September 15, 2008

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.

Did you think she was good? Was she better or worse than the writing? I thought it was okay.

28 comments:

vbspurs said...

When I was watching, I thought it was okay. After the 3rd or 4th viewing, I realise it's probably only going to get better -- and it's pretty darn good already.

The timing from Poehler, more than the eerie physical resemblence of Fey to Palin, is what made this skit work (transcript here).

FEY: You know, Hillary and I don't agree on every... POEHLER: ANYthing.

I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy. FEY: And I can see Russia from my house.


LOL!

Cheers,
Victoria

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Poehler put a little twist on it by being BIG pregnant playing the less fecund Clinton.

al said...

On Sunday, a campaign adviser confirmed that Ms. Palin had, indeed, watched the “Saturday Night Live” skit from her screen at the front of the plane. “She thought it was quite funny,” the adviser said in an email response to inquiries, “especially because the governor has dressed up as Tina Fey for Halloween.”

From the NY Times

Bob said...

When Poehler made the crack about cankles I LOL'd for real.

Kev said...

(the other kev)

I think Fey tried to force the accent a little too much and it made her look uncomfortable, but Poehler did a fantastic job of playing Hillary's seething-just-beneath-the-surface resentment.

knox said...

I thought Fey did very well, though they look SO much alike she could forego the accent and it'd still work. Victoria's right, though, Amy Poehler's Hillary really makes it funny.

Ron said...

Hillary came on stage on SNL when Poehler was doing her Hillary routine and it was pretty funny, especially since they were wearing the same outfit. Why not have Palin come on with Fey? Better still, have Palin on the Weekend Update anchor desk! Say, reading the Wasilla news!

This would take more imagination than the SNL writers have these days (generally) I'm afraid!

BJK said...

Why not have Palin come on with Fey?

Because you have to establish the joke before you can riff off of it like that. Poehler had been doing her Hillary impersonation for months before going on-stage with Sen. Clinton. Ditto for Will Ferrell and Janet Reno during the 1990s.

That said, I'm honestly surprised that Tina Fey agreed to come back to SNL. She has her own TV show to be concerned about, and SNL is going to need her for some prime-time sketchwork in addition to the regular weekly show. (As I'm typing this, the irony about making these comments with regards to the woman playing the Vice Presidential candidate is not lost on me. Am I just sexist...or should I be asking the same questions about the Joe Biden stand-in?)

Original Mike said...

Pretty good, but Fey's accent was horrible. Who knew Palin was from Minesoota?

Unknown said...

Palin's accent reminds me of a more subtle Minnesota twang. In caricature that's not too far off, IMO.

I thought the skit was OK. I mean, it really was a one-trick-pony as far as Palin was concerned: she's dumb! What I think would be great as well would be to play up her frontiersman angle---say, mount the heads of Democrat opponents on her wall. But that won't work in a press conference skit I suppose.

But it did have some great lines. "I can see Russia from my house," "cankles", etc.

Peter Hoh said...

Fey had better drop the accent. It gets in the way of the humor.

Poehler has proved that one can pull off an impression without even trying to mimic the accent.

Hammond's impressions are amazing. He gets the trifecta -- the visual, the mannerisms, and the voice.

I gave up after the first bad skit of the night. For all the talent on stage, the show needs better writers.

Richard Dolan said...

The acting was much better than the writing. What makes Poelher's Hillary! work is that the caricature captures enough of Hillary to make the exaggeration funny. That wasn't true of Fey's Palin, which relied on a caricature of Sarah as beauty queen airhead.

It seems that Palin has the SNL writers flummoxed too. They don't know what to make of her, and so they portray her as what they think all Rep women are, only this time with a funny accent. As a result, the humor was all in Fey's acting and presentation. The writing won't achieve the same level until it integrates the Barracuda aspect of her personality -- Sarah as a focused, driven and very pragmatic politician who knows how to win (and keep an 80%+ approval rating after winning).

Unknown said...

After all the media attacks, I couldn't stick with the skit. It was just more of the same, without any zinger lines. How about something original? Tina Fey is good and Poehler as well.

Unknown said...

After all the media attacks, I couldn't stick with the skit. It was just more of the same, without any zinger lines. How about something original? Tina Fey is good and Poehler as well.

Chip Ahoy said...

I love every second of it.

I am stunned with Fey's grasp of Palin's accent. I honestly couldn't do better myself, and that is the gauge I use.

