2016 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live this weekend, and his performance was everything you'd expect from The Donald, though many of the SNL jokes were about Trump's alleged racism and bordered on being uncomfortable. Surprisingly absent from the episode, though, were more digs at Trump's opponents in the 2016 race, especially former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Though she didn't tweet during the SNL episode Trump hosted, Clinton did make an "appearance" on SNL , in the form of cast member Kate McKinnon's perfect Hillary impression.
During a sketch mocking Friday night's Democratic forum, McKinnon perfectly captured Clinton's mannerisms and speaking style. During the real event, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interviewed Democratic presidential hopefuls Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, and SNL' s spoof of the evening was actually pretty spot-on. We would have loved to see Clinton call Trump and SNL's racism jokes out on Twitter, but we'll gladly take McKinnon's Clinton impression. In an episode filled primarily with incredibly unfunny jokes and Trump's snooze of a performance, McKinnon-as-Clinton made the episode a little worthwhile.
Even if Clinton's voice was sorely missed from Saturday night, she did appear in her own SNL sketch earlier this year. Clinton played a bartender consoling McKinnon's Hillary after "a hard couple of 22 years." During the sketch, McKinnon's Clinton had overheard voters talking about how 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina would be the best first female president. And while the real Clinton's appearance in the sketch generated much applause from the crowd, her part in the show was just a guest role, as opposed to hosting the entire episode, like Trump did. (The episode did, though, feature Clinton herself impersonating Trump, to hilarious effect.)
Before the SNL episode aired, Clinton told Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday that she "might" watch the episode this weekend, mentioning that when she had a surprise guest appearance on SNL, Trump was probably doing the same to her. "I think he watched me," Clinton said of Trump on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Though we don't have solid proof that she followed through, I'd like to assume she gave Trump the same courtesy, even if only to confirm the success of her own campaign strategy.
As the 2016 campaign season continues, we're hoping to see plenty more of McKinnon's stellar Clinton impression. Sometimes it feels like humor is the only way to survive U.S. politics, and SNL's Trump episode didn't exactly deliver on that front. But McKinnon's Clinton — and Larry David's impression of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for that matter — always does, and SNL should feature plenty more of it in the year to come.
