After a world-historical terrible week like this one, how do you open a comedy show? Saturday Night Live opted for something spare and moving, putting Kate McKinnon on stage alone with a piano to perform a stripped-down version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in full Hillary Clinton garb. Singing the best-known song by the just-deceased singer-songwriter while dressed as the just-defeated presidential candidate sounds like a little much—and it is!—but it sort of works, not least because Cohen’s last verse, with lines like “I told the truth, I didn’t come to fool ya,” are surprisingly on point.
McKinnon followed the song by looking at the camera, teary-eyed, and saying, “I’m not giving up, and neither should you.”
