Since 2011, the sly parodists behind YouTube’s popular Bad Lip Reading channel have worked their re-dubbing magic on everything from movies and TV shows to sports, but perhaps their best, funniest efforts have been in the world of politics. Since office seekers tend to answer questions in long-winded, convoluted, and unhelpful ways, the patented BLR approach—which generally revolves around straight-faced people spouting absolute gibberish—seems especially appropriate. Besides, this current election cycle has already been a long and grueling one, and the many televised debates are threatening to blend into one big wall composed of soundbites and talking points. What can Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton possibly say at this point that they haven’t already seen, in various ways, dozens of times before? The new video “Bernie & Hillary – A Bad Lip Reading” has some answers. Few would have expected, for instance, for Clinton to lobby this accusation at her opponent: “He pinched my little feet because I saw him in his Porsche.”
The video is full of such moments, with the candidates reciting bizarre non sequitur after bizarre non sequitur as moderator Wolf Blitzer spurs them on to new heights of deadpan absurdity. The highlight of the video, undoubtedly, arrives when Blitzer and Sanders play a Tonight Show-style parlor game called “Time To Act.” The premise is very simple: Blitzer reads various prompts, and Sanders performs them, often through pantomime. Examples include “You See A Bee,” “Timid Napoleon,” and “You Casually Touch The Flight Attendant’s Skirt.” With various grunts and gestures, Sanders does nearly all of these, though he balks at Blitzer’s suggestion to lick Clinton’s face.