But Sanders finally did appear, in a skit where he and Larry David play two men on a distressed ship headed to America, arguing over who gets into lifeboats first during a storm. However, instead of the Democratic hopeful simply acting as himself alongside David’s ideal impression of the Vermont senator, Sanders was pulled into a sketch that highlighted his views on democratic socialism and the 1-percent.
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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appeared in a sinking ship-themed sketch on this weekend’s edition of Saturday Night Live.
But it also goes to American Jewish ambivalence about Sanders’ campaign.
In the Curb Your Enthusiasm-style sketch (called Bern Your Enthusiasm), Sanders is irritable and turns away voters, including one woman who coughed into her hand before extending it for a handshake. In perhaps the most important bit of the night, the SNL team made a decision to attack a central problem in Sanders’ campaign-his inability to bring in black voters.
Sanders appeared again with David to introduce the show’s performing artist, “The 1975”.
With the critical New Hampshire primaries just around the corner, Sanders’ extracurricular SNL appearance and his good-spirited reaction to the lighthearted jabs were the ideal remedy for what will likely be a grueling week of political match-ups. The skits would probably have still been successful if David was lazy about the impersonation, says Klein, but he really wanted to get it right. The Iowa Caucuses provide the backdrop.
“Huge difference”, said Sanders in his thick Brooklyn accent. The show’s cold open featured Taran Killam playing GOP candidate Ted Cruz describing himself as “a nasty little weasel”.
David pays Sanders with all the idiosyncratic tendencies of his curbed character.
Check out Sanders’s appearance in the Ellis Island scene above.
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Later, Sanders finds out that he lost the Iowa caucus by 5 votes, consisting of the woman whose hand he had refused to shake with her 3 family members, as well as the woman whose shoulder he didn’t pop back in. He has a serious lead in New Hampshire polls.
