'SNL' Will Have Its Reward In Heaven After This Sarah Palin Debate Skit

With less than a month left to go in this presidential election, Saturday Night Live expands its resurgent political brand into special Thursday episodes starting this week, though it's hard to see how they could possibly outdo the trilogy of Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin appearances that continued into last night's episode. Spoofing the mega-rated vice presidential debate, Fey joined Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden and the previously-rumored Queen Latifah as moderator Gwen Ifill for a blockbuster, near-twelve minute sketch that left no participant unscathed. Still, despite the skit's jabs at Biden and Ifill, this was, as ever, Fey's moment, and she delivered her most cutting performance yet. Do we have video of the sketch after the jump? Doggone it, you betcha:

How 'SNL' Plans to Cover Last Night's Debate (Without Having to Actually Hire a Black Woman)

After 'Late Night' Cameo, Tina Fey Nearing Goal Of Appearing On Every NBC Show

After the landmark ratings success that was the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC was anxious to capitalize on the momentum they had built leading into the fall. However, despite all that promotional exposure, Beijing Ben and the NBC team haven't yet been able to convert in the ratings department: Knight Rider tanked, Chuck and Life both saw their ratings dip from their 2007 premieres and The Office could only muster a third-place finish in its lovey dovey season premiere last week. However, there is a bright spot; the network has gotten big bumps in both the awareness and ratings department thanks to the white-hot star power of homegrown talent Tina Fey. While fans will have to wait until the end of the month for 30 Rock to return to the air, NBC has been satiating America's desire to see its new Emmy sweetheart by repeatedly trotting her out during its late night lineup. She has appeared as Sarah Palin on SNL not once but twice and, last night, she made a cameo appearance along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a bit that can only be described as the ying to Ricky Gervais' and Steve Carell's faux Emmy duel yang. Watch NBC's clear cut MVP hitting another one out of the park after the jump.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, Take Two

Though Tina Fey has publicly voiced a desire to stop playing Sarah Palin in November, Lorne Michaels issued the Emmy winner the comedy equivalent of a stop-loss last night, conscripting Fey for a second tour of duty as Palin on Saturday Night Live. This time around, Fey and Amy Poehler spoofed the vice-presidential candidate's bungled sit-down with Katie Couric, and though the sketch will forever live in the shadow of the instant classic original (and we would rather have seen Kristen Wiig play Couric than the hugely pregnant Poehler), there were still some worthwhile bits. Our favorite? Fey-as-Palin's talking points meltdown (at 2:50 in the video).

The sketch, after the jump:

Alec Baldwin Stops By Conan Just For Shits and Giggles

'Yeah. Not Sarah Palin. I Just Play Her On TV Sometimes.'

Defamer Predicts the 2008 Emmys: Comedy Edition!

Alec Baldwin Resisted Impulse To Leave Foul-Mouthed Message On Death's Answering Machine

We hardly consider it overstatement to declare this The Golden Age of What's Going On in Alec Baldwin's Noggin, for never before have we—the more-than-casual Baldwin obsessionists that we are—had access to literally reams and reams of the ursine 30 Rock star's internal musings. There was, of course, the recent 8,000+ word profile in the New Yorker, in which we learned that something about the Hamptons air turns Baldwin into a deerstalking homosexual nudist. Yes, that was good—but it wasn't enough! So we dive now—like a hairy, naked gay man into a platter of freshly broiled venison—into leaked excerpts from Baldwin's upcoming memoir, "A Promise to Ourselves." In it, he reveals how villainous, sippy-straw-twirling TMZ suzerain Harvey Levin very nearly drove him to suicide with the release of his infamous Thoughtless Little Pig voicemail:

Baldwin had been trying to reach his daughter, then 11, but "she was off for spring break with her mother and her phone was turned off for 10 consecutive days ... This had gone on for years now and ... when the beep came, I snapped. [Levin] seemed to be that breed of tabloid creature that realized an almost sexual level of pleasure from ruining other people's lives."