SARAH PALIN SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE OPEN
Sarah Palin made her big appearance last night on Saturday Night Live on not one, but two skit appearances. Some critics and bloggers gave Sarah Palin's performance mixed reviews. The Washington Post called Palin a "bystander" while the Baltimore Sun praised Tina Fey as "brilliant" while commenting that Sarah Palin did little more than show up. Watch both skits featuring cameos from Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg and Lorne Michaels. The first Sarah Palin open is pretty awkward with Tina Fey doing her pitch perfect impersonation of Sarah Palin at a mock press conference. Sarah Palin appears backstage with SNL creator Lorne Michaels who praises Palin while saying that he didn't greenlight the original 30 Rock sketch starring Palin because "not enough people know about that show". 30 Rock cast member Alec Baldwin then appears and mistakes "the real Sarah Palin" for Tina Fey. Palin then delivers a line that she always thought Stephen Baldwin was her favorite the best looking Baldwin brother. The Weekend Update Alaska rap sketch was funnier because it relied on a very pregnant rap performance by Amy Poehler who shoots a moose who looks like Bullwinkle at the end of the skit. UPDATE
Poehler Palin sang "All the mavericks in da house, put your hands up!'' -- and Palin and "Update'' partner Seth Meyers complied, grooving in unison.
Backed by two ''Eskimos'' and a faux First Dude, Pohler/Palin gave the obligatory call-and-response -- "When you say Obama/I say Ayers'' (the real Palin said ''Ayers'' grinningly with the crowd) -- it was time for the moose to appear. Briefly.
Shambling onto the stage, this Bullwinkle lookalike, a representation of Palin's ''support'' for animals, had a moment in the forefront before Pohler thrust her finger in its direction and stage gunshots broke out. The ''moose'' dropped to the ground, and Pohler, moving next to the real Palin, tossed in a few more stage shots for good measure. source
Sarah Palin's contribution to the skit is limited to saying some words, doing hand thrust in the air and to dancing in her seat.
SARAH PALIN ALASKA GANGSTA RAP WITH AMY POEHLER
One of the most anticipated TV and pop culture appearances of the year took place on NBC Saturday when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin visited Saturday Night Live. And producer Lorne Michaels wasted not a second in giving viewers what they tuned in for with an opening sketch featuring Tina Fey as Palin -- and Palin as herself. The premise: Fey plays Palin holding the kind of press conference the real Palin has never held. As usual, the writing was politically savvy, and Fey was brilliant.
And then, Palin appeared on "Weekend Update," moving in her seat to the beat of a hardcore rap number delivered by Amy Poehler. The premise here was that Palin was supposed to do the number by way of describing herself in rap terms, but at the last second, decides against it for political reasons. And so, Poehler steps in. The lyrics are a scream, and Poehler is terrific.
Bottom line on Palin: she did little more than show up, appearing in just those two sketches and then onstage at the end of the program.
But she did show up and she did let the cast poke some fun at her -- though the cutting edge writers and performers mostly stayed away from the controversial, Joe-McCarthy-like innuendo she has delivered on the campaign trail in trying to link Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to "terrorists." There was only one clear reference to that darker aspect of the Palin persona -- a fact that will surely lead some analysts to wonder whether there weren't boundaries set as a condition of her appearing on the show.
But whatever you think of Palin, the star-studded opening sketch with Fey was a winner -- and Palin came off OK in it.
Fey (as Palin) to the reporters: "First off, I just want to say how excited I am to be in front of both the liberal elite media and the liberal regular media." source
The Guardian UK went as far as to call the whole thing "cringe worthy".
By UK political standards it was cringeworthy, and even some US bloggers found the whole experience bizarre.
Fey and Palin appeared together only fleetingly, to the disappointment of the Washington Post's campaign diary, The Trail, which complained that she appeared as a "bystander" rather than a participant.
Palin was kept away from Fey, for all but a moment, and the producers also ensured she never met the show's guest host, Josh Brolin, the star of Oliver Stone's new movie about President Bush, W, according to the Trail.
Later in the show, Palin was seen dancing in her seat and waving her hands in the air to a rap song by Amy Poehler. The lyrics satirised both her and her home state of Alaska and featured a man in a moose suit and prancing Eskimos. source
Read an excerpt forom the Washington Post's Trail.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gave up positioning herself as the Washington outsider for one evening, becoming the latest in a steady stream of politicians to step briefly into and out of "Saturday Night Live."
But Palin had two shots on-screen and took both as a bystander, not committing to either sketch.
The potentially provocative pairing of Palin and the show's guest host, Josh Brolin, star of Oliver Stone's new movie about President Bush, never happened. The producers kept Brolin well away from Palin all night.
They also kept her away for all but a moment from Tina Fey, the former "SNL" writer whose drop-dead Palin parody has helped shape the national debate about the little-known vice presidential candidate. (Fey's "I can see Russia from my house" gag skewered what critics say is the candidate's lack of foreign policy knowledge, while her flute-playing "talent portion" of the vice presidential debate has become an unshakable image of John McCain's running mate.)
Instead, in the opening sketch, Palin stood backstage with the show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, watching Fey/Palin onstage at a faux news conference, telling a gaggle of faux reporters how happy she was to be in front of "the liberal elite media and the liberal regular media."
"Lauren," -- she called Michaels "Lauren," demonstrating she doesn't really know who he is, which is a good thing if you do not want to appear to be too cozy with the liberal media elite -- "I just don't think that was a realistic depiction of the way my press conference would have gone," Real Palin told Michaels, wondering why they couldn't have instead gone with the "30 Rock" sketch she wrote. Fey created, writes and stars in that low-rated NBC prime-time comedy series, which is exec-produced by Michaels.
"Not enough people know that show," Michaels deadpanned.
The fearless Alec Baldwin, Fey's "30 Rock" co-star, then walked up to Michaels and pretended to mistake Real Palin for Fey, telling Michaels in Palin's presence, "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. You want her to go out and stand there with that horrible woman?" Later, during "SNL's" franchise "Weekend Update" faux-news segment, Palin was seated behind the anchor desk with Amy Poehler and Seth Myers, but said she'd decided not to do the piece they'd rehearsed because "my gut is telling me it might be a bad idea for the campaign." So instead the very pregnant Poehler energetically played the part of Rapping Palin. Palin was seen chair-dancing to the music, while "SNL"-ers playing Eskimos and Palin's husband, Todd, danced behind the desk. A moose came out to dance too, and was shot.
Wrapping up the bit, Palin signed off, "I'm Sarah Palin, good night and have a pleasant tomorrow." source
The new Sarah Palin For President in 2012 website is now online, with related news, headlines & links at http://www.palin4pres2012.com/
Posted by: Ron | October 19, 2008 at 03:18 PM