Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live

For some weeks, Tina Fey has been mercilessly mocking Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during skits on Saturday Night Live as perky but dimwitted. Most recently, it was the actual Sarah Palin's turn to get a little revenge.

The show started as Tina Fey, as Sarah Palin, held a mock news conference during her now familiar riff. In the middle of the skit, the scene switched to the actual Sarah Palin watching the performance on a TV monitor along with Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels.

"Yeah, Lorne, you know, I just didn't think it was a realistic depiction of the way my press conferences would have gone," she said.

"It's obviously a 'heightened' reality," replied Lorne Michaels.

"Why couldn't we have done the '30 Rock' sketch that I wrote?" Sarah Palin asked. Tina Fey appears on the comedy series that is critically acclaimed but suffering in the ratings.

"Honestly, not enough people know that show," Lorne Michaels replied.

At that point Alex Baldwin, a well known Hollywood lefty, appeared, greeting the two as "Michael" and "Tina." Then Baldwin exclaimed, "You can't let Tina go out there with that woman. She goes against everything we stand for. . . . This is the most important election in our nation's history and you want our Tina to go out there and stand there with that horrible woman?"

At that point, Lorne Michaels introduced Sarah Palin to Alex Baldwin.

Baldwin, without missing much of a beat, recovered and said, "Forgive me, I feel I must say this: You are way hotter in person."

Equally gracious, Sarah Palin, having refered to hself as the "caribou barbie", replied that Stephen Baldwin, a born again Christian and rare Hollywood conservative, was her favorite Baldwin brother.

Then Sarah Palin went out on stage, causing Tina Fey to flee. Assuming the podium at the fake news conference, Sarah Palin was able to say the famous words, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Later Sarah Palin appeared on the Weekend Update segment.

On her appearance on Saturday Night Live, Sarah Palin joined a long line of politicians who appeared on TV comedy to make light of themselves and to show people they have a humorous side. Sarah Palin did well, in a kind of dead pan way that is usually considered best for people who are not professional comedians. Thus she did herself some credit, showing that she wasn't, after all, the caricature depicted by Tina Fey, but also showing that she was a good sport for appearing on the show that had been mocking her for weeks.

One of the first politicians to appear on a prime time sketch comedy was then former Vice President Richard Nixon, a man not known for his sense of humor, who has one line in 1967 on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. "Sock it to me?"

Saturday Night Live has had a host of politicians as guest hosts, ranging from Jesse Jackson in the mid 1980s to Hillary Clinton, just this year, who appeared alongside her comedic doppelganger Amy Poehler. Other politician guest hosts on Saturday Night Live include Ralph Nader and George McGovern.

Politicians also are required, these days, to show up on other late night comedies. Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, played the saxophone on the old Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 campaign. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his run for Governor of California on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose shows parody politics, regularly have political guests. Even John McCain is a regular on late night TV, most recently entering the lions' den of the David Letterman Show.

Why do politicians subject themselves to this sort of treatment, at the risk to their dignity? It now seems to be a requirement for people seeking public office, along with having an agreeable agenda, something approaching good character, and not having too many skeletons in their closets, to also be able to laugh at themselves. That way we are assured that people running for, say, President are not too full of themselves

Even Barack Obama, a man not known for humility, managed to be just a little self deprecating during a dinner in honor of the 1920s era statesman, Al Smith. He denied having been born in a manger. No, he was really born on the planet Krypton and was sent here by his father to save the Earth.

And that is a relief.

Sources: Live from New York, it's Sarah Palin on 'Saturday Night Live', Matea Gold, LA Times, October 19th, 2008

Is G. Gordon Liddy McCain's William Ayers?, Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, October 17th, 2008

Sarah Palin's Guest Appearance on Saturday Night Live, Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters, October 19th, 2008