Saturday Night Live, a New York City institution, parodied the city’s contentious mayoral race this weekend, which has garnered an uncharacteristic amount of national attention. The show’s star-studded cold open centered on a debate between Zohran Mamdani (Ramy Youssef), Andrew Cuomo (Miles Teller), and Curtis Sliwa (Shane Gillis).
The sketch played into the public perceptions of the candidates — Mamdani as charismatic and hopeful, Cuomo as desperate and creepy, and Sliwa as a truly strange NYC creature.
Gillis stole the show, impersonating Sliwa’s wild asides about his violent run-ins with shady characters in the city’s past. That is, until Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) showed up to crash the debate. And wherever you think Trump’s bizarro soliloquy is going, trust me — you don’t.