A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton

A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton is a "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL") sketch featuring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler which aired during the thirty-fourth season premiere of "SNL" on September 13, 2008.cite press release |title=Tina Fey Guest Stars On "Saturday Night Live" Season Premiere As Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin |url=http://nbcumv.com/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20080914000000-tinafeygueststars.html |publisher=NBC Universal Media Village |date=2008-09-14 |accessdate=2008-09-16] 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.cite web |url=http://tv.yahoo.com/tina-fey/contributor/37979/bio;_ylt=Ahu62xQFPQ.oPVGGyK3v6w1az9EF |title=Tina Fey: Biography |accessdate=2008-09-16 |publisher=Yahoo] The sketch was written by Poehler, Fey, and head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers. [ [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/08/08apalin.phtml SNL Transcripts] ]

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 currently is the Republican Party vice-presidential nominee and Senator Clinton recently lost the Democratic Party presidential nomination. The sketch received good reviews from various critics, with many reviewers commenting on Fey's impression of Palin, with Palin herself commenting that "the visual was spot on" after watching it without sound,cite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080918/en_nm/palin_dc |title=Palin: Tina Fey's impersonation was "spot on" |accessdate=2008-09-21 |publisher=Yahoo |date=2008-09-18 |first=Paul |last=J. Gough] while Carly Fiorina, a spokeswoman for John McCain, dismissed the sketch as sexist. Senator Clinton has yet to comment on the skit.

Pre-broadcast

It was announced by the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign on August 29, 2008 that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, would be McCain's Vice Presidential nominee. [cite news |first=Daniel |last=Nasaw |title=US election: John McCain chooses Alaska governor Sarah Palin as running mate |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/29/uselections2008.johnmccain1 |publisher="Guardian" |date=2008-08-29 |accessdate=2008-09-16] Immediately following the announcement, people began to see a physical comparison between Fey and Palin. [cite web |url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/09/01/palin-comparison-gop-vp-choice-looks-like-a-bunch-of-tv-charac/ |title=Palin comparison ... GOP VP choice looks like a bunch of TV characters |accessdate=2008-09-16 |publisher=TV Squad |date=2008-09-01 |first=Allison |last=Waldman] cite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080913/ap_on_en_tv/tv_snl_s_palin |title=Tina Fey "likely" to play Sarah Palin on "SNL" |accessdate=2008-09-16 |publisher=Yahoo |date=2008-09-13]

Viewers began to speculate who would play Palin on "SNL" during the run up to the 2008 United States presidential election. Days before the broadcast of the sketch, Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "SNL", said regarding Fey possibly playing Palin that "there are [ongoing] discussions". [cite web |url=http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/tina-fey-might.html |title=Tina Fey Might Play Sarah Palin |accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Cordova |first=Gonzalo |date=2008-09-12 |publisher=Comedy Central] It was officially announced, on September 13, 2008, that Fey would be appearing in the thirty-fourth season premiere. [cite news |first=Richard |last=Huff |title="Saturday Night Live" recalls Tina Fey to play Sarah Palin |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/13/2008-09-13_saturday_night_live_recalls_tina_fey_to_.html |work=The New York Daily News |date=2008-09-13 |accessdate=2008-09-16]

Amy Poehler had played Hillary Clinton throughout the previous season because Clinton had been attempting to become the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. [cite web |url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/03/03/its-hillary-live-from-new-york-on-snl/ |title=It's Hillary, Live from New York, on "SNL" |accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Waldman |first=Allison |date=2008-03-03 |publisher=TV Squad] Clinton ended her campaign on June 7, 2008, conceding to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Clinton then endorsed Obama for president. If Clinton had become president, she would have been the first female president of the United States. [cite news |title=Clinton ends historic bid, endorses Obama |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24993082/ |publisher=MSNBC |date=2008-06-07 |accessdate=2008-09-16] If John McCain were to become president, but had to leave office, Palin would become the first female president. [cite news |first=William |last=Kristol |title=A Heartbeat Away |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/opinion/08kristol.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin |work= The New York Times |date=2008-09-07 |accessdate=2008-09-16] Part of the sketch pokes fun at Clinton's possible reaction to this.

ketch

The sketch starts out with an announcer noting "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton", which then cuts to Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton standing in front of a podium. Through the course of the message, Palin tries to present herself as the candidate for the job, and Clinton getting progressively disgusted at Palin's sudden rise to fame as John McCain's running mate despite her background. The sketch ends with the tagline "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!" yelled by both actors.

