‘SNL’: Hosts Woody Harrelson; Cold Open parodies Trump’s visit to Ohio
Following a toxic train derailment in eastern Palestine, Ohio, “Saturday Night Live” had its own take on former President Donald Trump’s visit there.
Patrick Colson-Price, USA TODAY
Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News took center stage on Saturday during the opening skit of “Saturday Night Live.”
Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang replaced the real-life ‘Fox & Friends’ trio, who tried to explain newly revealed texts sent by Fox hosts, which cast doubt on 2020 voter fraud claims despite their on-air credibility, insisting that only a portion of those emails were published.
Day noted that a real text saying “Rudy Giuliani is crazy” was meant to read “unbelievably hot, and I want to lick that dye off his head”, a reference to an accident when Giuliani’s hair dye apparently ran during a press conference at Republic National Committee Headquarters.
The trio then invited Trump supporter Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, to the program, warning him to avoid saying anything derogatory about Dominion because of the lawsuit. Played by SNL’s new Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson, Lindell went on to announce that each voting machine actually had “a Venezuelan oompa-loompa inside that eats votes with its little mouth.”
Host Travis Kelce, the tight end of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs (who had his entire family, including his brother Jason, center for the losing Philadelphia Eagles) brought a John Cena-like imposing vibe to the show. And he handled the comedy with style. Jason Kelce even made a sketch of it, playing alongside his brother as Gardner’s new boyfriend.
In a fun pre-recorded clip, Yang is seen with a group of women before turning to the camera and, in the style of a prescription drug commercial, beginning a pitch for Low Effort Boyfriend Straight Male Friend. for any gay man where interactions are wonderfully superficial, like playing video games and eating chicken wings.
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“Does Straight Male Friend offer the same deep, nurturing relationship I have with my daughters? No,” Yang says. “Does Straight Male Friend know my last name? No. But that’s kind of the beauty of it.”
Kelce and Gardner teamed up again for a skit where they play reunited lovers who are interrupted in bed by Yang, playing Garrett from the dating app Hinge, who wore a t-shirt with Stewie Griffin from “Family Guy”.
The highlight of the sketch was Gardner snapping repeatedly, as Yang struck a pose as Stewie, then disappeared into a bathroom trying to convince himself not to kill them both. .
Eventually, Kelce invites Yang to bed with the two of them, at which point Gardner completely gives up hope of keeping a straight face.