Two of the country’s most polarizing political figures hold no hard feelings against NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which has cashed in on parodies of our leaders for its entire 40-year history.
TheWrap spoke with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the red carpet at “SNL’s” 40th anniversary celebration Sunday. The Republican politicians, both of whom were in the presidential mix the last two cycles, have been regular targets, but they both said they enjoyed the skewering.
“She’s too good!” Palin said of her impressionist, Tina Fey. “To this day, I do a double take if I see an old rerun. I’m like, ‘Is that — I’m on TV? No, it’s Tina!’”
Palin said she used to sneak into the TV room as a kid to watch “SNL” in its risque early days and has been a fan ever since.
For his part, Giuliani felt a sense of accomplishment when he finally got a full sketch on the late-night show.
“There was a slight degree of, ‘Gosh, I really made it to ‘Saturday Night Live!’” Giuliani told TheWrap.
Giuliani agreed that satirizing is part of the territory when it comes to politics, and most in the profession enjoy a little fair ribbing. But for former president Ronald Reagan — an actor himself — the critique went a little further than whether the jokes were any good.
“Sometimes [Reagan] wasn’t sure the quality of the acting was as good as it should be,” the former mayor joked. “He was like, ‘They should’ve gotten me a little more like this or a little more like that.’”