The HBO film Game Change has rekindled America’s interest in the self-proclaimed “pit bull with lipstick” and former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, whose nomination as John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate in 2008 took the political world, and the nation, by surprise. She then became an overnight political superstar after making her national stage debut with a dynamic 40-minute speech at the Republican National Convention.
I’m not much for politics, but I remember watching that speech and thinking to myself, “Holy crap! The Republicans have lightning in a bottle here! Who is this woman?!?” Then, as the campaign rolled on and Sarah began doing appearances that were more than reciting a speech in front of a supportive home crowd, things began to shift, and I realized that it was comedians and humorists who had the lightning in a bottle.
Sarah Palin was the perfect storm of being unknown (so every detail in her life was new to the American public outside of Alaska), talking in a very distinct and easily impersonated accent (Tina Fey is so very thankful), having a unique and instantly recognizable look (the hair and the glasses), not being very knowledgeable about national and world events (Yes, there are devout Palinists who will argue this to their dying days), and possessing a complete unwillingness to admit she was wrong. That there my friends are the ingredients for some serious comedy!
Starcasm opened its virtual doors in September of 2008, so we spent a lot of time early on talking about Sarah Palin. Whether it was turkeys being slaughtered in the background as she pardoned a turkey on television, or one of the many hilarious Saturday Night Live skits, or fake gun-toting bikini photos, or Levi Johnston’s shenanigans, or just some silly quote, Sarah Palin was more than generous when it came to providing material for bloggers and jokesters to talk about – even those that don’t usually give a hoot for politics.
After watching some bits of Game Change I was inspired to start thumbing through some of our old Sarah Palin posts. It was really remarkable to me just how much there was! And a lot of it was from starcasm’s very early days when I was the only writer and I was doing pen and ink drawings on notebook paper for each and every article, which basically meant one article a day.
Any way, without further ado, here are the Top 5 starcasm Sarah Palin moments from the last three-and-a-half years:
5. Sarah Palin One Million Years B.C.
This was part of a post written just after it was announced Sarah Palin would be stepping down as governor of Alaska. I took that announcement as inspiration to speculate on what reasons she may have had for leaving her post, which included starring in a remake of the campy and sexy Raquel Welch film One Million Years B.C. (The idea was partly motivated by Sarah’s belief that dinosaurs and people coexisted.) That post was actually a Top Ten list which generated three of the entries on this list, so if you don’t want to be spoiled you might want to wait to click on the link! 🙂
4. Pitbulline
This is another entry from the “Top 10 Possible Reasons Sarah Palin Resigned As Governor Of Alaska” post and was inspired by her famous comparison of herself to a pitbull with lipstick. “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Pitbulline.” Ha!
3. Palien
As I mentioned above, when starcasm first started I was doing pen and ink drawings on notebook paper for all of the posts, and this is one of my favorites. This Alien inspired drawing came on the heels of the announcement that Sarah Palin had just signed a book deal, which had me wondering what other media ventures might be in her future. (Not included in this list is my rather unsettling drawing of Palin’s Sinead O’Connor inspired album cover for the single “Nothing Compares 2 U Betcha.”)
2. All Of ‘Em magazine
Of all the Sarah Palinegery I rummaged through for this post, this one brought the largest smile to my face when I saw it. It’s yet another entry from the “Top 10 Possible Reasons Sarah Palin Resigned As Governor Of Alaska” and is inspired by Palin’s infamous response to Katie Couric asking her which specific newspapers she read. (There’s a great scene in Game Change about this historic moment) I suppose in retrospect it would have been more accurate to do a newspaper, but a newspaper titled All Of ‘Em just doesn’t make much sense.
*** All Of ‘Em magazine made a second appearance after there was some controversy over Sarah Palin’s Newsweek cover. CLICK HERE to see the second issue!
1. Pit Bull With Lipstick
This image is actually from a Barak Obama post. The nation was all a-flutter after an announcement was made that a dog would soon be added to the First Family, so I wrote a post with name suggestions inspired by some of his political nemesis like George W. Bush, John McCain, and Bill O’Reilly as well as prObama folks like Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey and himself.
For everyone but Sarah I merely typed out the names (a few of my favorites include Karl Rover for George W, Feythoven for Tina, and Smarmaduke for both Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert). For Sarah Palin I went the extra mile and did little illustrations for each of the dog names inspired by her, including the one above. (The name suggestion for that one was simply “Sarah Palin.”) (You’ll have to click the link for the other Palin inspired canine monikers and doodles, including Palin Tin Tin!)
That was fun! I just hope this doesn’t open the political floodgates in the comments section. We don’t really do politics much any more on this site (unless Anthony Weiner is sending photos of his surname over the internet and gets caught, or some other similarly scandalous scenario) because those posts inevitably get people fighting in the comments section in ways that are never productive. Remember – this is all just silliness!
