Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin was the best part of the 2008 season of Saturday Night Live. While she had already departed from the comedy sketch show two years beforehand, she couldn’t resist returning due to her uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin, as well as her spot-on impression. Well, fans of those sketches (AKA everyone) got a special treat last night as Fey returned to SNL to spoof Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States. Check out the sketch below.
Once again, Tina Fey’s illusion as Sarah Palin is almost identical to the former Governor of Alaska. I can only imagine that the costume department at Saturday Night Live got to work immediately after Palin’s endorsement to put together that heinous chainmail-esque cardigan that she wore in her bizarre endorsement. Seriously, where does one even buy that sweater?
This sketch was super successful for a couple of reasons. Of course, the most important is Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin is basically a legendary SNL moment at this point. So few celebrity impressions on the show have ever been quite as spot-on, so much so that comedy fans are starting to be happy anytime Sarah Palin makes a big public appearance. While SNL fans might not want to watch Palin on TV, they sure do want to see Tina take her on.
The use of asides in this sketch was a new one for the SNL Sarah Palin world. Normally, we just focus on Tina Fey’s antics as the bizarre Wasilla resident, but this new device set the sketch apart. After each of Fey’s crazy monologues, the character of Donald Trump (another amazing impression) would comment about how crazypants Sarah Palin’s character was. This was used a few times and when it was on the verge of becoming stale, Palin utilized the aside herself commenting she should be in the president’s cabinet because “I’m full of spice and gave a great rack!”
Tina Fey did a really remarkable job at capturing the almost manic high energy that Sarah Palin had when she was endorsing Donald Trump. In fact, some of Fey’s lines were once again exactly what Sarah Palin had said during her speech. Of course, they used her somewhat rhyming speech and took it a step further, bringing pop culture jokes and even a Three Men and A Baby reference. You can watch the original Sarah Palin endorsement below, courtesy of CBSN.
Bravo, Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey. This impression was once again a highlight of the episode.
