SNL ridiculed the Democrats' non-debate, but mostly let Larry David channel Bernie Sanders

SNL skewers the Democrats&#039; South Carolina candidates forum

(Image credit: Saturday Night Live)

last updated 9 November 2015

Donald Trump might have fallen a little flat on Saturday Night Live, but Larry David killed in the cold open, an SNL re-enactment of Friday's Democratic presidential forum in South Carolina. "What the hell is this tonight?" David, portraying Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), asked Cecily Strong, doing a dead-on Rachel Maddow. "Why are we even doing this?"

The whole premise of a forum, not a debate, wasn't the only thing to get skewered. "Okay, Hillary, let's dive into some tough questions — but oh, don't worry: Not actually tough, just MSNBC tough," Strong's Maddow told Kate McKinnon's Hillary Clinton, who went on to pander to Southerners and New Yorkers with equally transparent aplomb. MSNBC also got some ribbing for tight close-ups of black audience members at the forum. But the candidate who got hit the hardest was Martin O'Malley ("We'll get to the fun [candidates] in a sec, but first we have to eat our vegetables," Strong said, introducing O'Malley, a plastic Taran Killam). The highlight, of course, was David's Sanders, who grumpily made a plea for your "vacuum cleaner pennies," explained why he ditches his car and kayaks across rivers, and does a little pandering of his own. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.