WATCH: Trump, Cuomo, Adams and Sliwa All Get Pummeled in Star-Studded SNL Cold Open — While Mamdani Takes a Few Jabs

Most of the main players in the 2025 New York City Mayoral race were skewered on this week’s Saturday Night Live — while the show took it a bit easier on the man who is front-and-center.

In a lengthy, star-studded cold open, SNL took on the Mayor’s race in wild fashion with a sketch set at a fictional debate. Andrew Cuomo — played by the evening’s host, Miles Teller — was ripped for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the various sexual harassment allegations against him.

“Hello, voters!” Cuomo said. “You all know me. I got us through Covid and then yada, yada, yada. Honk honk, squeeze, squeeze. Anyway, I’m back. I am a born, bred New Yorker. I love it here. I know this city like the back of a woman’s back. Mamma mia!”

Then, Ramy Youssef — portraying frontrunner Zohran Mamdani — called out the various ways in which the pronunciation of his name has been mangled (which was the subject of a recent New York Times piece).

“Hello, everyone,” Mamdani said. “I’m happy to be here. And I’m ready to spend the next hour hearing my opponents pronounce my name in ways you couldn’t begin to imagine. And I know some of you are out there scared of the idea of a young socialist Muslim mayor, so allow me to put you at ease by smiling after every answer in a way that physically hurts my face.”

Shane Gillis delivered a mostly one-note portrayal of Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa — poking fun at Sliwa repeatedly mentioning that he has been the victim of shooting and beating attacks at the hands of the mob.

“I’m thrilled to be here and not getting shot in the back of a yellow cab five times by the Gottis and Gambinos as I was famously in 1992, 1993, and ’94,” Sliwa said. “But I’m the right choice to be your next mayor. No offense to my opponents, Mr. Cuomo, and — I believe I’m saying this right — Zoltar Rob Zombie.”

“Not even close,” Mamdani replied.

The most pointed jab at Mamdani came midway through the sketch — when SNL called out the Democratic nominee for having a pie-in-the-sky platform.

“I want to be mayor so I can deliver a better New York, free healthcare, affordable housing, free Wi-Fi,” Mamdani said. “As mayor, can I make that happen? I’m not sure yet. But together, we’re gonna find out that the answer is no.”

But the tenor of that barb was markedly different than those directed at the other key players. At one point, Cuomo was bashed for his efforts to appeal to Jewish voters. When asked about his “go-to bagel order,” Cuomo replied, “I swear to God, I am not saying this to pander to Jewish voters, but it’s a latke schmeared with gefilte fish eaten in a booth next to Barbara Streisand by the light of a menorah.”

Even current Mayor Eric Adams took his lumps — with Kam Patterson skewering the departing mayor in a cartoonish portrayal.

“This my guy right here, man,” Adams said of Cuomo. “Listen up: If you like me, you gonna love this guy. He like me, part two!

But Cuomo tried to distance himself from Adams.

“No, no, Eric,” Cuomo said “Remember the plan.”

“Oh, yeah, I got you,” Adams said. “I, Eric Adams, endorse him: Zorgon Mammograma.”

“No thank you,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani’s closing statement played up his social media appeal.

“Hey girl, I know you got a little white guilt for gentrifying that Spanish neighborhood, don’t you?” Mamdani said. “Why don’t you vote for me? You know, you’ll feel a little less bad about that chicken and rice shop getting turned into a Sweetgreen. So why don’t you hit me up at the ballot box, girl?”

“Mr. Mamdani, you were warned that this is not the forum for your TikTok-ery,” said Kenan Thompson, playing debate moderator Errol Louis.

And then Trump — played, as usual, by James Austin Johnson — crashed the sketch by taking a shot at the president’s recent boasts about acing a cognitive test.

“He’s too young to lead, folks,” Trump said of Mamdani. “He’s too young. He doesn’t have the wobbly walk or, frankly, the mind. I have ‘good brain!’ I took a cognitive test. I did so well on my cognitive test that they immediately gave me an MRI. They said, we’ve never seen anything like it.”

Watch above, via NBC.

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