SNL: Darrell Hammond’s Donald Trump and Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, Together at Last
The moment former Alaskan governor and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President of the United States, you know the producers at SNL hurried to get Tina Fey on the phone. The beloved former cast member, who just hosted the show last month, famously took on the role of Palin eight years ago and many people believe that her scathing imitation actually did lasting harm to the real Palin’s political chances. In any case, this event allowed SNL to pair Fey’s Palin with Darrell Hammond‘s Trump. Thanks, reality!
Like some of the best Fey-as-Palin bits, this sketch sometimes just utilizes Palin’s actual words, unchanged, and the results are stranger and funnier than the actual jokes. As Fey rambles and devolves into complete and total nonsense, Hammond’s Trump breaks the fourth wall, addressing the audience as his faith in this woman slowly begins to crumble. Sure, an endorsement from Sarah Palin gets you headlines, but it also gets you…well, Sarah Palin, whose rambling speech has already been ruthlessly mocked by every corner of the internet.
If there’s anything wrong with this sketch, it’s that it presents Trump as being a little too reasonable and well-spoken. This is peculiar because his actual speeches are just as bizarre and broken as Palin’s endorsement. Hopefully, future episodes will even these scales.