Palin Does SNL--Boy Were They Mean!

Sarah Palin's visit to Saturday Night Live didn't disappoint. Helped by appearances from Alec Baldwin, Oliver Stone and Mark Wahlberg, this weekend's edition, hosted by Josh Brolin and featuring the Alaskan governor in two skits, was the highest-rated Saturday Night Live in 14 years. Final numbers won't be out until later this week, but an estimated 17 million people tuned in for the first half-hour, and close to 14 million for the entire show, making Saturday Night Live the third-highest-rated program of the week, behind only new episodes of CSI and Dancing with the Stars.

Of course, the ratings boom isn't surprising. Audiences have been waiting for weeks to see Ms. Palin visit Studio 8H. What was shocking however, was how Saturday Night Live treated her; we thought that the writers would take it easy on the governor. Oh how wrong we were!

Whether it was Alec Baldwin derisively calling her "that woman," "Caribou Barbie" and "that horrible woman" to her face, or Amy Poehler performing a rap song gloriously mocking everything about Ms. Palin, all with the governor sitting there smiling, we couldn't believe how brutal (and brutally funny) the show was. (Honestly, how did Ms. Palin's handlers accept those two skits? If that's what they agreed to, what on earth were the ones they rejected like?)

And that's to say nothing about the much anticipated "meeting" between Ms. Palin and Tina Fey, which was barely a meeting at all. As the two walked past each other, Ms. Fey could not have appeared chillier towards her doppelgänger. It's possible that Michelle Obama has warmer feelings for Cindy McCain. In fact, with the exception of a big hug from cast member Casey Wilson during the goodbyes (possibly done because she lost a bet), it seemed like no one even talked to the governor.

On the bright side, Ms. Palin did look very comfortable sitting at the Weekend Update desk. (Though we disagree with most of her analysis, this is one point on which we agree with Alessandra Stanley.) With Amy Poehler set to go on maternity leave following the election, perhaps America's favorite maverick has her next job lined up. ...