Tina Fey Reflects on Her Sarah Palin 'SNL' Sketches: 'A Fair Hit'

Setting aside the fact that John McCain’s VP pick locked America onto its current dark and stupid path — big lift, I know — SNL couldn’t ask for a better gift than Sarah Palin. Thanks to her wildly random accent that made her sound like the mom on Bobby’s World coupled with an evangelical allergy to reading, Caribou Barbie was a comedy gift straight out of the box. No assembly required.

In an uncanny bit of luck for SNL, Sarah Palin also happened to bear a striking resemblance to Tina Fey. Although, in hindsight, maybe it was the just the glasses. Regardless, SNL made hay while the sun was shining. Fey, Amy Poehler, and Seth Meyers spent six weeks in 2008 nailin’ Palin so hard that they may have helped throw the election to Obama.

Here’s what Fey said about the whirlwind experience while attending the HistoryTalks event in Philadelphia over the weekend. Via Variety:

Many media analysts at the time suggested the sketch impacted McCain and Palin’s poll numbers. Variety reported on the “SNL Effect” in March 2008, highlighting how the show helped fuel a narrative that the press was too tough on Hillary Clinton and too soft on Barack Obama, which some argued led to tougher media coverage of Obama.

“It is fascinating to know that what you say will be taken seriously,” Fey said, recounting the six-week cycle she spent writing Palin sketches with Poehler and Meyers. “We always worked really hard to make sure they were what we call a ‘fair hit.’ It only felt like it would work if it was based in something that was true. Sometimes people will ask me, ‘Does SNL try to control the narrative of politics?’ And they really do not. You really can’t because if it’s not true, it will not be funny.”

Of course, this was a quainter time before Obama’s election broke the country’s brain, and voters reacted by electing an equally brain-broken demagogue not once, but twice, albeit with a break in-between because he almost killed everyone mismanaging a pandemic. But the Palin experience was still surreal.

“The show’s relationship to current events became a thinner and thinner veil,” Fey said. “They said something, we said something back. They’d come over and go, ‘We want to be on [the show] too.’ It’s thrilling, and almost a scary thing, that something you say will be heard by the person in charge.”

Sure enough, Palin appeared on SNL in October 2008, and someone was clearly getting a taste for the cameras. Following the election loss, she ran straight towards an inevitable reality TV career with Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which infamously included a crossover episode with Kate Gosselin. You’ll be shocked to learn it was not renewed for a second season. Sarah also wasted no time cashing in on Bristol’s name recognition thanks to getting teen pregnant right as her mom was elevated to the national stage. The most fertile Palin was trotted out on Dancing with the Stars, and then we all rightly lost track of this family. It was for the best.