You Decide: The YouTube-Palin Showdown!

Submitted for your consideration, to demonstrate that:

1. Sarah Palin really has captured the pop-cultural imagination, and

2. Where SNL / Tina Fey fail to step in quickly enough, others will fill the gap...

I give you LisaNova's Sarah Palin--

And Sara Benincasa's--

Your pick? I give the edge to Benincasa. Veteran YouTuber LisaNova gets more hits (an earlier, better done video with John McCain cleaned up), but this followup is way heavyhanded. (The Obama she cast, on the other hand, gets his speech cadences and mannerisms down better than Fred Armisen.)

Benincasa's is less popular, more off-the-cuff and less edgily political, but the imitation is killer and it has more improv-comedy charm. BOO-ya! (It's actually a more effective satire because it has more affection for Palin as a person, where LisaNova's makes her more evil—not that I suspect that Palin would love either.) And giving her an off-camera foil—Dina, her assistant / makeup artist—breaks the monotony and brings out the character. I could see this working as an online improv comedy vlog even if Sarah Palin didn't exist.

Your calls? And if anyone knows of a good Joe Biden improv vlog out there, I'm willing to offer equal time.