NY: Following Mitt Romney's triumphant performance in the first presidential debate, Saturday Night Live was left in the unexpected position of having to poke fun at President Obama.
And in the show's cold opening, Jay Pharoah as President Obama offered the simplest explanation to date of why he was so off-key on Wednesday night - he forgot to buy his wife an anniversary present.
In a gentle introduction which poked fun at the President's long-winded and unfocused answers, Barack Obama claimed to have have 'inherited the worst economic crisis in our history, indeed the worst crisis of any kind that has ever befallen any country, or person, ever.'
However, as Mitt Romney played by Jason Sudeikis responded with his equally long winded opening that he promised would contain numerous 'reversals of position' and 'outright lies', President Obama launched into a internal monologue in which he bemoaned the fact he had forgotten wife Michelle's gift.
Thinking that a 'World's Greatest Mom' coffee mug would satisfy his wife, the president seemed so lost in thought that he missed the outrageous claim from Romney that he killed Osama bin Laden.
Indeed, the president seemed so caught up in fixing his mistake that he told Romney and everyone's least favourite moderator Jim Lehrer, played by Chris Parnell, to just carry on without him.
Adding to the absurdity, President Obama then starts to feel the effects of the altitude in Denver, which Al Gore infamously said could have been the reason Obama lost so conclusively.
Still in an internal monologue, we hear that he is feeling light-headed and forgets his youngest daughter Malia's name, before almost falling asleep at the podium, at which point Mitt Romney has to go over and wake him up.
In a second skit, the long-running show then mocked MSNBC's outraged and disbelieving reaction to President Obama's performance.
Cecily Strong as Rachel Maddow opened the amusing segment by hosting a discussion dissecting the debate which she called 'The Worst Thing That Happened Anywhere.'
Kenan Thompson as Al Sharpton came up with every excuse in the book to defend Obama, from blaming the altitude to the outlandish claim that Romney and Obama had somehow switched bodies before the debate.
In his second political appearance of the night, Jason Sudeikis as Chris Matthew shouted and bawled at the president's lame outing on Wednesday arguing that 'you win a debate' by screaming at people loudly until they shut up.
Maddow went on to try and create a non-existent gaffe for Romney during the actual debate, which in fact was simply a word mispronunciation.
And finally in a week when Big Bird was in the news, it seemed fitting to find him perched at the parody news report on NBC's 'Saturday Night Live.'
But joining Seth Meyers at the 'Weekend Update' anchor desk, the popular 'Sesame Street" 'haracter declined to comment on presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's vow to cut federal funding for PBS. Explaining why, Big Bird said he didn't want to "ruffle any feathers."
He told Meyers how he had learned of being mentioned on Wednesday's debate. He said he'd gotten 'a million tweets.' From real birds, that is.
Since then, he said he was feeling very famous, standing tall above every other 8-foot talking bird.
In closing, Big Bird shared a joke befitting his childish sense of humor.
Question: Who like debates?
Answer: de-fishes.
