Looking Back At 10 Of SNL's Best Political Cold Opens Over The Past 10 Years

Courtesy of NBC.

Saturday Night Live has been at the helm of political comedy since its inception in 1975. Now in its 50th season, comedy fans are getting to experience the household sketch series as it coincides perfectly with the 2024 election. Retired SNL cast members and successful comedians have often flocked to studio 8H to do their impressions of famous politicians and this season, the roster of political impressions is stacked. This season welcomes Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, and Dana Carvey as Joe Biden. This is on top of the current cast members James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump, Bowen Yang as JD Vance, and Mikey Day as Donald Trump Jr. With an exciting 50th season under way and plenty of political sketches to cover, we take a look back at 10 of the best political cold opens of the past decade.

The star of the show at the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate was the fly on Mike Pence’s head. In this sketch, SNL takes it a step further with Joe Biden (Jim Carrey), going through a time machine that accidentally turns him into a fly. This all happens as Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) gives Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) hilariously judgmental looks. Carrey’s hysterical delivery as Biden in fly form atop a fuzzy bleach blonde mound that is Pence’s head had everyone cackling at the already hilarious moment. His extremely accurate Jeff Goldblum impression was the cherry on top to the absurdist humor the sketch celebrates.

Back in 2021, James Austin Johnson’s Joe Biden was visited by Jason Sudekis’ 2013 Biden. In the sketch Johnson is reminiscing on when he used to be cool and everyone would call him uncle Joe. Sudekis appears as the younger, cooler Biden complete with aviators and a windbreaker. 2013 Biden gives 2021 Biden tips on how to become cool again including giving back rubs which he proceeds to do on present day Biden. Young Biden leans in to smell his older self as 2021 Biden melts in the hands of 2013 Biden. The sketch hilariously reminds the audience of younger Biden’s creepy quirks as well as pokes fun at his current lack of lucidity.

The 2020 PBS Debate Cold Open also had an insane line up. Elizabeth Warren (Kate McKinnon) is in her element as she says, “PBS is my safeword.” Andrew Yang (Bowen Yang) was immediately dismissed from the sketch, like his presidential campaign was by the media, and was in a VR headset the entire time. Larry David does a very convincing Bernie Sanders as he jokes that Apple is hiding something from us including his own password. There are even more political stars that pop by including Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph), complete with a fan glamorously making her hair flow as she drinks a martini reminding us how good we could have had it if we didn’t stop funding her campaign. Suddenly Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) drops in with hoop earrings ready to fight saying Trump’s own version of the hilarious viral phrase saying, “impeach me outside, how about that?!”

Five years ago, Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) was President and a lot was going on. In this riotous musical sketch, the cast replaces the lyrics of “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen with all that the Trump administration has done. It is a plea from Baldwin’s Trump to get reelected. His supporters including his wife Melania Trump (Cecily Strong) & Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro) join him on his desk to sing of their accomplishments.

The 2020 First Presidential Debate was famously marked by interruptions and a lack of decorum. SNL did not sleep on the opportunity to cover the debate with Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) and Joe Biden (Jim Carrey). The comedians followed suit with the politicians, speaking over each other and bursting out in anger. They both try to calm themselves down with their “meditation tapes,” Biden’s being Harry Styles’ meditation. In the end Kamala “Mamala” Harris (Maya Rudolph) had to step in to settle the argument.

Donald Trump (Taran Killam) is constantly interrupted by Melania Trump (Cecily Strong) who tries to defend her husband as loving women and immigrants but instead points out facts the president’s campaign has tried to hide. Melania brings up how he is always calling women “knockouts” and “10s.” He even loves immigrants because he didn’t care if she had a green card when he told her to come over to the US. He was even a democrat before he was a republican.

Kanye West (Chris Redd) is hilariously out of his mind, so much so that even Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) is taken aback by West’s outlandish claims. Meanwhile, Jim Brown (Kenan Thompson) is trying his best to avoid being tied to West despite the crowd of photographers and reporters invited to cover the conversation. The sketch has hilarious voiceovers of the thoughts going through the trio’s minds with Trump realizing, “He’s the Black me!”

Will Ferrell returned to SNL as George W Bush 6 years ago when polls said Bush’s approval rating was at an all time high because by comparison to Donald Trump, people thought Bush was relatively good. In this sketch, Bush is here to remind people of how terrible he really was, starting two wars and an economic recession. Bush admits that he made the oval office set behind him so that he can play president when he is home and that his gun is a water gun because he has been trying to drink more water recently.

Micheal Cohen (Ben Stiller) in the Cohen Hearing Cold Open where Ohio Representative Jim Jordan (Bill Hader) can’t help but dig himself into a hole. Jordan tries to tear into Cohen but just keeps realizing he’s done the same crimes as Cohen. Despite the Chairman’s (Kenan Thempson) attempts to keep things professional, members of the hearing committee, played by Kyle Mooney, Kate McKinnon, Heidi Gardner, and Alex Moffat, all relentlessly would yield their time back to Cohen so he could keep making things worse for himself.

Tucker Carlson (Alex Moffat) interviews Jeannine Pirro (Cecily Strong), Ann Coulter (Heidi Gardner), and Wilbur Ross (Kate McKinnon) as they give their hilarious takes on the government shutdown. Roger Stone (Steve Martin), former aide to Donald Trump, tells Carlson about how the police raided his home and he only had time for one radio interview and a speech from the steps of the courthouse. The sketch ends with Martin doing a spin on his iconic phrase, saying, “I’m just a normal, straightforward guy” complete with the wacky arm movements of “I’m a wild and crazy guy.”