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has done one thing exceptionally well—made fun of politics, politicians and the political process. The tradition goes back to the early years of the show when Dan Aykroyd famously impersonated Richard Nixon, John Belushi was Henry Kissinger and Chevy Chase did an ongoing riff on President Gerald Ford’s famed clumsiness. It was such good fun that Ford’s press secretary, Ron Nessen, even hosted the late-night sketch comedy show in 1976 and Ford himself appeared in a pre-taped opening sequence.

Expect more of the same as season No. 42 (Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC) continues to roast the making of president No. 45. This year the challenges of election-year humor are a bit different, according to Colin Jost and Michael Che, the Emmy-nominated duo who man the

desk, continuing the mock-news legacy that began with Chase and Jane Curtin sitting behind that legendary desk and ultimately led to Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers holding court.

SNL cast members Colin Jost, Aidy Bryant and Michael Che (Lloyd Bishop)

“Normally you’re educating people with the jokes you’re telling,” Jost says. “This year, people are overinformed about both candidates. The hard thing is to keep it exciting or find a different take.”

What makes this election even more compelling: Everyone’s minds are already made up, Che believes. “No one is on the fence,” he says. “They know who these people are, so what we do is to attack the actual situation, what was said, what it means and what the thinking was behind it.”

For cast member Cecily Strong, who has parodied Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina—and last year hosted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C.—the show offers a chance for audiences to let off steam.

“Humor is a powerful tool,” she says. “All of us do it because it’s how we best express ourselves, and the show is about poking fun and being able to laugh and scream and yell about things too,” she says.

Related: Why Lorne Michaels Loves a Political Debate

The writers and cast are also conscious of being fair, especially during divisive political times.

“When we put together a show, I don’t think the math is exactly that we’ll always do one Clinton joke and one Trump joke,” Strong says. “But if something is ridiculous, we get to point it out no matter who is behind it. We’re all about whoever is being the goofier person at that moment.”

Cast member Aidy Bryant believes SNL offers “politics for everyone” and a way for viewers to put up a mirror to the week’s events, with agile writers and performers getting every sketch ready for showtime at record speed.

“Maybe I feel this way since I grew up with the show,” Bryant says. “SNL was how I learned what was going on, and maybe I didn’t fully understand who Monica Lewinsky was, but I liked Molly Shannon. The show resonated for me as a kid. Now that I’m on SNL, it’s fun to have a next-level understanding of politics.”

and they’ll tell you that the speed at which a sketch goes from the writers’ room to the set is the true hallmark of the show. Take the night last season when Larry David hosted. “We knew we would do a

parody during that show,” says Sarah Schneider, co–head writer with Chris Kelly, both of whom joined SNL in 2011. The result was “Bern Your Enthusiasm,” now considered one of

’s most popular sketches. “The week of the show, the primary was on Tuesday and we couldn’t write the sketch until we knew if [Bernie Sanders] won or lost. We ended up writing an entire sketch late at night and into the morning. It was fun to respond to something on Tuesday, write it on Wednesday and have it performed on Saturday.”

For the writing team, it’s ideal when the show becomes part of the national conversation and maybe even moves the needle for voters, a subject several political science professors have studied.

“The reality is that if something resonates on our show, the odds are it’s something people are already feeling,” Jost says.

And there’s a definite thrill when a politician references an SNL sketch. After Hillary Clinton appeared on the show, during campaign stops she referenced her “bartender” alter ego, Val, from a skit with Kate McKinnon.

“That was cool and very surreal,” Schneider says.

Cooler still, many of the catchphrases attributed to the presidents themselves were actually lines from

“Lines like ‘Not gonna do it, wouldn’t be prudent’ or ‘I can see Russia from my house’ were never said by the actual politician we parodied,” Che says.

Still, humor without humanity isn’t enough. “Trump and Clinton represent everything that the other side is afraid of,” Jost says. “They are cartoons for so many people on both sides. We’re looking for ways to come at them in a more human way—the humanity of them as people versus attacking them or making blanket statements about them.

“We’re not about Trump is the devil, Clinton is the corporate robot,” Jost says. “It’s something Che does well—that whenever everyone else is piling up the jokes like that, he’ll find a fair way to find something that undercuts some of it.”

Belushi, Chase and Aykroyd would definitely approve.

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