A comedy skit that ended with former President Trump performing a fairly heartfelt rendition of “My Funny Valentine” wasn’t nearly the most baroque moment of “Saturday Night Live,” presented by Oscar Isaac this weekend. (That particular honor would go to a meatball singing routine, which we’ll get to shortly.)
But for starters, the crooning Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) almost made sense in the context of the open segment of “SNL,” which featured a fictional telethon, set in Mar-a-Lago and led by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. (Alex Moffat) and Laura Ingraham (Kate McKinnon), to make up for their differing views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As Moffat explained at the beginning of the sketch, which was called the “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular,” the cable channel’s personalities “had gotten into a bit of trouble because of all the nice things we said about Russia and the mean things we said about Russia.” said about Ukraine.”
McKinnon added: “In hindsight, we sounded pretty awful. And foresight.”
Moffat explained: “I kept saying that we should be more concerned about our own border being invaded by Mexico. But in my defense, I’m a racist, so I thought that was true.”
They appealed to their viewers to donate to what McKinnon called “the real victims of this invasion: the oligarchs.”
“So please open your wallet,” Moffat said. “And because this is Fox News, you can send money or take out a reverse mortgage.”
For their first guest, the hosts introduced the action star Steven Seagal (Bowen Yang), a friend of Putin’s.
“As someone who proudly pretends to be both Native American and Japanese, I feel for all people,” explains Yang. “Putin and I are, as they say in old Japan, Eskimo brothers.” He gave a brief demonstration of martial arts and drank a McDonald’s Shamrock Shake, which he called “the official seasonal drink of all aikido exhibitions.”
Next up were Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and Kimberly Guilfoyle (Cecily Strong), who sang their own version of the Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper duet “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.” (Sample text: “Tell me something boy / Don’t you like that big Russian convoy?”)
But the real musical star of the skit was Johnson who, like Trump, capped it off by talking and singing his way through a fabulous take on “My Funny Valentine,” which he dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eat your heart out, Chet Baker?
Fake accent of the week
“Inventing Anna,” Netflix’s miniseries about the exploits of convicted con artist Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), has given viewers a rather imaginative look at how it thinks journalism and law are practiced; it has also delivered the uniquely unplaceable foreign accent adopted by Julia Garner, who plays the title character.
In this filmed segment, Chloe Fineman tries to use that accent for herself, to see what it will bring her on “SNL”. Michael Che seems especially bothered to give it up).
Weekend update jokes of the week
At the Weekend Update desk, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the domestic and global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Weekend update Guest of the week
McKinnon, who makes a rare appearance as himself and doesn’t portray a character or celebrity, stopped by the Weekend Update desk to discuss a Florida bill that would prevent classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity, and whose critics call it the “Don’t Say Gay” account.
Initially, McKinnon falsely said she supported the bill: “When I was in high school in the ’90s, I was tortured by the constant use of the word ‘gay,'” she said, explaining that it word was used as an insult. “I felt awful,” McKinnon added, “and to hear Ron DeSantis take a stand and say, ‘No, you can’t say gay in school anymore,’ I’m so excited.”
After Jost explained what the bill could actually do, McKinnon withdrew her approval: “If the ’90s were right and gay means bad, then this is the most gay law I’ve ever seen,” she said.
Singing Meatballs of the Week
Finally, as promised, here’s the aforementioned segment where Sarah Sherman plays a woman who wraps her neck in a mysterious green ribbon, Chris Redd plays her overly curious boyfriend, and Isaac, Charli XCX, and several cast members play singing meatballs grown on Shermans. body.
We’re not saying we endorse it, we’re not saying we’re against it. We’re just saying, here’s a sketch that represents the ethos of “Saturday Night Live” in March 2022.