Will the Real Sarah Palin Please Stand Up?

The Republican VP candidate is ripe for satire, according to comedians.

ByABC News
September 12, 2008, 4:40 PM

Sept. 15, 2008— -- Some politicians are just ripe for satire. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is one of them.

Almost as soon as Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced her as his running mate, fake blogs, YouTube videos and comedians have sprung up to take swipes at Palin.

"Palin is ripe for satire because her politics are so hideous she is almost a parody of herself!" comedian Margaret Cho told ABCNews.com.

"The humor comes from the fact that she seems to be a stunt choice," said Sara Benincasa, a New York-based comedian who impersonates Palin in 11 videos she shot and posted on YouTube. "She's like an acrobat doing backflips over a bed of nails. She's entertainment."

Palin impersonators, from lesser-known comedians to actress Gina Gershon, have popped up on the Web, and the topic of conversation for weeks had been who would play Palin on "Saturday Night Live."

Tina Fey, the former head writer and cast member of "SNL," returned to her old show for the season premiere Saturday to play Palin alongside Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton.

Much ado had been made about Fey's resemblance to Palin.

On last Friday's "The View," Whoopi Goldberg asked her fellow co-hosts, over a split-screen of photos of Fey and Palin, "Will Tina Fey go to 'Saturday Night Live' and play Sarah Palin?"

"And her friend, Amy Poehler," co-host Elizabeth Hasselback asked, "would she play Cindy McCain?" The resemblance between McCain and Poehler in side-by-side photographs was also uncanny.

"SNL" addressed the comparisons being made between Fey and Palin in its opening sketch. Poehler's Clinton complained of the Alaska governor's quick rise to popularity and her "Tina Fey glasses."

A few digs were made about Palin being less experienced than Clinton. As Poehler bragged about her foreign policy experience, Fey exclaimed, "I can see Russia from my house."

When Poehler's Clinton said she disagreed with the Bush doctrine, Fey's Palin acknowledged, "I don't know what that means," a reference to Palin's apparent confusion on the subject in her first major interview earlier this week on ABC.