Life magazine (the insert, not the great publication of yore) had the jump on Saturday Night Live all the way back in 2004 as part of a package on that year’s election. Bill Shapiro, former managing editor of the insert version of Life, explained the shoot:

As the election neared and it was becoming clear that every vote would
matter, we decided to ask a wide range of famous Americans why there were stepping up to the ballot box. We photographed Madeleine Albright, Manny Ramirez, Andre 3000, and Tucker Carlson (who told us, “People vote when they feel threatened. So it’s a good sign, in my view, that half the country doesn’t vote in the presidential election”) among others. Of course, we photographed John McCain and Tina Fey together. He was thrilled to meet her and they got along very well: They had lunch and he gave her an impromptu tour of the Senate building. Makes us wonder if when McCain met Palin for the first time, he said, ‘You know, you remind me of someone…”

And just for good measure, here’s Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on this year’s premiere of SNL, the show’s highest rated debut since 2002. Apparently Sarah Palin liked the parody, too.