Tuesday, September 16, 2008

SNL hits it out of the park


As many had hoped (and even expected), Tina Fey did a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, her former haunt. (I would have blogged this earlier, but I have been on the Mainland visiting family until just a couple hours ago, and the NBC.com site was the first chance I had to see the skit.)

Fey and former "Weekend Update" co-anchor (as if it's a real news show) Amy Poehler played Alaska Governor and Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin and former Democratic presidential candidate and still New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

It was brilliant. Tina Fey had the mannerisms down, and the writers did a great job of skewering both the cluelessly ambitious Palin and the ruthlessly ambitious Clinton.

By the way, this is my first attempt at embedding video in a post. Let me know if it isn't working.

This post's Korea-relatedness rating: 0/100 (since Gov Palin can't see Korea from her kitchen).

UPDATE (September 22, 2008):
Apparently Governor Palin liked the skit, calling it "hilarious" and "spot on." Back before she was considerably less famous than the "SNL" and "30 Rock" writer-actor-comedian (and arguably, Gov Palin's now more famous than Ms Fey), the self-described hockey mom "once dressed up as Tina Fey for Halloween."

I'm not so sure the love is mutual. After the Emmys, where ratings-beleaguered "30 Rock" got some well-deserved recognition, Fey said, "I want to be done playing this lady November 5. So, if anyone can help me be done playing this lady, that would be good for me."

In fact, if the McCain-Palin ticket were to prevail in November, it's not so certain that Tina Fey will be the one pulling Palin duty. 

By the way, I cannot emphasize too much how brilliant I think Tina Fey is. She's funny and a thoughtful social critic. Her funny film Mean Girls (she wrote the screenplay) is a must-see for people who want to understand the social dynamics of popularity in high school today and the havoc it wreaks on kids in their formative years (I had a stint as a high school educator, so sue me). And "30 Rock" is just plain laugh-out-loud hilarious, thanks largely to the self-deprecating Liz Lemon role played by Fey.

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