Last night’s Saturday Night Live wheeled out Larry David’s Bernie Sanders for its cold open (and saw the Sanders-David separation growing ever more permeable, complete with Seinfeld references), but there was also a new Bernie in town. Or something suspiciously Bernie-like, anyway, as a commercial parody saw Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton take on increasingly Sanders-like traits, a Brundlefly-like transformation intended to court the millennial voters who promise to sway the 2016 presidential election.
Grounded in truth or not, the SNL version of Clinton has solidified at this point into a malleable, manipulative vote-grubber, and the sketch sees the candidate’s inner political chameleon externalize in her very personality and flesh. Starting out in her traditional no-nonsense pantsuit and McKinnon’s ever-so-glassy, unshakably driven gaze, this Clinton extols the virtues of a “revolution in the streets” and claims to share the “exact same beliefs” of the youth of today, all while telltale Sanders markers pop up: a pair of glasses, an ill-fitting suit, the guttural, rolling “b” in the word “billionaires.” By the time her pitch resounds with a reference to a Brooklyn childhood and a hearty, Sanders/David-esque thanks from “the biggest outsider Jew in the race,” the unholy, opportunistic experiment is finished, complete with a wispy white bald cap and a new slogan: “Hillary Clinton: Feel The Bern For Her.” Who needs a running mate? Vote HillBern ’16.