We wondered how exactly Saturday Night Live planned on integrating Bernie Sanders in last night's show, hosted by Larry David, and fortunately the Democratic candidate appeared in a sketch that was not only funny, but extremely self-aware too.
Sanders played Bernie Sanderswitzki, an immigrant aboard a ship to Ellis Island. He's joined by David, who played a wealthy passenger making the same trek. On their journey the two talk politics, and Sanderswitzki ends up making some of the arguments we've heard countless of times from him before.
"Hold on, hold on, wait a second. I am so sick of the 1 percent getting this preferential treatment. Enough is enough," he said. "We need to unite and work together if we’re all going to get through this."
After David's character called him a socialist, Sanderswitzki went on to explain that his ideals fall more in line with "democratic socialism," a term the presidential candidate often uses when talking about his beliefs. On a less serious note, he also pronounced "huge" as "yuge."
Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Sanders in a more blatant political sketch, but that didn't mean David didn't reprise his role as the Vermont senator. In perhaps the most important bit of the night, the SNL team decided to attack a central problem in Sanders' campaign—his inability to bring in black voters. The sketch, which features Sanders refusing to shake a black woman's hand because it's covered in germs, is easily one of the smartest decisions SNL made last night.
Check out Sanders's appearance in the Ellis Island scene above.
