Popular satirical shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show" have been quick to jump on any blunders in speeches made by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during her recent campaign, but thanks to Tufts alum Jordan Kolasinski (LA '04), Palin's fans and critics now have even more ways to entertain themselves.
Kolasinski's new Web site PALINdrome (pa.lindro.me) allows Palin junkies to make the candidate say just about anything.
"[Visitors to the site] can take actual words Sarah Palin has said, re-arrange and re-contextualize them as [they] like, then hear her speak [their] PALINdrome back," Kolasinski said.
The idea is an experimental beginning for Kolasinski's larger startup site VOCarious.com, which will spread beyond the boundaries of Palin to other celebrities. With all the interest and humor surrounding Palin's persona and speech patterns — such as Tina Fey's impersonation on SNL — Kolasinkski's choice to start with the Alaskan governor is not surprising.
So far, over 10,000 PALINdromes have been created.
Kolasinski jokingly spoke of his site as "a historic step forward in the idea of democracy — instead of simply electing our leaders, we can now actually make them say anything we want them to say."
PALINdromes typically involve crude humor like "I won my special needs son on e-Bay" or "I'll betchya Barack Obama is huge."
According to Kolasinski, the site is meant to be nothing more than entertaining and affable; however, he does think that PALINdromes can be politically significant.
"Tufts teaches us how to look at the world from a critical, rational and well-informed perspective," he said. "I hope PALINdrome inspires people to think a bit more about the actual words Palin has said, as well as those of Obama, Biden and McCain, and then decide if voting [for] McCain and Palin is really best for our country."
