Last night’s Saturday Night Live was the first episode of the year to follow a presidential debate which of course meant that the series would pay homage to the event. It is a long-running tradition at the show and part of that happens to be Chris Parnell’s impression of debate moderator Jim Lehrer. Jay Pharoah and Jason Sudeikis reprised their roles as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney respectfully for the weekend’s cold open.
SNL’s take on the matter is nothing unique from what the late night circuit has been saying since Thursday. The writers played Obama’s performance off as him being bored with the whole thing while Romney got away with some of the most blatant of lies.
The second political sketch of the night was one mocking MSNBC and how they coped with the poor performance from their boy, Mr. Obama. This was pretty good stuff as Cecily Strong debuted her strong Rachel Maddow impression opposite Jason Sudeikis’ Chris Matthews and Kenan Thompson’s Reverend Al Sharpton among others.
A final nod at the debates was made by a Big Bird cameo at the Weekend Update desk alongside Seth Meyers. As expected, it was nothing dramatically edgy as such appearances tend to stay family friendly.