Could the real Sarah Palin stand up?

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Sarah Palin should be ecstatic. Impersonators and comedians are queuing up with their beehive wigs and schoolmarm glasses to "do" the Alaska governor.

There are at least half a dozen "Sarah Palins" doing the rounds on YouTube videos, fake blogs abound while stand-up comedians are incorporating Palin into their routines. Sara Benincasa, a New York-based comedian, said Palin was easy to impersonate because she was "so distinctive". She takes off Palin's accent in her YouTube videos riffing on feminism while being crowned with a tiara by her stylist/assistant/cousin/jazzercise partner Dina. "We're lampooning a political character that we think is ridiculous" she said.

Another huge internet hit has "Sarah" listing the names of world leaders while staring at her own hand during a spoof of her only television interview with ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson. "Do you have a cheat sheet on your hand?" asks the startled interviewer. "This is the hand, Charlie, that's shaken John McCain's hand, this is the hand that has washed my babies heads, this is the hand..." she continues unstoppably.

Gina Gershon plays a Palin who "sets the record straight" in a video for Funnyordie.com. Did she ban books from the local library? Well only one and that was called Are you there God?, It's me Margaret. If only the book had been called Are You There, God, and I Mean That as a Rhetorical Question, Because I Know You Are, It's Me, Margaret, she says, she would not have had a problem. Gershon ends the sketch by stripping down to a stars and stripes bikini and picking up a rifle. "Excuse me, I've got some hunting to do."

"Palin is ripe for satire because her politics are so hideous she is almost a parody of herself," said the comedian Margaret Cho.