low have we fallen as a country intellectually?
I would like to propose a modification to the Best Picture Oscar. Any picture that we expect to be monumentally awful (i.e., anything with Rob Schneider) that actually turns out to be only moderately awful should be considered on the same level as something like NCFOM.
Fey's Palin is certainly better than the real thing, and these skits above and beyond the usual toothless SNL fare -- perhaps because they're going for the kill now, rather than setting up a recurring character for (God help us) the next four years. Yet this version of Sarah P. is more likable somehow. Fey is really good at showing the subtext behind the gobbledygook, bubbling it up through Palin's stream-of-consciousness.
Of the three Palin parodies, if this proves to be the last of them, I think the Fey-Poehler Katie Couric interview was the funniest and most revealing. The "talent competition" sight gag for this one did bring down the house, though.
Rich Lowry's house has to be full of adult films where the plots are all the same: Some hot librarian takes off her glasses and lets down her hair.
Republicans invoke Ronald Reagan's name the same way exorcists use Jesus's.
I would have liked them to go after the "I may not answer the questions the way you or the moderator wants me to" quote but I guess that one pretty much speaks for itself.
Did she really want to call him Joe just so she could later trot out "Say it ain't it so joe?" That is just too depressing to contemplate.
P.S If you like Fred Armisen's Barney Frank impersonation check out Alec Baldwin's. It's eerily accurate.
I think they could have made fun of the gay marriage question, considering how much of a non-issue it is in this election. Ifill was a pretty mediocre moderator (moderatress?), and I thought they went easy on her.
But I thought the best part of this was the Biden stuff. Of course, you can't expect them to actually take stabs at a democrat's intelligence or stance--when one considers both the writing team and the target demo--but I thought they did a good job of poking fun at Biden's "walking on eggshells" approach to this debate and his almost unbearable over-friendliness.
I didn't make it through the obviously obligatory finanical bailout sketch in the first half hour of the show, even though Fred Armisten's Barney Frank was a hoot.
Well, that's what you have right-thinking conservative friends for Jim! ;-) Here you go:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/05/video-snl-on-the-debate-and-the-bailout/
And just FYI: Not all, but many of the Hot Air conservatives' (pun semi-intended) wrote to say they enjoyed both SNL bits.
qdpsteve: I turned it off because I thought the caricature of Bush was all over the place. They couldn't figure out a take on him in the sketch -- one minute he's arrogant, next he's mousy; one minute he's clueless, next he's remembering a talking point from six years ago (plus JS's impression is pretty poor). This the old-style SNL political comedy -- just searching for a laugh, whether there's a real-world observation behind it or not.
But, thanks -- it turned into a completely different sketch in the middle, and a funny one. The Acquisitive Yuppies and The People Who Should Be Shot were hilarious (and, if I may use the phrase, dead-on). Even though the sketch missed the main target (the deregulated lending companies themselves), the Fear of Soros was pretty funny, too. The interesting thing about that was that it cut both ways -- as a parody of a rich leftie with political sway, and as a parody of right-wing paranoia about a rich leftie with political sway (and a European accent -- yikes!).
I agree about the bailout sketch, and that Armisen's Barney Frank is hysterical. I think the observations--Pelosi's partisan speech and the home-owners living above their means--were lame. Pelosi's speech wasn't that partisan, and even if it was the most Bush-bashingest speech of all-time, that's no reason to sacrifice voting for the bailout, as several Republicans suggested after the first go-round (not that the bailout is, er, was even the best option). Secondly, there's plenty of blame for the subprime mortgage crisis, and it's irresponsible to suggest it's entirely due to those caricatures of the home-owners.
I don't think SNL was making political points though. I think they were just trying to get mindless laughs.
Jim, just wanted to say thanks for your responses (here and in other threads) of late.
Not sure if you're a cards/poker fan but maybe the below video will help explain the Palin phenomenon... you know those Alaskans are pretty crafty.
Plus, there's rumors that if the unthinkable occurs and Sarah becomes President, this Ricky Jay guy is on the short list for her own VP. ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW9H4izfxqQ
Fey-as-Palin makes me feel like the top of my head has come off and my brain is floating among the stars.
Not since Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers, accept no substitutes!) has a comic character made me feel this alive.
If she promised to do one of these skits every week, a McCain presidency might not be all that bad. I mean, I'd still flee the country, but I wouldn't feel the need to ignore all American-related news and boycott all American products. And I'd definitely watch SNL religiously.
Jim, the barometer is resounding.
(resoundingbarometer.com. Buy up that domain now.)