Tina Fey has rocketed her career by mimicking Vice President candidate Sarah Palin. With her trademark glasses, haircut and clothes the imitator has become more real than the target. Most Americans attribute Fey’s joke (”And I can see Russia from my house”) to Palin herself.

So Palin took up the invitation and appeared opposite Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend. She was in two skits. At the opening she demurely interacted with the show’s producer and a witless Alec Baldwin. It was a neat, tidy appearance - and showed the woman knew how to take a joke.

As a communications professional, I give this five stars - it showed Palin’s human side, poked fun at the comedians and defused the power Fey and Saturday Night Live had to mock her.

The second skit was abysmal and Palin’s appearance in it was a dreadful mistake.

The skit consisted of a rap song with dancing Eskimos, a stand-in for Palin’s “First Dude” husband and a sacrificial moose. All the time Palin rocks to the rhythm - when she should have been grimacing.

Comedy is a powerful tool to restore damaged credibility. When Tom Cruise crashed and burned on Oprah’s sofa no one would pay to see him headline in an action film again. So he skillfully took a comedy role incognito as the producer in “Tropic Thunder”, the Ben Stiller directed film. We were laughing at Tom - now we laugh with him.

In the end, Palin overstayed her welcome on “Saturday Night Live”. If she’d exited after the first skit I’d be applauding her smarts. But now we’re laughing at her, not with her.