25 best cold-opens in SNL history
By David Rouben
22. Hillary Clinton sings “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
Since a lot of Democrats thought that running against Donald Trump was a formality, the most heated race was for the presidential nomination. Clinton won most of the states, but her most stunning loss came in Michigan, which she was heavily favored to take. And when WikiLeaks published the DNC’s emails which suggested that Clinton was the favored candidate, it arguably discouraged Bernie Sanders supporters from voting for her in the general election.
In truth, there was always a disconnect between Clinton and Sanders’ supporters that was going to be hard for her to overcome once she won the nomination. That was illustrated in this SNL sketch, which shows Clinton trying to sway Sanders supporters.
They brush her off for being too establishment, as well as not interesting enough. That’s when she bursts in, singing a Bonnie Raitt song while doing a Michelle Pfeiffer impression which, as expected, didn’t help her cause of appealing to a younger audience.
The Clintons have been in the public eye for so long that they’ve been parodied by SNL for more than half of the show’s run. Back in 2000, they had Hillary try to prove she’s loose and easy-going now. In other words, the same issues she faced during the 2016 election have dogged her for most of her career.
Most sketches involving Hillary have her playing second fiddle to someone else, whether it’s Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Larry David’s Bernie Sanders or her own husband. But this time, they made her the central figure and she killed it. Of course, Kate McKinnon brings a lot to the role, and having her come face-to-face with Poehler’s Clinton earlier in the season felt like an effective passing-the-torch moment.