A couple of months back, Saturday Night Live depicted Hillary Clinton hilariously morphing into Bernie Sanders. Now, the show is ribbing the leading Democratic candidate with a bit about "President Barbie"—the boring new doll nobody wants to play with.
A group of little girls star in the spoof ad, showing off their favorite toys and imagining themselves in space, Paris, and in a magical fantasy world they've cooked up.
But to the growing chagrin of the faux Mattel voiceover artist, none are particularly psyched about the blonde-bobbed figurine who comes clad in a blue pantsuit—even if she comes with a mini smartphone pre-loaded with Snapchat.
While the clip doesn't explicitly mention Clinton, it doesn't need to. Poking fun at President Barbie as "stiff" and "trying too hard"—criticisms frequently lobbed at the candidate—does the job for them.
In the ad's funniest and most insightful (if most brutal) line, the girls shrug off the notion that they should play with the doll because there was a time when a woman couldn't even hope to be president. "I wasn't alive then," says an unimpressed child, deflating the absurd if much discussed notion that gender identity alone ought to determine political support.
Mostly it works because it's based on a grudging sort of respect, presenting Clinton's presidency as inevitable. At least SNL isn't portraying her supporters as racist, or Clinton as a delusional politician in desperate need of a powerful new anti-dementia prescription.
Even if she's less exciting than a broom.