“Hey Jazzman…I Have a very presidential answer to this!”
On Saturday, October 1, 2016, Saturday Night Live (SNL) kicked off its 42nd season. The first episode opened with a hilarious spoof of this past Monday’s first presidential debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. The show was hosted by actress Margot Robbie and included a musical performance by awarding-winning Hip Hop artist The Weeknd.
Viewers were treated to a comical yet very accurate portrayal of the now infamous and widely discussed televised debate. SNL’s Emmy-winning actress Kate McKinnon played Hillary Clinton and acting veteran Alec Baldwin performed a convincing Donald Trump-fluffy hair, orange skin (with white skin around the eyes) and pout included.
Everything about the SNL sketch was absolutely wonderful: from McKinnon’s red pantsuit and very enthusiastic facial expressions, to Baldwin’s cringe-worthy interruptions and pronunciation of China, spectators and SNL fans across the world relived the thrill, hilarity and confusion stemmed by the nominee’s (attempted) conversation about critical social and political issues.
All of the topics that were mocked in the media and on online platforms were addressed in the sketch. McKinnon pretended she was “unprepared” for the event while presenting her idea, and Twitter’s favourite new slogan, “Trump Down Trickle Down”. Baldwin, within two minutes of the debate, slammed and accused Clinton and President Obama for breaking his microphone while on a trip to Kenya because, of course, that makes perfect sense.
On an important note, and for those worried: Baldwin made sure to shout “CHINA” many, many times.
McKinnon did an excellent job poking fun at Hillary’s performance during the debate. For example, she brought up Clinton’s “human father” who worked with “something to do with drapes” in an attempt to make her more relatable to American voters. Yet, according to Clinton, “America hates my voice and my face.” She also danced the now famous and celebrated “The Hillary Shimmy,” the latest dance craze to populate memes across all social media platforms and online blogs.
Her facial expressions of delight and relief were exaggerated when Trump brought up the “Rosie O'Donnell issue”, as Rosie naturally has a massive influence of anything political. She even cried because, as she tells Michael Che as Lester Holt, “the debate went better than she could ever dreamed possible.”
A highlight of the sequence was when McKinnon as Hillary Clinton summed up the results of that debate with one sentence: “I think I’m going to be president.” This impactful remark received a big applause by the SNL audience and many cheers from tweeters following the show.
Although the world laughed hysterically at both the actual debate and this pretend version, we unfortunately did not “cream our jeans” (sorry Donald Trump). Instead, we continue to remain confused and a bit fearful of America’s future. This is a strong reminder of the importance of voting this November: America, please exercise your power to vote.
