Set 'em up, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and lend an ear to the troubles of a presidential candidate.
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination appeared on the season opener of Saturday Night Live as a wise bartender named Val who pours a drink or two for, ahem, Hillary Clinton (played by SNL regular Kate McKinnon).
Most political candidates play themselves on SNL, often for just a cameo in a sketch or to declare the show's famous tag line, "Live from New York - it's Saturday night!" Seldom do they go all-out thespian and play a character in a sketch.
"So, Hillary," Clinton asks McKinnon, "what brings you here tonight?"
"Well, I needed to blow off some steam," McKinnon says.
"I've had a hard couple of 22 years."
Asked what she does for a living, McKinnon says in imitation of Clinton's earnest monotone: "First, I am a grandmother. Second, I am a human, entrusted with this one green Earth."
"Oh," Clinton says, "you're a politician."
And just who is Val? Clinton deadpans, "I'm just an ordinary citizen who believes the Keystone pipeline will destroy our environment."
Overall, the skit was friendly toward Clinton and closed with the former first lady joining McKinnon in singing Lean on Me.
Clinton has struggled at times to show herself as warm and personable with a sense of humour, qualities that have been valued in modern campaigns driven by broadcast media and now social media.
The former secretary of state has already appeared this year on talk shows hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres.
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