Entertainment

'SNL' Brings Tina Fey Back As Sarah Palin

by Marisa LaScala

When Saturday Night Live began the Ronda Rousey-hosted episode on Jan. 23, it was a pretty good bet that they'd start with a political cold open. That's basically what they do every week. And, in an election year, there's plenty to write sketches about. What wasn't totally unexpected, though, was how the cold open didn't feature anybody in the current cast of the show. Darrell Hammond reprised his Trump impression, which was surprising considering Taran Killam has done it a few times, and he is a current cast member. But, an even better surprise was that Tina Fey showed up on SNL to reprise her Sarah Palin impression.

Of course, the opening was there to make fun of Palin's recent endorsement of Trump. Fey showed up in sparkly attire, and, though she was ostensibly there to speak about Trump, the jokes were mostly about how Palin isn't really doing anything right now. She started by saying she needed to "take a break from my full-time career of writing stuff on Facebook." Ouch. The rest of the sketch mostly had Palin spouting nonsense, sometimes even in rhyme, that basically had no bearing on anything. But, it was still a pleasure to listen to, because Fey still has that Wasilla accent down.

The only thing that was weird about the sketch was that Trump was playing the straight man. He was positioned as the reasonable, level-headed one. "It's like her mouth starts driving before her brain gets in the car," he said of Palin. Yeah, like the same couldn't be said of Trump.

In the end, they did try to stick it to Trump a little. Palin did a take to the camera, admitting that she doesn't really believe he should be president. "I'm just here because he promised me a spot in his cabinet," she said. "And I belong in a cabinet because I'm full of spice and I got a great rack." As always, Tina Fey gets the last laugh.

Image: Getty