'Saturday Night Live' Takes on Democratic Debates With Some Familiar Faces in Political Cold-Open

Rachel Dratch on 'Saturday Night Live'
Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

'SNL' took aim at the Iowa caucus mishap and verbal gaffes in new 'Cold Open' sketch.

Saturday Night Live took aim at the recent Democratic debates in this week's "cold open" (surprising many fans who expected a take-down of Donald Trump's recent Impeachment trial acquittal). Bringing out the show's stable of recurring guest stars -- including former SNL stars Rachel Dratch as Amy Klobuchar, Jason Sudekis as Joe Biden, Larry David as Bernie Sanders as well as a brief appearance by Fred Armisen as Mike Bloomberg.

The top issue up for ridicule was the disastrous Iowa Caucus mishap, which proved to be a real embarrassment for the Democratic party. When asked who really won, Pete Buttigeig (Colin Jost) had the one real answer: "Donald Trump."

As it turned out, the whole problem stemmed from a problem with the algorithms used in the app to count votes.

"The issue in Iowa is math? I wonder who they could have called to help them out with that?" Andrew Yang (Bowen Yang) said, sarcastically, pointing to his "MATH" pin on jacket lapel.

Each of the Dem candidates got a chance to shine (which hasn't been the case with past Democratic debate sketches, simply because of the number of candidates), with Dratch's Klobuchar getting in one of the best jokes when she re-enacted Shakira's now-famous Super Bowl Halftime Show tongue gesture.

One of the strongest and strangest appearances came from Pete Davidson as billionaire Tom Steyer, who was also "tripping balls" and super emotional. Was it a spot-on impression? Not at all. Was it nice to see Davidson taking a starring role in a "Cold Open" sketch? Without a doubt.

SNL airs live, coast-to-coast on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.

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