Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders each made cameo appearances in Saturday Night Live skits during this election cycle.
We break down the skits to tell you, the voter, who was the superior guest politician.
In Clinton's, she plays a bartender named Val who counsels Kate McKinnon's stressed, hard-working Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, while Sanders portays an early 20th-century immigrant named Bernie Sanderswitsky, who appears alongside Sanders impersonator Larry David, to decry the unfairness of allowing the privileged to get off a sinking ship first.
Stage Presence
Clinton constantly broke eye contact with McKinnon to clearly glance at cue cards, while Sanders roared onto the ship in his appearance, wagging his finger and emanating a strong presence to give a lackluster skit some needed gusto.
Clinton, for her part, did use an inside voice and performed a passable impression of Donald Trump. Sanders shouted his lines, but this was acceptable given his masculinity and the chaotic nature of the scene.
Advantage: Sanders
YouTube Response
It's an imperfect science, but a quick look at the thumbs-up/thumbs-down meter beneath a YouTube video gives a snapshot of the public's perception of its quality.
As of this article's publication, "Steam Ship" comes out to 5,919 likes against 219 dislikes, while "Hillary Clinton Bar Talk" has 17,333 likes but a whopping 3,798 dislikes.
That math comes out to 27 thumbs up for every one thumbs down for Sanders, while Clinton gets a measly 4.6 likes per dislike. Couple that with the fact that her skit was nearly twice as long as Sanders', and it shows again that the more people see of Hillary, the less they seem to like her.
In fact, among SNL's 30 YouTube videos with more views than Clinton's, there's only two videos with more down votes, and one of them featured Donald Trump.
Advantage: Sanders
Best Line
Sanders (when asked for his name): "Bernie Sanderswitsky, but we're gonna change it when we get to America so it doesn't sound quite so Jewish."
Clinton (doing Donald Trump voice): "You're all losers."
Advantage: Sanders
Length of "Woooooo!" screams at candidate's appearance:
There's a law when watching any late-night political television: Appearances by prominent Democrats prompt much screaming and "woo-ing" from the audience, who are incredibly edgy but still love to show their adoration for senior citizen politicians holding acceptable views.
The raucous cheering at Clinton's first showing resulted in an obnoxious 16-second pause in the action. Sanders' cameo got just 10 seconds’ worth of cheers.
Advantage: Clinton
Least Amount of Political Hackery
SNL has never disguised it leans to the left. Live from New York values, after all.
In fact, McKinnon, whose take on Clinton is fantastic, told a roundtable of fellow comediennes that she's "rooting for" Clinton "obviously," and finds her "resplendent."
So it was not shocking that Clinton's skit had references to her audience-friendly views on Keystone, gay marriage, and beating Donald Trump, with veiled shots at Clinton for taking her sweet time to come around on the first two issues. McKinnon also tells Clinton's character, obviously written to once again humanize Clinton for the American public, that she's "really easy to talk to" and wishes she "could be president."
"Me too!" Clinton's character says.
How biting. Commence audience clapter.
David, meanwhile, took a couple quick digs at Sanders' brand of progressivism, while Sanders made obvious jokes about the 1 percent getting preferential treatment and explained democratic socialism. Thankfully, it was brief.
Both skits are really lessons that SNL's political satire has gotten considerably weaker over the years.
Advantage: Sanders
Bonus Appearance:
Sanders made another quick appearance with David before introducing the musical guest to say he was doing "pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good" in New Hampshire. Clinton couldn't be bothered to do anything but her bar skit, calling into question her stamina.
Advantage: Sanders
Winner: Bernie Sanders