Host Larry David gently spoofed Bernie Sanders on “Saturday Night Live” as the Democratic presidential candidate made an extended appearance on the NBC late-night show opposite his showbiz doppelganger.
“SNL” made the most of David’s resemblance to the fiercely independent Vermont senator with sketch “Bern Your Enthusiasm” that also poked fun at the quirkiness of David’s long-running HBO comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
In keeping with Sanders’ reputation for occasional crankiness, the sketch revolved around Sanders, as played by David, resisting efforts to shake hands with a voter after she coughed into her hand. He then declines to help a supporter who gets into a car crash while on her way to vote for him — and he refuses to help her reset her dislocated shoulder. “Just pop it back in,” she implores him.
“I’m from Brooklyn. We don’t pop in Brooklyn,” David quipped.
Another sketch revolving around European immigrants trying to flee a sinking ship featured Sanders facing off with David, who played a wealthy passenger arguing with the captain over the women-and-children-first rule.
“I’m sick of the 1% getting this preferential treatment. Enough is enough. We need to unite and work together,” Sanders said after introducing himself as “Bernie Sanderswitzky.” (“We’re going to change it when we get to America so it doesn’t sound so Jewish,” Sanders joked.) David’s character ribbed Sanders about his distinctive pronunciation of “huge” — “Huge with a Y?” imitating how Trump often pronounces “huge.”
After that sketch Sanders came out on stage with David to introduce musical guest the 1975. With a prompt from David, that intro gave Sanders the perfect entree to deliver one David’s famous phrases from “Curb Your Enthusiasm”: “Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good,” he said.
With the New Hampshire primary approaching on Tuesday, politics permeated “SNL.” The show’s cold open featured Taran Killam playing GOP candidate Ted Cruz describing himself as “a nasty little weasel.”
Associated Press contributed.
![There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-L-Sundance-01.jpg?w=579 "There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]")
