‘SNL’ parodied the second presidential debate and it will briefly make you enjoy this nightmarish election

It’s safe to say that the second presidential debate was weird, uncomfortable, and almost a spoof of itself. The town hall style format, moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz, featured more sniffing, interrupting, and a lot of wandering. That’s right, Trump literally wandered around the stage for most of the debate. Luckily Saturday Night Live was able to perfectly capture what we really saw during the debate.

Last night’s SNL cold open featured the second debate and the chaos that ensued during the actual event. The sketch started with the lack of handshake and covered brief media sensation Ken Bone, Clinton’s debate prep, and Trump’s lack thereof.

Check out the hilarious SNL sketch below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVMW_1aZXRk?feature=oembed

Cecily Strong and Alex Moffat, as Raddatz and Cooper accurately summed up our feelings while watching the debate:

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In his opening remarks, Alec Baldwin, as Trump, accurately captured Trump’s mentality of the debate process, telling Raddatz,

“Martha, tonight I’m going to do three things. I’m going to huff, I’m going to puff, and I’m going to blow this whole thing.

From Clinton’s (wo)man of steel mentality and Trump’s attempts at distracting media spectacles to the feeling that the moderators were babysitting the candidates, SNL missed nothing. The sketch even managed to include Trump’s remarks made later in the week, accidentally encouraging supporters to vote on the wrong election day. Whoops?

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The real star of the cold open was the display of Trump’s wandering around the stage. Featuring ominous music, Trump stalked around the stage like a shark tracking his prey while Clinton answered a question from the audience.

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Maybe this the Jaws sequel featured in Back to the Future II.

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Regardless, it was a masterful capturing of the bizarre behavior Trump demonstrated and while obviously a parody, it did an incredible job encapsulating what the viewers actually saw. We’re so glad that SNL can do the heavy lifting that hilarious and represents how people are actually viewing this nightmare.

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Unfortunately, the spoof wasn’t universally acclaimed. Donald Trump, himself, weighed in on the matter. Commenting on the debate sketch and the “Melanianade” sketch, Trump tweeted:

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/787612552654155776

Somehow we don’t think Lorne Michaels and the crew at SNL are super bummed at this review. We can’t wait to see what the show does with the third debate!

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