Over at his Scanners blog, Jim Emerson puts his finger on something I’ve also noticed about Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin: Fey’s Palin is a lot more likable than the genuine article.
Sure, Palin’s winking and twinkling is artificial and rehearsed, while Fey actually is cute as a button, but that’s not it. Fey’s version of Palin is a caricature, sure, but she’s also self-aware. She knows she’s a joke, and she’s in on the gag.
Meanwhile, the real Palin is desperately trying to posture as a leader, and appear substantial, while frantically avoiding saying or doing anything that would actually be substantial and leadery.
She offers perky, packaged quotes and memorized talking points and calls it “straight talk” — because things are what we say they are nowadays, dont’cha know! — and her boosters praise her for getting through the debate without soiling herself or running offstage in tears. She’s a champ! She’s unbeatable!
Kate and I were talking about this last night, and we realized that if McCain wins next month, Fey’s got the perfect setup for the fourth season of “30 Rock”: McCain is tragically incapacitated — a blood vessel bursts while he’s cursing out his Secretary of Defense, say — and Jack Donaghy comes to Liz Lemon with the greatest challenge of her career: Step in for President Palin and actually run the country while the real one is sequestered in a skee-ball arcade.
It’s a recipe for wackiness: Signing statements with the word “blerg” in them! Pete and Frank writing the State of the Union speech! Tracy Jordan finding out about the scam, and demanding to be made ambassador to Atlantis in exchange for his silence! Jenna using her sexuality to throw the Saudis off their game during pipeline negotiations! Kenneth becoming a militant Alaskan separatist because there’s nothing to do around the office!
Who wouldn’t want to see that? It’d certainly be a lot funnier than an actual McCain-Palin presidency … and so much easier on the world, too.
Incidentally, the second season of “30 Rock” comes to DVD tomorrow, and is brilliant. Bring it home, and see if you don’t love it so much you want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
Even if McCain loses, I’d still love to see this, maybe as a one-hour special.
Just to be clear, Fey would play Liz Lemon masquerading as Palin, right? If so, that’s got to be some kind of first, with the actress and the character she plays BOTH sending up a politician.
It’s a shame that voting machines don’t accommodate write-in votes…for either Tina Fey or Liz Lemon.
And now for something completely serious.
To highlight just how dangerous the GOP machine can be in a “democracy”, I just read on Roger Ebert’s website about a movie coming out on DVD next week called Free For All (also available online, apparantly) about voting irregularities in Ohio which may have stolen the 2004 election from Kerry. It would make an incredibly depressing double feature with HBO’S Recount about the election stolen from Gore. I want international oversight! I want purple thumbprints!
Have you seen it, Norm? If so, how is it (other than outrage-inspiring) and will it be available in Canada?
http://www.skeeball.com/
Just in case we need it.