'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' SNL mocks President with comic line-up featuring victims of struggling economy

SNL's Thursday night political skits took aim at Obama on the campaign trail

Also mocked embattled Iranian president Ahmadinejad and recent NFL referee disputes

With only 39 days before the election, the president and presidential hopeful alike have been trying to respectively prove and attack the famous Reagan question – are you better off than you were four years ago?

And the cast members of Saturday Night Live proved no exception, opening on their Thursday night special with cast member Jay Pharoah as President Obama speaking at Kent State University in Ohio.

Pharoah opened by asking those in the audience which members had a job, but appeared crestfallen when person after person said their situations were more dire.



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Better off? In Thursday night's opening sketch, SNL cast member Jay Pharoah played Obama at a campaign event in Ohio asking people if they were better off than they were four years ago

Downgrade: Fred Armisen, left, said he was a manager at Burger King, having been laid off from his banking executive job; Kate McKinnon, right, said she sold apples by the side of the road



Breaking bad: Only Bill Hader's character, who apparently cooks crystal meth, said he was better off than he was four years ago

‘Who here has a job?’ he asked hopefully, looking around the room. Fred Armisen, who had the honour of playing the president in seasons’ past, raised his hand and said he was a manager at Burger King.

‘A manager at Burger King? There you go – have it your way!’ Pharoah said, then asking, ‘I bet you were behind the counter four years ago?’

Armisen glumly replied: ‘I was the vice president of Bank of America.’

The flailing economy has been a hot topic on the campaign trail this year, dividing those who see the slow economy as Mr Obama’s fault, and those who think the recovery process is simply sluggish.

Looking for more encouraging stories, Pharoah again asked who had a job or was better off than they were four years ago. One woman said she worked at the 'apple store,' something Pharoah jumped on.

The woman then said: ‘Oh, I don’t work for the computer store, I sell actual apples. I have a shack by the highway and sell mostly to immigrants and the occasional mule.’



Paying visits: On Weekend Update, Fred Armisen, playing embattled Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke to Seth Myers via his translator, played by Nasim Pedrad

Captive audience: Meyers also had on 'the girl you wish you hadn't started a conversation with at a party¿ to talk about current events

Asking the crowd if anyone had a job that didn’t exist before he became president, Kel Thompson answered: ‘I chase racoons out of foreclosed homes, it’s great because the homes don’t have people in them…and then I sometimes eat the racoons.’

On Weekend Update with Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen played embattled Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with a translator, played by Nasim Pedrad.

The president’s visit to New York for the U.N. summit has been racked with controversy, with thousands protesting his vision for a ‘new world order’ of government. He explained to Meyers a favourite pass time while in New York.



‘My favourite game is now “Homosexual or Jew,” Armisen said through Pedrad. ‘I get most excited when someone is both, which is why I’m always so happy to see you, Seth.’

The translator branched off after interpreting the first bit, saying Ahmadinejad wouldn’t notice because he ‘looks like he’s waiting at a bus stop outside of a methadone clinic.’

From there, Meyers brought on ‘the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party’ to discuss global issues. The woman, who wore a pink party dress, was seemingly intoxicated and full of non-sequiturs.



The replacements: On the last sketch of the night, the NBC comedy show poked fun at the recent NFL referee labour strike with a fake TV show

Bad call: The refs did the best they could as a jury, but couldn't manage to convict Bill Hader's character, even though he confessed to murder



‘Society, Seth, it’s unconscionable,’ the girl said, checking her iPhone from her purse in the middle of the conversation. ‘Are we better than them? People are angry, society is angry. Open your eyes, people. War. Hunger. Diseases.

‘It’s getting warm, Seth, and this is on a global scale. Do the math.’

For the final sketch of the evening, SNL poked fun at the recent NFL labour dispute with the referee’s union and the subsequent botched call during the Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants game on Monday, with a fake television show called Replacement Refs.

‘You wanted the best, but you’re getting replacement refs,’ the jingle went. In the skit, bungling referees were part of a jury where the defendant confessed to a murder. After tepidly looking around, the referee said with a shaking voice that he was not guilty.

They advertised next week’s episode, where a referee serving as a doctor called the death of a patient who only had an ear infection.

Daniel Craig, the star of 007, will be the next host for the show’s October 6 airing.

