Every comedian dreams of getting that once-in-a-lifetime break when a politician who looks a little bit like them comes to the fore. The rise of Harold Wilson, combined with Edward Heath's brief moment in the sun, was a gift for Mike Yarwood, tinyurl.com/6lv2co; the Blair Years were a happy time for Rory Bremner (tinyurl.com/48ov3j); and Steve Nallon to all intents and purposes was Margaret Thatcher as far as the 1980s satire boom was concerned (tinyurl.com/4oes7c).

It's just such a time now for Tina Fey (see Friday's times2 article at timesonline.co.uk/comedy). Her impersonation of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live is all over the web by dint of being a good deal funnier than the genuine article.

The unmissable spoof of the Palin/Biden “battle of the sidekicks” at tinyurl.com/46lwxq has probably been seen by more people now than the real thing, and the “how many times will they say maverick” drinking game is sure to find favour as November wears on. While Fey's “gosh, darn it” performance is the one everyone is talking about, Jason Sudeikis's Scranton-hating Joe Biden has all the best lines - “God love John McCain, but he's a raging maniac”.

It's not just Fey and the Saturday Night Live writers who are playing on the person who could be the most powerful woman on Earth as a complete air-head: Barely Political's miniature Palin biopic Don't Cry for Me, Alaska at tinyurl.com/3w4vvk shows her confusing John McCain with Die Hard's John McClane and high-kicking Vladimir Putin.

Even such Hollywood heavyweights as Alec Baldwin are getting in on the act, with some Fey/Palin-style preening and winking during an interview with Garry Shandling (tinyurl.com/3w44mo). The winking is no exaggeration - look up http://canicallyoujoe.com to witness the real thing and to discover how much she actually knows about what the vice- president does. While the grown-ups talk about the real issues in a smoke-filled room somewhere, for the rest of us Sarah Palin is the big story of the 2008 election.

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