Saturday Night Live’s planned cold open for October 8—a spoof of the Tuesday debate between America’s stepdads, the Vice Presidential nominees—was clearly waylaid by Pussygate, and so they preempted it with a “CNN Breaking News” interview with “Donald Trump,” as portrayed by a pitch-perfect and sufficiently orange Alec Baldwin.
It wasn’t toooo funny—if comedy equals pain plus time, there’s not much of a margin between what actually happened and what a comedy writer feasibly write. That is, at least until the skit cut to “Hillary Clinton” (Kate McKinnon) at her “campaign headquarters,” where she was “preparing for the debate” by popping champagne and having a dance party in a Puffy-style shiny suit, to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.” A preview for Sunday night’s town hall? McKinnon is terrific as ever.