Forget the Laughs: SNL Just Wants You To Get Out and Vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxH6bKNPBIA

The last episode of Saturday Night Live before election night has aired, and that meant one more week of us getting to see Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton and Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump squaring off. It definitely speaks volumes to the tenor of this overall election season that SNL didn’t have to write a lot of insanity into their debate spoofs–a lot of the jokes pretty much wrote themselves.

When the show wasn’t trying to make fun of what’s been dubbed the most stressful election season ever, they were trying to make America feel better with some much-needed mood-lifters–like Emily Blunt handing out puppies to the audience, or Tom Hanks sitting us down for a pep talk (and giving us a new Halloween meme in David S. Pumpkins).

Benedict Cumberbatch was the host this week–though the episode also marked the return of past cast members like Dana Carvey (who brought back his classic “Church Lady” character) and Bill Murray (who I’m pretty sure has been just partying with the Chicago Cubs since their World Series win last week).

Aside from that, it felt like SNL was as ready for this election to be over as the rest of America is–and probably the rest of the world, by extension. In the cold open, Alec Baldwin breaks character as Trump to express his discomfort over the whole thing. “I just feel gross all the time,” Baldwin said, echoing the feelings of many across the nation over the past several months. After a cut to a brief video montage of McKinnon and Baldwin running around Times Square while dressed in character, the two returned to the stage to encourage everyone to get out and vote. This election may have been ripe for the picking in terms of joke material, but what good are jokes if voters aren’t exercising their democratic rights? If you’re still feeling anxious about Tuesday, you can always debate this age-old question in the meantime: Why is Benedict Cumberbatch hot?

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