Live From New York - It's CNBC on Saturday Night Live

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Candidates on stage at the CNBC GOP candidates debate.

You know you've made it when you're parodied on Saturday Night Live. You know you've REALLY made it when you're not the one being made fun of in the parody.

It was probably with sighs of relief that Maria Bartiromo and John Harwood saw themselves portrayed with only minimal caricature-ization (did I just make up a word?) during the opening sketch on "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend.

The sketch spoofed CNBC's Republican candidates debate last week. You know, the one that highlighted three candidates: Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, and...uh...oops.

You knew Governor Rick Perry's brain freeze during the debate, when he couldn't remember the third federal department he'd like to cut, was going to be joke #1 this weekend.

Bill Hader as Perry delivered the gaffe, and when the moderators are unimpressed with his floundering, "Perry" replies, “Come on man. I said oops," before pointing out, “How cool is Ronnie Paul with his little birdy arms?”

Perry withers to the point that his rivals feel eventually awful for him. Newt Gingrich's chin quivers. “Maria, can we move on?" asks Jason Sudeikis as Mitt Romney, "I want to be president, but not like this.”

Finally, it gets so bad that Herman Cain (Kenan Thompson) blurts out, "Hey, leave him alone! I’ll tell you about the women. I’ll tell you about all the vivid details. And there are a lot. Just leave this poor man alone!"

Ah, if only real life politics and politicians were as sympathetic to each other as they are on SNL. They're certainly as funny.

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