--- title: Saturday Night Live: Trump Clinton Debate vs. Real Debate description: See how Saturday Night Live's Trump vs. Clinton debate parody compared to the real thing. canonical: https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-03T19:59:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:14.842Z og:title: Watch SNL's Parody Compared to the Actual Debate og:description: See how similar the debate really was in 7 moments og:url: https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96d80e97626a2ee6/6988a865cf40a8dfa0c4503f/saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Saturday Night Live - Season 42 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch SNL's Parody Compared to the Actual Debate twitter:description: See how similar the debate really was in 7 moments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96d80e97626a2ee6/6988a865cf40a8dfa0c4503f/saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How _Saturday Night Live's_ Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Parody Compares to the Real Debate by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 3, 2016 7:59 PM UTC  Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton pose for a picture during the "Debate Cold Open" sketch on Saturday Night Live on Oct. 1, 2016. Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton pose for a picture during the "Debate Cold Open" sketch on Saturday Night Live on Oct. 1, 2016.Will Heath—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 3, 2016 7:59 PM UTC _Saturday Night Live_ opened its 42nd season with a direct parody of the [lively first presidential debate](http://time.com/4515908/snl-debate-alec-baldwin-kate-mckinnon-donald-trump/) between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It was the first time [Alec Baldwin](http://time.com/4515908/snl-debate-alec-baldwin-kate-mckinnon-donald-trump/) played Trump, and the show took a different route with the candidate this season. Instead of sticking to Trump’s wealth and the wall, the cold open presented an extreme version 2.0: self-satisfied, defensive and paranoid. For Kate McKinnon’s part, _SNL_ went back to the standard Clinton material: a stiff character who cannot for the life of her seem relatable, overly coached and foaming at the mouth for the presidency — a feat the show suggested Clinton could achieve if people voted during the debate’s live broadcast. Baldwin took Trump’s emphasis on Sean Hannity to ridiculous heights and McKinnon’s Clinton struggled a lot more than the real deal when recalling the specifics of her father’s work with drapes. The moments were all familiar, sure, but how did the sketch’s exaggerations compare to one of the hammiest debates ever? See _SNL’s_ version of the events vs. to the real thing in this video comparison. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/"},"headline":"See How Saturday Night Live's Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Parody Compares to the Real Debate","datePublished":"2016-10-03T19:59:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:14.842Z","description":"How similar the debate really was in 7 moments","url":"https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Hillary Clinton","Television","politics","Comedy","Election 2016","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96d80e97626a2ee6/6988a865cf40a8dfa0c4503f/saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96d80e97626a2ee6/6988a865cf40a8dfa0c4503f/saturday-night-live.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saturday Night Live - Season 42","caption":"Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton pose for a picture during the \"Debate Cold Open\" sketch on Saturday Night Live on Oct. 1, 2016.","creditText":"Will Heath—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4516571/saturday-night-live-debate-comparison-reality/","name":"See How Saturday Night Live's Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Parody Compares to the Real Debate"}}]}] ```