Another Democratic primary debate on Friday means we got another parody in the “SNL” cold open this week. This is actually a bit unusual for the sketch series, which has typically done its debate parodies this season later on in the show, reserving the cold open for whatever madness happened with the Trump Administration during the week.
Regardless of that detail, this debate sketch was like the previous ones with its parade of celebrity cameos in many of the candidate roles. We had Larry David as Bernie Sanders, as we’ve seen numerous times during season 45. We had Rachel Dratch as Amy Klobuchar. And Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden, a role he’s gone back and forth with Woody Harrelson on.
And there was also a very brief appearance by Fred Armisen as Mike Bloomberg.
A bunch of “SNL” cast members filled out the rest of the candidate list: Pete Davidson as Tom Steyer, who showed up to the debate “tripping balls”; Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren; Colin Jost as Pete Buttigieg; and Bowen Yang as Andrew Yang.
Larry David, as is usually the case with everything he shows up in, stole the show as Bernie, and in his opening statement he addressed that whole thing with the Iowa caucuses this week.
“I can’t believe all this mess happened in Iowa because of an app. Hey, I have an idea for an app. it’s called no apps,” David’s Bernie said. “No apps, no computers, no gadgets, no gizmos. You show up to your polling place, you take a number like you do with the butcher, they call your ticket, you walk up to the counter and say to the guy, ‘give me a pound of whatever’s about to go bad.’ ”
The candidates talk Iowa at the New Hampshire Democratic Debate. #SNL pic.twitter.com/18ZDr5k5q4
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 9, 2020
Later in the sketch, Bernie discussed the, ah, intensity of his fanbase.
“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? Eh. Hillary Clinton says nobody likes me. Then let me ask you this: How come I am the most popular guy on 4chan?”
You can watch the full sketch in the video embedded up at the top of this article.