Tina Fey’s spot-on “Saturday Night Live” imitations of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska governor, have been widely viewed and even more widely discussed. Before Thursday’s vice presidential debate, we assess the other people portraying Palin:
Nicole Parker
Venue: “Mad TV,” Fox
Style: 3rd-grade room mother whose shell of candy niceness conceals a nougat of sour condescension
Strengths: With Fey, the best at capturing the trills and whirls of that Klondike twang; willing to improvise
Weaknesses: Lame hockey puns; more impersonation than satire
Best line (to young woman questioner): “Ooh, now that is a very revealing top. Do you go to church?”
Rating: ***
LisaNova
Venue: LisaNova channel, YouTube
Style: Extreme confidence, whether dictating terms to John McCain or blithely not answering “Churlie” Gibson’s questions
Strengths: Her Palin skits are, on the whole, well written
Weaknesses: Slips in and out of accent
Best bit: Looks at her hand as she recites names, titles of world leaders
Rating: **
Sara Benincasa
Venue: 23/6 Web site, her own YouTube channel
Style: Plays an ignorant but cunning rube in series of vlogs, or video blogs
Strengths: Delightfully loopy disquisitions on everything from The Economist to Mc- Cain’s life expectancy
Weaknesses: More broad lampoon than pointed satire; a little too willing to break character
Best line: “Should I sing in the middle of the debate?”
Rating: ***
Cindy Michaels
Venue: Anchor, ABC and Fox newscast in Bangor, Maine
Style: Delivers the news while wearing similar glasses and hairstyle, leading some viewers to insist she’s copying
Strengths: Doesn’t oversell the impression
Weaknesses: Isn’t doing an impression
Best line: “To say cutting things to me just because I’m wearing my hair up and a pair of glasses, there’s just something a little strange about that.”
Rating: *
