It was a wild, wild week in Washington leading up to Saturday Night Live‘s newest episode, so it’s hardly any surprise that the show decided to once again dedicate its cold open to potshotting political figures. But of all the moments that could have earned some rightful ribbing by the starting skit — the Democrats’ disaster caucus in Iowa, the rip heard ’round the world at the State of the Union address, or the finale of Donald Trump’s impeachment saga, to name a few — SNL decided to ding the candidates in the New Hampshire primary debate. Maybe Alec Baldwin was just unavailable to slather himself in orange goo and come play President at 30 Rock this week?
The guest stars who were on-hand for the latest cold open were Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden, Larry David as Bernie Sanders, and Rachel Dratch as Amy Klobuchar, joining Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren, Colin Jost as Pete Buttigieg, Bowen Yang as Andrew Yang, and Pete Davidson as Tom Steyer. Although the segment was far too routine for such a surreal week, there were some pretty solid zingers to be found in the bit.
One such came when the subject of Buttigieg’s appeal outside of the northeast came up. “People say I’m not very popular among minorities. They’ve been referring to me as ‘Mayo Pete.’ But I assure you, I am not that spicy,” Jost’s Buttigieg joked.
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In another, Dratch’s Klobuchar questioned why she hasn’t ever reached frontrunner status. “Why am I not doing better? I’m the most reasonable person on-stage,” she asked. “Instead of tearing Democrats down, I get along with everyone up here: baby nut, chompers, [and] slenderman.” McKinnon’s Warren addressed her own sliding status in the polls as well, saying, “I know a lot of people like me, but they worry about if I’m electable. I have a great solution for that. Elect me.”
David’s Sanders also closed the debate with a timely kicker about some of his most vociferous supporters. “I don’t know how or why it happened, but I am king of an army of internet trolls called Bernie Bros,” he said. “Could I stop them in their tracks? Of course. Should I? Yes. Will I? Ehhh. Hillary Clinton says nobody likes me. Let me ask you this? Then how come I’m the most popular guy on 4chan?”
It still wasn’t nearly as daring as that cold open which took one of the most controversial figures of our time to chat up the Devil, of course, but it’ll do. For those that might prefer to see the show’s take on other current events, however, Jost and Michael Che went all-in with a scathing “Weekend Update” review of recent headlines.
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Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c on NBC.