Note to self: study Palin's accent to hone comedic skillz.

The writing is top drawer. For both impersonators to appear in the same skit, playing off each other, masterstroke.

Fey pantomiming cocking a rifle, then silently flirting while Poehler speaks puts me in stitches every time.

I'm pretending I'm in New York surrounded by so-called sophisticates. I'm totally in the tank for Obama and consider all that is outside of New York to be depressingly provincial. I appreciate the skit gleefully skips Palin's experience as governor of an important state -- the script has her going straight from mayor of crystal meth capital of the world to the White House. As a temporarily pretend New Yorker I appreciate that.

I loved the whole thing straight off, and appreciate every single touch of comedy genius all the way through 100%. It's an instant classic. I recommend multiple viewings for glee.

Will Cate said...

Thought Fey's performance was a bit timid, until she started vogue-ing wordlessly... that was funny. But yeah, she sure does look like Palin.

I'm a total Amy Poehler fanatic, so I can't even be objective there. She is always brilliant.

Roberto said...

"Sarah as a focused, driven and very pragmatic politician who knows how to win..."

Yeah, that sounds MUCH funnier.

Wince said...

What's interesting about Poehler's impression of Hillary is that it's abstract, not literal.

More often than not, Poehler's impression is intended to give voice to Hillary's inner thoughts, rather than simply replicate her public personae.

Peter Hoh said...

EDH: great point!

Godot said...

What's interesting about Poehler's impression of Hillary is that it's abstract, not literal.

More often than not, Poehler's impression is intended to give voice to Hillary's inner thoughts, rather than simply replicate her public personae.


Interesting observation. Your premise might be reversed and still hold true, i.e.:

Poehler's impression of Hillary is literal not abstract in that her impression gives voice to Hillary's literal inner thoughts, rather than her abstract public personae.

Tina Fey's Palin? It was fine if you only see her as unwitting, unaware and clueless. I blame the writing. Those DNC talking points are comedy gold, eh? Palin's dress seemed wrong as well. Somewhat Mandarin. Odd.

My favorite line in the skit was didn't get a laugh. Perhaps it's too sadly true to be funny. Why did the writers think otherwise?

Hillary: I didn't want a woman to be president. I wanted to be President. And I just happen to be a woman.

Christy said...

I enjoyed the skit. They could have gone after Palin in a much nastier way, but kept it fairly light and funny. Poehler was fabulous.

Anyone else remember the episode of 30 Rock when Fey's character confessed "I tell everyone I'm voting for Obama, but I'll probably vote for McCain" to the guy she wanted to date?

Joe said...

Are people actually suggesting that SLN elicited laughter? My God, that's news.

vbspurs said...

Glen wrote:

Tina Fey's Palin? It was fine if you only see her as unwitting, unaware and clueless. I blame the writing. Those DNC talking points are comedy gold, eh? Palin's dress seemed wrong as well. Somewhat Mandarin. Odd.

Good one. Mandarin is the perfect evocation of an inscrutable, tightly-buttoned up person.

IMO, the perfectionist Fey was going for a melding of these two recent looks:

Palin that very Saturday, in red

Palin in Fairfax, Va wearing black

As I said, her characteristation of Palin was flawed, because she's using the "small town bimbo" meme, but you can see glimmers of what it will become if she explores it better.

Cheers,
Victoria

vbspurs said...

BTW, are McCain and Palin having fun stumping with each other, or what?

Their body language is phenomenal.

vbspurs said...

Sarah as a focused, driven and very pragmatic politician who knows how to win

That's why Lisa Nova's first impersonation was so awesome. She captured that (probably by mistake).

Ralph L said...

It was the only funny part of the show--the rest was wretched. I only got thru W Update.

Kansas City said...

I thought the acting was fine, but the writing was weaker than I expected for the season premier in such a news rich time. It seems like there was so much potential to do more, such as bringing in actors as Obama and McCain and behind the scenes comedy could have been much funnier.

What happened to Obama's expected appearance?

Anonymous said...

Richard Dolan nailed it. The Hillary characterization was great (and we all laughed at the "I didn't want a woman to be President, I wanted to be President" line), and Tina nailed Sarah's voice.

But the writing for Sarah sucked. That's the problem with having all your writers be lefties in the tank for Obama, you can't write Sarah Palin honestly, because that would violate lefty dogma.