Reaction

Critical reception

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. [Their] 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!" [cite web |url=http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TV-Show-Blog/Saturday-Night-Live/Saturday-Night-Live/800046648 |title=Episode Rec
accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Fox |first=Erin |date=2008-09-14 |publisher=TV Guide"] 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." [cite web |url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/09/14/saturday-night-live-michael-phelps-lil-wayne-season-premiere/ |title="Saturday Night Live": Michael Phelps/Lil Wayne (season premiere) - Videos |accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Wu |first=Annie |date=2008-09-14 |publisher=TV Squad] 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". [cite web |url=http://www.time-blog.com/tuned_in/2008/09/tina_fey_arrives_on_her_dog_sl.html |title=Fey's Palin? Not Failin' |accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Poniewozik |first=James |date=2008-09-14 |publisher="Time"] The Huffington Post's reviewer wrote that "Fey bears a striking resemblance to Palin and nailed the candidate's distinctive accent." [cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/13/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-o_n_126249.html |title=Tina Fey As Sarah Palin On "SNL" (Video) |accessdate=2008-09-16 |date=2008-09-13 |publisher=The Huffington Post]

Response

When asked how she felt about Fey's portrayal, Sarah Palin 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." 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".cite news |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/carly-fiorina-criticizes_n_126533.html |title=Carly Fiorina Criticizes Tina Fey As "Disrespectful...Sexist" |accessdate=2008-09-16 |date=2008-09-15 |publisher=The Huffington Post] According to another of Palin's spokespeople, Palin herself "found the sketch amusing". 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." [cite news |title=McCain camp calls Fey's Palin portrayal "sexist" |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26743182/ |publisher=MSNBC |date=2008-09-16 |accessdate=2008-09-16] Palin admitted that she had once dressed up as Fey for Halloween. [cite news |title=Sarah Palin reacts to Tina Fey Impersonation |url=http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/09/65530/index.html |publisher=Entertainment Tonight |date=2008-09-15 |accessdate=2008-09-16]

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." [cite news |first=Foon |last=Rhee |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Palin jokes about Tina Fey |url=http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/palin_jokes_abo.html |work= |publisher="The Boston Globe" |date=2008-10-06 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ] It has been suggested that Palin should appear on "SNL" to spoof a series of American Express commercials which featured Tina Fey. [cite news |first=Chris |last=Rovzar |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Sarah Palin Wants to Spoof Tina Fey on "SNL" |url=http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/sarah_palin_wants_to_spoof_tin.html?mid=daily-intel--20081006 |work= |publisher="New York Magazine" |date=2008-10-06 |accessdate=2008-10-09 ]

Further Palin sketches

Due to the popularity of the sketch and Fey's impression of Palin, Fey reprised her Sarah Palin role during the September 27, 2008 of "Saturday Night Live". That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric who was played by Amy Poehler; that sketch parodied an interview which took place between Palin and Couric which aired days before the sketch's broadcast. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Tina Fey As Sarah Palin: Katie Couric SNL Skit (VIDEO) |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-k_n_129956.html |work= |publisher=The Huffington Post |date=2008-09-27 |accessdate=2008-09-29 ] 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 Gwen Ifill. [cite press release |title="Saturday Night Live" Welcomes Back Tina Fey And Queen Latifah For Their Take On The Vice Presidential Debate |publisher=NBC Universal Media Village |date=2008-10-05 |url=http://nbcumv.com/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20081005000000-034saturdaynight.html |format= |language= |accessdate=2008-10-07 |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote="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 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/ Palin and Hillary Open] at NBC.com
* [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/ Couric and Palin Open] at NBC.com
* [http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-biden/727421/ Biden and Palin Open] at NBC.com
* [http://nbcumv.com/entertainment/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20080914000000-tinafeygueststars.html Tina Fey Guest Stars On "Saturday Night Live" Season Premiere As Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin] (September 13, 2008 sketch transcript)
* [http://nbcumv.com/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20080928000000-presidentialparody.html Presidential Parady Dominates "Saturday Night Live"] (September 27, 2008 sketch transcript)