Dumb vs. Fake: Representations of Bush and Palin on Saturday Night Live and Their Effects on the Journalistic Public Sphere

Political comedy on television has become an increasingly relevant and informative source which voters, and commentators in the official journalistic public sphere, draw upon. Saturday Night Live has long been a cultural forum of representation of American Presidential Candidates. Two parodies of candidates in particular stand out in the 21st century: Will Ferrell's impression of George W. Bush in 2000 and Tina Fey's of Sarah Palin in 2008. Journalists in the New York Times and Washington Post tended to reject the Ferrell impression as meaningless, while using the Fey parody to represent their own opinions. Why was the satirical portrayal of Palin more salient? The Fey impression resonated with writers in the public sphere in a much more substantive manner than the Ferrell impression, which focused mostly in personal characteristics. This period marks a transition of personality-based humor to more substantive satire.