EGN NEWS DESK
It was inevitable that “Saturday Night Live” would pattern closely from the buffet of satirical potential provided by Thursday’s State of the Union. Perhaps the one query going into this weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Josh Brolin and that includes the musical visitor Ariana Grande, was who would play Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, who delivered the much-discussed Republican response to President Biden’s speech.
As it turned out, “S.N.L.” didn’t draw from its personal solid for this position, nevertheless it didn’t look far to search out somebody: Britt was performed by Scarlett Johansson, the two-time Academy Award-nominated actress, six-time “S.N.L.” host and — sure — spouse of Colin Jost, the Weekend Update co-anchor.
Following a quick introduction from Ego Nwodim as CNN’s Abby Phillip, the present started with Mikey Day, now the resident Biden impersonator at “S.N.L.,” taking his place in entrance of Punkie Johnson (as Vice President Harris) and Michael Longfellow (as Speaker Mike Johnson).
“Folks,” Day mentioned, “tonight I’m going to cowl lots. There’s going to be a whole lot of applause. So, Kamala, I hope you didn’t skip leg day, woman. You’re going to be up and down all night time.” (Naturally, Johnson stood up and applauded; Longfellow didn’t.)
Day continued: “Tonight, I’m additionally going to be speaking about my predecessor,” he mentioned. “Mainly as a result of each time I say predecessor, Mike Johnson shakes his head, like he simply by chance caught 30 seconds of the present ‘Euphoria.’ Look at that weirdo.”
After being booed by Heidi Gardner (who was enjoying Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene), Day threw to the Republican response: “I believe she’s going to assist me greater than the rest I might say right here,” he mentioned. “Enjoy.”
Johansson sat in a duplicate of the kitchen the place Britt gave her now-notorious speech, mimicking the senator’s staccato supply and odd turns of phrase.
“Tonight,” Johansson mentioned, “I’ll be auditioning for the a part of scary mother. And I’ll be performing an authentic monologue referred to as ‘This nation is hell.’”
Johansson added, “Like any mother, I’m going to do a pivot out of nowhere into an incredibly violent story about intercourse trafficking. And relaxation assured, each element about it’s actual. Except the 12 months, the place it came about and who was president when it occurred.”
As her rebuttal proceeded, Johansson slipped right into a QVC gross sales pitch and an allusion to the hypnosis scene in “Get Out.” She famous that “kitchens are the place households have the exhausting conversations.”
“Like the one we’ll have tomorrow about how Mommy freaked out your complete nation,” she mentioned.
Music video of the week
As a number, Brolin appeared recreation for absolutely anything “S.N.L.” threw at him, particularly if it concerned stripping all the way down to his underwear. But he shone simply as brightly (whereas holding his garments on) in a section the place he sings a sluggish jam with Andrew Dismukes, who performs an airplane passenger making an attempt to look at a film on Brolin’s display. The guys look dashing of their Michael Bolton-style wigs, Chloe Troast is available in with a vocal flourish on the finish, and it’s most likely probably the most that anybody has talked in regards to the Brad Pitt sci-fi thriller “Ad Astra” because it was launched.
Weekend Update jokes of the week
Over on the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the State of the Union.
Jost started:
Well, on Thursday, Sleepy Joe lastly woke the hell up. President Biden delivered the State of the Union and he truthfully form of crushed it. I imply, even Trump’s home elf, Lindsey Graham, was laughing and having fun with it. Normally he’s solely that blissful when he’s secretly watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Biden’s speech was nice. But you might additionally inform the bar was very low. The New York Post’s headline was simply, “He’s Alive.” That’s it. That’s like a headline you see about Bigfoot. Biden additionally acquired a giant response whereas addressing the difficulty of abortion when he mentioned, “We’re about to learn the way a lot political energy ladies have.” Then he turned to Kamala and mentioned, “Except you.” Former president and present reverse-mortgage applicant Donald Trump criticized Biden’s speech, saying, “The phrases usually are not flowing easily out of his mouth.” Well, we are able to’t all converse with the identical easy grace as Donald J. Trump. [Clip of Trump slurring his words at a rally.] It seems like somebody simply inserted a colonoscopy digital camera.
Che continued:
Some Democrats criticized President Biden for speaking about migrants by utilizing the time period “illegals.” But come on, he’s 81 years outdated, let him slide. He means effectively. Like when my mother put up that signal to “Stop Oriental hate.”
Absinthe hallucination of the week
We’ve nonetheless acquired a couple of months to go earlier than Grande and Bowen Yang share the display collectively within the coming movie model of “Wicked.” Presumably, it’s going to have barely larger manufacturing values than this very foolish parody of Baz Luhrmann’s film musical “Moulin Rouge!” by which Grande and Yang take the components performed by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor (the movie’s doomed lovers, Satine and Christian). Though the sketch has a tenuous tie-in with this weekend’s Oscars, it’s principally an excuse for the 2 actors to sing in a bombastic, Luhrmann-esque type as they carry out snippets of songs that embrace TLC’s “Creep,” Styx’s “Come Sail Away” and — repeatedly — “Happy Birthday to You.”
