Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin a physical resemblance between comedian Tina Fey and Palin. Fey had decided she would play Palin after her daughter saw a picture of the Alaskan governor and mistook Palin for her mother. Viewers began to speculate who would play Palin on "SNL" during the run up to the November 4 presidential election. Days before the broadcast of the sketch, "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels said "there are [ongoing] discussions" about Fey playing Palin. On September 13, 2008, NBC announced that Fey would appear in the thirty-fourth-season premiere. The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary
Public image of Sarah Palin featured guest stars mistaking Palin for Fey. On September 27, 2008, Nicole Parker portrayed Sarah Palin during a mock Q&A session in a live audience. On October 4, 2008 MADtv aired a Special Election Presidential Special where it featured Parker once again appearing as Palin. Actress Gina Gershon self-produced and posted several parody videos in which she portrays Palin for the comedy website Funny or Die. In one of the videos, Gershon, as Palin, dons a stars-and-stripes bikini and totes a gun, a reference to a widely circulated, but faked, photograph purporting to be the real Palin in such a