Tina Fey Thanks Sarah Palin During Mark Twain Prize Speech (VIDEO)

Tina Fey became the third woman awarded the coveted Mark Twain Prize for Humor this week, and followed up the honor with an acceptance speech proving that she deserves it.

This video captures all the best jokes Fey doled out at the Kennedy center among her family and peers, including jabs at the Tea Party and Alec Baldwin. But the most memorable part of her speech was definitely this heap of praise for Sarah Palin:

"I would be a liar and an idiot if I didn't thank Sarah Palin for helping get me here tonight. My partial resemblance and her crazy voice are the two luckiest things that ever happened to me."

(Via Gotcha Media)

WATCH:

Comments

[PlatoSunTsu]

11:17 PM on 11/17/2010

What they cut from her joke.
"And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women - except, of course --those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape 'kit 'n' stuff, But for everybody else, it's a win-win. Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know - actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster."

[brahdog]

02:11 PM on 11/17/2010

why is she channeling gary oldham's dracula?

[LLelantra]

08:45 PM on 11/16/2010

'i want to thank the rise of conservative women..." listen to the crowd. stunned silence until she whispered a qualifier. then angry silence - she lost her audience and was bombing. It would have been funnier for her say the first line IN her Palin character. Or just let the audience sit and stew - that's what Mark Twain would have done in an age where people were smarter, but less educated.

[marred]

06:29 PM on 11/16/2010

geezus she looks awful.

[MaggieCat]

04:52 PM on 11/16/2010

Shame on the broadcasters for editing her speech. I am so disappointed in their lack of courage. Really this is nothing more than censorship, and with the Mark Twain Award?!!! Unbelievable. She should demand that the entire speech be restored. Shame on them

[David Garrow]

11:45 AM on 11/16/2010

WhyTF did she win this award already? She has an above average TV show. Her weekend update on SNL was decent. Her Sarah Palin impersonation is pretty funny/entertaining. Everything else is just cute. Don Rickles is 100 years old. Jerry Seinfeld, Johnny Carson, Robin Williams, David Letterman, and Julia Lous-Dreyfus were all more deserving and that's just off the top of my head. I'm not saying she won't deserve it one day, but not before the many legends out there.

[TheOceanWalker]

12:24 PM on 11/16/2010

Not trying to convince you she deserves it now, but I think she gets so much respect because of what she's accomplished as a writer (SNL, Mean Girls, 30 Rock), too.

[Oscar Nunez]

11:33 AM on 11/16/2010

Love that Tina she deserves it. She should run for President if Palin runs and confuse the tea party & the Republican party into insanity. Oh that's right most of them already are.

[ladywing]

11:24 AM on 11/16/2010

Here is the quote that was pulled from Tina's speech.
She was thanking the contribution of conservative women "unless you don't want to pay for your own rape kit ... unless you're a lesbian who wants to get married to your partner of 20 years ... [or] unless you believe in evolution."
Of course PBS said there were no politic involved in their selection of these particular words just that the program was running to long and they had cut something?
What comedians!

[Puller58]

11:11 AM on 11/16/2010

My but Tina looked so drab in the video.  Photoshopping and lighting are her friends.

[wyb]

11:07 AM on 11/16/2010

Tina Fey's playing Palin reminds me of Charley Chaplin's miming Hitler in "The Dictator". Both will be classics.

[egaeus]

10:02 AM on 11/16/2010

I thought the Mark Twain prize was for lifetime achievement. George Carlin and Richard Pryor received theirs shortly before they died. What exactly is Tina Fey's lifetime of achievement?

[Ramirez]

10:31 AM on 11/16/2010

Well, twenty years from now she'll still be doing that Sarah Palin impression.

[AZreb]

09:37 AM on 11/16/2010

Just had a hilarious thought - what in the world would PBS do about George Carlin? Nothing but bleep - bleep - bleep!!!!!

[chaucer1]

09:36 AM on 11/16/2010

PBS is scared the resmugs might cut funding. It's that simple. As cut, the entire show was funny only when Betty White appeared. The other so-called comics need help desperately, as does PBS.

[broui]

09:50 AM on 11/16/2010

They have cut funding already a significant amount. If you haven't noticed, there are a whole lot more corporate sponsors than there used to be.

[AZreb]

09:36 AM on 11/16/2010

So much for freedom of speech - now PBS is the almighty and we will see and hear only what it thinks is "right" (pun intended).

[suhud]

01:37 AM on 11/17/2010

You got that right! Maybe they're practising censorship of the press, just in case the Palins become president...?

[Michael T Campbell]

09:20 AM on 11/16/2010

Maybe it is just me but it seems like PBS and NPR just want to make all the news antiseptic. They seem to want to make sure that nothing they report, even if is it the opinion of a guest to be anything but opinion neutral. And frankly that is equally as wrong as the bias behavior of media like Faux. I am not sure where this new cleansing is coming from but they are going to start losing support if they don't change their attitude.

[Freemind42]

09:29 AM on 11/16/2010

It comes from the fear of the "liberal media" label. It has shifted the center on journalism