“Saturday Night Live” addressed the election of Donald Trump as President in surprising fashion, in the first episode since the election that had dominated the 42nd season of “SNL” thus far actually took place.
With an emotional tribute Hillary Clinton that doubled as a memorial for the late Leonard Cohen, this week’s “SNL” saw Kate McKinnon, again donning her Hillary garb, take the stage behind a piano for a cover of the late Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” You can see McKinnon’s performance above.
McKinnon stayed in character throughout and kept her singing voice perfectly tuned to the mannerisms of America’s first female Presidential candidate. McKinnon ended the surprisingly beautiful tribute with a message of hope, saying, “I’m not giving up, and neither should you.”
That was it. No jokes, no laughs. McKinnon herself appeared to be tearing up during the performance, her voice cracking a couple times.
After fans had wondered all week how “SNL” would handle Trump’s surprise victory on Tuesday, the route it took was a surprise to match, eschewing the show’s typical lampooning of both Trump and Clinton in favor of what would appear to be an adamantly pro-Clinton stance.
Sure, Trump always took the worst of the jokes, but this mournful dedication to Clinton was still something that would have been pretty tough to anticipate.
