'SNL' Pokes Fun at Presidential Candidates in Equality Town Hall Skit

Saturday Night Live never misses an opportunity to muck around in the world of politics, and last night’s episode was no exception.

The recent LGBTQ Town Hall hosted by CNN was the topic of the latest cold open, and it took playful aim at most of the Democrats still in the presidential race.

While Chris Redd’s Cory Booker was only on stage long enough to point out that his girlfriend was in Rent, he was followed by Colin Jost as Pete Buttigieg, the only actually gay candidate. IRL, Buttigieg has often been criticized as not being “gay enough,” or being “straight passing,” and the show took note of that.

“There’s no wrong way to be gay,” he says at one point. “Unless you’re Ellen this week.”

Kate McKinnon’s Elizabeth Warren took on the clip that went viral from the actual event, in which the real Warren gave a feisty response to a hypothetical confrontation with a supporter who doesn’t believe in gay marriage. McKinnon, of course, took it even further, throwing out diss after diss in response to the same question.

Lin Manuel Miranda was brought in to play Julian Castro, in response to outcry over the only Latinx candidate not being included in the previous Town Hall skit, and Woody Harrelson reprised his role as former VP Joe Biden. And while SNL skewered Biden for all the usual things — forgetting words, making up stories, not taking the election seriously, and uh, being sexually inappropriate — there was basically no way the show could have made more of a mockery of the VP than he did himself in the actual Town Hall.

The real win of the night was clearly the guest appearance of Billy Porter, who stopped by to announce all of the candidates. While that’s unlikely to be a recurring role for the Pose star, it’s obvious that SNL needs to do what they can to bring him back as often as possible. It’s already proving to be a long election cycle, we’re gonna need all the laughs we can get.