Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Return to SNL, Parody Girl Squads, Hillary Clinton's Likeability and Sarah Palin

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live last night, likely making for the most watchable episode of the season. Fittingly, the pair revisited some of the most successful characters from their tenure on the show, namely Fey’s Sarah Palin and Poehler’s Hillary Clinton.

“A Hillary Christmas” had Poehler’s buttoned-up Clinton of 2008 visiting current Kate McKinnon’s manic and “likeable” Clinton of 2015. The resulting sketch was the kind of humor that’s marked Fey and Poehler’s careers, the comedy found in the sometimes ridiculous expectations of women. McKinnon’s Clinton, always desperate to be perceived as fun and relatable, uses slang unfamiliar to Poehler’s Clinton, McKinnon’s Clinton explains: “It’s not enough to work hard, we have to be cool but tough, soft but strong, sweet old lady, but a sweet old lady who says YAS KWEEN!” Certainly topical since hours before the show the actual Hillary Clinton ended the Democratic debate with a Star Wars reference.

Similarly in “Dope Squad,” Fey and Poehler, with some help from Aidy Bryant, parodied Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood,” giving the girl squad a mature update. In the video, Fey and Poehler sing an ode to their squad, which consists of childcare workers, gynecologists and a confused Amy Schumer.