Tonight's presidential debate stirs memories of Saturday Night Live's ...

Good afternoon. David Schmalz here. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be tuning into this election’s first presidential debate tonight, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be chewing your nails.

Which is why we need comedy, and over the years, Saturday Night Live has delivered. 

I brought up the subject of the debate in our weekly editorial meeting yesterday, and my colleague Erik Chalhoub joked that the only reason he watches them is so that he understands the subsequent sketch on SNL. 

Which made me realize—most of my debate memories aren’t from the debates themselves, but from their SNL facsimiles. So I’m here now to share some of those memories, because I’m sure many of us could use a laugh. 

Though I was only 13, I recall SNL’s depiction of a George H.W. Bush v. Michael Dukakis debate, and one of the things that stuck most was Jon Lovitz, playing Dukakis, using a button to raise a platform behind his lectern to make him appear taller (it doesn’t go well). 

But the most singular moment was when he looked at the camera, after some Bush gibberish (Bush was being played by Dana Carvey, legend), and said, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.” 

America listened, four years later.

Another distinct memory was from the G.W. Bush v. Al Gore debates, when comedian Will Ferrell, great at playing Bush, was asked to sum up his vision for his presidency in one word: “Strategery,” he said. That checks out. 

But for me, the most memorable was the 2016 town hall debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in which he stalked behind her, because it cut at the reptilian nature of Trump—it was creepy to watch in real life, and even creepier to reflect on through comedy.

The Joe Biden v. Trump debate carries less fun: In a send-up of their second debate in 2020 (Trump attended the first one Covid-positive, and nearly killed his debate prepper Chris Christie because of it), Maya Rudolph, playing NBC’s Kristen Welker, said (unrelated to Trump’s Covid status), “Tonight we have a mute button, because it was either that or tranquilizer darts.” It’s hard to laugh, but it’s either that or cry. 

That about sums up how I feel about tonight’s debate. I don’t necessarily think it will sway the all-important swing voters in the handful of swing states—many may not even be tuning in—but I’ll be watching, because American democracy, and our economy, hovers over a knife’s edge, and I can’t look away. 

The writers at SNL can’t either, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with—comedians are truth-tellers, and their interpretation will likely be the one I remember. 

CNN, which is hosting the 90-minute debate at its Atlanta headquarters, will be broadcasting it live starting at 6pm.