Naturally, this week’s cold open riffed on Tuesday’s presidential debate, moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley. The running joke throughout the 10-minute skit (which was just a few minutes too long) was the petty nature of the squabbles between Obama and Romney — but Long Island voters (and their thick accents) also got the parody treatment. Jay Pharoah played a consistently convincing Obama, and Jason Sudeikis brought the laughs as Mitt Romney — though NewsFeed still prefers him as a hilariously feisty Joe Biden. Watch out for a cameo from Tom Hanks, who popped up a few times throughout the episode.
The biggest surprise of this sketch, though, was the lack of any reference whatsoever to Romney’s “binders full of women.” Maybe the SNL writers were trying to avoid predictability — but come on, give the people what they want!