It's most difficult to deliver comic gold when both a) people are expecting something specific and b) the bar has been set very high.  Tina Fey spoofed Sarah Palin on the Saturday Night Live season premiere last month, and has now reprised the Palin role three times, despite the fact that she's not an actual Saturday Night Live cast member anymore.  Fey is, of course, perfect for the role.  Everyone agreed upon this before anyone even saw Fey in her Palin costume and with that baffling accent.  Fey nailed it on the premiere and, due to audience demand and Palin's continued presence in the media, she's been brought back twice more.  The cold open of Saturday's episode was a send-up of the Vice Presidential debate between Palin (played by Fey) and Joe Biden (played by Jason Sudeikis), with a little help from Queen Latifah (because, really, why not?).  It might have been the best Palin skit yet – check out the video below. 



Tina Fey has never been known as an impressionist, but her Palin is absolutely dead-on.  It's eerie.  Saturday Night Live is best doing biting political satire and, while Palin is an easy target these days, the past four episodes have been rife with great political humor.  The episodes themselves have been hit and miss (though I've enjoyed each one to some degree and thought the latest episode with Anne Hathaway was the best of the season), but the ratings have shown that viewers respond well to the political humor during election times – ratings are up considerably from last year. 

However, my favorite sketch from Saturday's episode was probably the most ridiculous skit of the night.  It featured Andy Samberg doing a spectacular Mark Wahlberg impersonation in a bit called “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals.”  And the sketch was exactly that, Wahlberg having discussions with real live animals.  It's one of those sketches where you can't really explain why it's funny; it just is. Check the video out below:  




-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)