Who would have imagined the 2016 election would have us pining for the simpler days of Sarah Palin? That’s a thought that keeps on going through our minds as we continue to watch the dumpster fire of anger and hatred grow leading up to Tuesday, November 8th. One person who is perfectly positioned to comment on the difference between this race and past ones is Tina Fey, who played Palin to perfection in several Saturday Night Live skits.
Deadline was at the Produced By New York conference where Fey reminisced about the “gentler times” in politics that were “like an ice cream social.”
“This election is so, so ugly, it’s not business as usual,” she said before diving into a defense of Jimmy Fallon, who received a lot of hate for avoiding the hard questions in an interview with Donald Trump. “I really felt for Jimmy when people were so angry. It’s not Jimmy who peed in the punchbowl. It’s not Jimmy who created this horrible world we’re living in.”
She also dished on what it was like in the Saturday Night Live writer’s room during the elections and how they tried to walk the line between pulling punches and avoiding the appearance of taking sides.
“We spent so much time and care on making sure everything was a fair hit,” she said. “We never, ever went into it thinking, ‘We gotta protect Obama’ or ‘We gotta make (the Republicans) look bad.’ Audiences can smell when a sketch is tipped.”
As for who Tina Fey is voting for, should we take a hint from her Weekend Update skit with Jimmy Fallon where she’s undecided, or from her latest Sarah Palin impression where she endorsed Donald Trump? We many never know, because Fey’s policy is to never endorse a candidate “so I don’t get hit up for donations.”