As expected, “Saturday Night Live” opened its latest show with a parody of last week’s fiery town hall-style presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. In the skit, Jay Pharoah’s Obama and Jason Sudeikis’ Romney heighten the tension from the debate, nearly coming to blows on, well, just about every question thrown their way.

There was also an appearance by Romney’s son Tagg (played by Taran Killam), who jumps up midway through the debate in the audience waving his fist around and yelling “Let me at him, dad.”

The sendup also featured debate moderator Candy Crowley’s (newcomer Aidy Bryant) controversial fact-check moment, with Tom Hanks making a cameo to ask the “thought-provoking” question about Libya that led to the infamous exchange between the moderator and the candidates.

The funniest political skit of the evening, however, wasn’t the presidential debate spoof, but rather the recurring “Under-Under Ground Records” skit, this time advertising a special politics-themed festival (at a KFC in Syria no less) called “Donkey Punch the Ballot.” The festival celebrates the upcoming election by featuring fictitious bands such as “Todd Akin and the Legitimate Rapes,” “George W’s Bush” and “Vein Crapital,” as well as re-enactment of the Lincoln-Douglas debates (as performed by Linkin Park and Buster Douglas), a job interview with Herman Cain (“bring a condom!,” the festival advertises) and the opportunity to go head-to-head against Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to see who does the better impression of Borat. It also features guest appearances by the entire Fox News team (and by that, it means Neil Cavuto) and some binders full of women (but the thing is, they’re not actually women).

As always, R.I.P. Ass Dan.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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