!!! SPOILER ALERT… SPOILER ALERT… SPOILER ALERT !!!
The cold opening featured Fred Armisen handing over to Jay Pharoah a new Barack Obama impersonation. The skit then cut to Jason Sudeikis reprising his Mitt Romney impression by saying, “One of my horses failed to medal at the Olympics. I know hardship.” Cast member Taran Killam did Paul Ryan. It was Presidential politics from the get-go on the 38th season opener of Saturday Night Live tonight hosted by Seth MacFarlane. There was a skit spoofing Obama’s ads about Bain Capital. And a fake ad for a new Broadway show, “Clint Eastwood & Chair”. With Bill Hader playing the actor, the duo “take their act on the road” and interview other chairs representing Jimmy Carter, Michael Bloomberg, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. (“We’re going to need a bigger chair.”)
Weekend Update’s Seth Meyers started off strong, noting Obama was up 4 points in the polls. “Which means he’s only 5 points behind Bill Clinton.” Meyers then noted that the crude propaganda film The Innocence of Muslims “opened this week” amid violent rioting. “So far the reviews have not been good. Don’t you guys know YouTube has a comments section?” Later bizarros Honey Boo Boo and her mother were spoofed commenting on the campaign.
Except for a quick “Mitt Romney makes me so mad” said in song, first time host Seth MacFarlane didn’t make any campaign jokes in his monologue – but he did do Peter Griffin and Stewie Griffin voices from his Family Guy show and then broke into song with My Head Is Full of Voices.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.


Of course MacFarlane wasn’t political. Family Guy has NEVER made a single Obama joke! South Park knocks him now and then…
Why date a show that will run forever in syndication?
Seth MacFarlane is a frikkin’ genius!
Seth MacFarlane and Seth Meyers have set the bar high. The entire cast is so talented. After a long absence I now look forward to watching SNL!!!!
One of the worst SNL’s ever. They had a target rich environment and blew everything. Was the writing staff still on vacation?
Obama bit unfunny and embarrassing. Romney bit DOA. Just awful.
Miss the days of Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz (and Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford is classic!). Why was it so much funnier back then–will never forget “thousand points of light” and Dukakis’ podium going up and down. I’ve only watched it sporadically the last 10 years, but it’s never even remotely funny whenever I catch it so I don’t even bother anymore. The impressions aren’t even good.
So were you living under a rock four years ago? Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin hit it out of the ballpark and made her a superstar.
There was nothing on the show that I haven’t seen on Chelsea or The Soup – over a month ago. I know they just got back from hiatus, but that doesn’t mean they can go back and parody something that happened while they were on break and make it fresh.
I don’t understand this. Seth McFarland is not a big draw. Why didn’t they go with a performer?
He had the biggest film of the summer. He practically owns the night with his animation projects. He’s plenty well known.
Are they just waiting until it reaches season 40 and then they finally cancel this garbage once and for all? Talk about beating a deadhorse here.
Why does McFarland keep singing? After his variety special bombed, you would hope that he got the message that people don’t want to hear him sing.
The show has been fantastic in recent seasons. Last night’s show was not good.