Tina Fey: Downright Mean

Tina Fey recently won an Emmy for her uncanny resemblance and venomous impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In accepting her award, Fey was her typical, obloquious self saying, “Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!”

2008 marked a departure from the memorable, more cordial years of Chevy Chase as a clumsy Gerald Ford or Dana Carvey’s hilarious H.W. Bush: “wouldn’t be prudent.” Fey was downright mean.

For her part, Palin was an easy target — a conservative woman and mother. And seemingly abhorrent to Fey and friends, Palin had small town values, a small town family and — as Fey chafed on Palin’s world view — “I can see Alaska from my house.” The impersonations were sometimes funny, but more often foul. “I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers…,” Fey roasted during one of the skits… an innuendo on Palin’s pregnant, unwed daughter. Her satire strayed from the issues into catty, sexist territory — intellect, pregnancy, family attacks and even sexual riffs.

Lucky for Fey, she runs with a highly elitist, bi-coastal posse — the NY-LA intellectuals who are free from the burdens of conservatism. They’re free thinkers who celebrate their contribution to the world as they scream at the doorman for not having their Town Car ready. Palin was an unknown from a far away place, she didn’t stand a chance with this crowd.

Conveniently, this cadre of smarty pants run NBC. When the Palin impersonation generated some water cooler buzz, NBC gave her a whole SNL special, and then another and another — right before the election. By then, Palin and Fey had become fused (at least on TV). She was good at playing Palin. Too good. If you turned down the volume, it was impossible to tell the two apart. The result was, at the very least, chinks in the Alaska governor’s armor.

Fey’s Emmy is just icing on the cake; Saturday Night Live ought to be crying “Thank You!” to Ms. Fey for making the expiring show relevant again. The irony has not been lost on most observers: it was another woman who utterly ripped apart one of the first women on a Presidential ticket. Can one imagine Eddie Murphy returning to SNL to lambast Obama night after night weeks before the campaign? And NBC clearing blocks in their prime time schedule in order to promote more time to bash Barack? Of course not.

Ironically, Fey’s years of appearances on SNL were never as remarkable as her return to play Palin. When Fey starred in the forgettable “Baby Mama,” some critics noticed a lack of big screen pizzazz. Funny how a feisty governor from Wasilla can move blockbuster-sized crowds, riveting American TV viewers overnight during the 2008 Convention, but Fey couldn’t turn years of training on SNL and stand up comedy into any great cinematic effect. Okay, now I’m being cruel — apologies.

This is one backbiting impersonation that has had its 15 minutes. In a nation that craves to sort its entertainers and politicians into nice, neat bins, please file Fey’s Sarah Palin ‘satire’ in the heap of tiresome fads like Flash Mobs, Snoop Dogg Ring Tones and Napolean Dynamite. Are these things the world might have been better off without? You Betcha.