"SNL" Fires One Final Election-Year Bullseye

Tomorrow, the election. Tonight, one last chance to revel in the inspired political parodies from NBC's Saturday Night Live. Don't miss it, because it's not only TV reacting instantly to history -- it's TV history, as well...

Without question, this is the best SNL political humor season since 1992, when Dana Carvey nailed both George H.W. Bush and H. Ross Perot, and Phil Harman played a humorously affable Bill Clinton and a goofily clueless James Stockdale. Fred Armisen as Barack Obama hasn't truly triumphed, but Darrell Hammond's John McCain is just right, and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin is the most white-hot, and arguably most influential, TV performance of 2008.

Tonight at 9 ET, NBC presents Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008, collecting the best of this year's campaign parodies -- and including those from previous years, starting with Chevy Chase as a bumbling Gerald Ford in the show's inaugural 1975-76 season.

That's when I started as a TV critic -- the premiere of Saturday Night Live, in fact, was my first official review. So when I say Fey's Sarah Palin is among the best and biggest SNL political lampoons of all time, I'm speaking from 33 years of watching that show religiously.

Last Saturday, Fey did it again -- appearing as Palin opposite the real John McCain. Spoofing Obama's big-ticket buy of prime time to deliver his message in a half-hour TV special, SNL had McCain and Palin going on QVC to raise awareness, and money, by selling campaign goodies.

One inspired item -- inspired, in part, by the McCain-Feingold Act -- was a line of jewelry called "McCain Fine Gold." The necklaces were pointed out by a typical QVC point-and-smile model, who was played, in a well-received cameo, by the actual Cindy McCain.

Meanwhile, Fey's Palin took the opportunity to go "rogue," as she put it, by whispering to a side camera and hawking her own line of merchandise, available after Tuesday. It was a tee shirt with a very pointed message: "Palin in 2012."

"I'm not going anywhere," Fey's Palin promised, "and I'm certainly not going back to Alaska."

The McCains, both John and Cindy, were quite good in that sketch, clearly having fun. And on "Weekend Update" (hosted solo, for the second straight week, by Seth Meyers), John McCain was even better. he seemed to feed on the supportive applause, and the waves of laughter, and displayed a side of himself that was more animated than most of his recent campaign appearances.

Offering a list of rejected ideas for last-second campaign strategies, McCain described, and dismissed, such ideas as the "Double Maverick" and the "Reverse Maverick." My favorite was "Sad Grandpa," which McCain described thusly:

"That's where I get on TV," he said, "and go, 'Come on, Obama's going to have plenty of chances to be President. It's my turn! Vote for me!'"

Brilliant comedy, superbly delivered. Tonight's show, no doubt, will include that moment, and others, so enjoy the jokes.

Tomorrow, it's no laughing matter. Go vote.