Kate McKinnon has been lauded "a superhero with the power to stop us in our tracks" for her teary tribute to her doppelganger Hillary Clinton.
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Esteemed film critic Richard Roeper tweeted the sentiment, that many of the comedian's fans have long known, during the opening scene of Saturday Night Live.
It was the first episode of the live sketch show following Donald Trump's election victory and the death of singer Leonard Cohen.
McKinnon, dressed as Clinton in a white pantsuit, played the piano and sang a haunting rendition of Cohen's hit, Hallelujah.
The Ghostbusters star, who has been playing Clinton on SNL for years, performed in front of a quiet audience before finishing with tears in her eyes and saying with a shaky voice: "I'm not giving up. And neither should you."
Her comedic partner in crime for the past six weeks, Alec Baldwin, who has been applauded for his uncanny impersonations of the president elect, did not appear on the show.
Throughout the final weeks of the campaign the show aired a number of election skits fronted by McKinnon and Baldwin, during that time SNL achieved some of its best ratings in eight years.
The only other reference made to Trump throughout the episode was a positive one.
During his opening monologue, the host - black comedian Dave Chappelle who was fronting the show for the first time - recounted his recent visit to the White House, a place where "black guys" where historically banished from.
"I thought about that, and I looked at that black room, and saw all those black faces, and Bradley [Cooper], and I saw how happy everybody was. These people who had been historically disenfranchised. It made me feel hopeful and it made me feel proud to be an American and it made me very happy about the prospects of our country," he said.
"So, in that spirit, I'm wishing Donald Trump luck. And I'm going to give him a chance, and we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one too. Thank you very much."
