'Saturday Night Live' savages GOP debate with outrageous sketch

Saturday Night Live skewered Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for attacking Donald Trump over the reality television star's "New York Values."

This week, Cruz has attempted to undermine the presidential front-runner in Iowa and New Hampshire by saying that Trump represents New York values, which according to Cruz, are inferior to values in the two key primary states.

"The rest of the country knows exactly what New York values are, and I gotta say, they're not Iowa values and they're not New Hampshire values," Cruz told Fox News. 

On last night's episode of SNL, Cruz, played by Taran Killam, mocked the candidate's thinly-veiled dig at New York stereotypes, describing "New York values" as scenes from the 1990's sitcom "Seinfeld."

"I think most people know exactly what 'New York values' are, and frankly, they are not the rest of the country's values. Instead of celebrating Christmas, New Yorkers celebrate a pagan holiday called 'Festivus,'" Killam said. "Instead of watching American football, they challenge each other to masturbation contests. In New York, people don't say 'Hi' to their neighbors, they say, 'Hello, Newman."

When "pressed" by the fictional Fox Business debate moderators about why he was describing "Seinfeld," the fictional Cruz dropped the pretense. 

"Believe me, if I could say 'liberal Jews,' I would," Killam said.

The skit also jabbed at Trump's frequent questions about Cruz's eligibility to run for president because he was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father.

"Clearly I'm not Canadian. Canadian's are well liked. I am not. Canadians are rugged and outdoorsy, where I myself am mostly made of pudding," Killam said.

Cruz wasn't the only target for mockery during the fake debate.

SNL also poked fun former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) seemingly canned one-liners, as well as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) frequent, repetitive tough-talking criticism of President Barack Obama. 

The sketch also made reference to the debate organizers' decision to rely on national polls to determine which candidates qualified for the debate. Late in the "debate," Christie, played by Bobby Moynihan, got booted from the stage for dipping below 3% support in national polls.

Watch the skit below, via NBC: