Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin resurfaced this week and, in a move that shocked precisely no one, endorsed still-somehow-viable presidential candidate Donald Trump. Her seemingly free-associative address to Iowa voters prompted many questions—for example: “Did Sarah Palin spend her time out of the spotlight murmuring to herself in the Alaska wilderness, stroking a shotgun and listening to nothing but Fox News and random audiobook snippets of Atlas Shrugged played backward?”—the biggest being whether or not the foremost Palin impersonator in TV history could be coaxed out of hiding one last time on Saturday Night Live. Well, wonder no more, as the ever-persuasive Lorne Michaels drew SNL alum Tina Fey back to Studio 8H last night (in a freaking blizzard, no less) to put on the wig and fire up the broadly accented nonsense in a recreation of Palin’s jingoistic jumble. Joining Fey was her former castmate Darrell Hammond, who, it seems, will take on Trump duties for the duration of this long, interminable election season.
Whether it was funnier or more damning than Palin’s actual speech (or the musical remix of her actual speech) is open to debate, as is whether this outing was as satirically effective or funny as Fey’s previous ones. (It was one of the highlight’s of the Ronda Rousey-hosted episode, but that’s not saying a lot.) But there’s no question that Saturday Night Live guaranteed itself some major exposure by having Fey take another bow as her Bizarro World counterpart, whose resemblance to the 30 Rock star has only gotten more pronounced with the passing of time.