She was plucked from obscurity to become the most watched woman in the US, but now vice presidential pick Sarah Palin’s very image is at risk of being hijacked by a hugely successful impersonator.
In recent weeks, millions of television viewers in the US and Internet users around the globe have been treated to hilarious, spot-on portrayals of the Republican politician by comedian Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live (SNL), a weekly comedy stalwart for NBC for more than 30 years.
“Can I call you Joe? ’Cause I practiced a couple of zingers where I call you Joe!” Fey’s grinning “Palin” character asked “Joseph Biden,” her Democratic rival, a week ago on the show’s parody of the vice presidential debate.
PHOTO: AP
Fey was only slightly expanding comments overheard at the start of the Oct. 2 showdown.
Fey’s caricature catches the ultra-conservative politician — unknown to the vast majority of US citizens just six weeks ago — in full and unvarnished blush.
The folksy midwestern accent, Palin’s winks to the camera during the debate, the swept-up hairstyle, those rimless glasses, and the blunders on foreign affairs topics are not Fey inventions, but generally accurate plays on Palin’s public persona.
And their looks are so similar it is striking.
Palin seems to have been well aware of their uncanny resemblance long before Fey and the rest of SNL’s cast even knew who she was. Last month Palin conceded to Fox News that she had once dressed up as Fey for Halloween.
Style columnist Tom Shales of the Washington Post wrote that Fey’s challenge “will be to out-Palin Palin, to make the parody more outrageous than the original.”
“I think that Sarah Palin’s own identity has not been established, and that allowed the Tina Fey identity to be the gold standard, to Sarah Palin’s detriment,” Alan Schroeder, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University said in amNewYork weekly.
“It’s a tremendous help for the Democrats,” said John Leo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a pop-culture expert.
CNN reported that a skit lampooning Palin’s stumbling interview last month with CBS News anchor Katie Couric was actually viewed by more people than the real interview.
Faced with the remarkable success of the caricature, the real candidate has been forced to respond.
“I love her. She’s a hoot and she’s so talented and it would be fun to either imitate her or keep on giving her more material and keep her in business,” Fox News quoted Palin as saying recently.
In what would clearly be an episode of must-see TV, Palin is committed to appear on SNL later this month, according to the New York Post.
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