It’s the viral phenomenon that gets ripped apart on social media, where you throw out random words and see what gets a response — but first, the opening sketch of “Saturday Night Live.”
Hosted by SNL alumnus Will Forte and featuring musical guest Måneskin, this weekend’s broadcast began with a parody of the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle, starring Kate McKinnon, Laura Ingraham.
She lamented the Biden administration’s first year, which she said had been a disaster, citing rising inflation, high gas prices and the cancellation of the green M&Ms. She added that the nation “still mourns the sudden loss of America’s father, Robert Durst.”
McKinnon introduced her first guest, Senator Ted Cruz, played by Aidy Bryant. Bryant explained that her beard was “like January 6: Shocking at first, but sadly it’s normalized.”
Bryant’s Cruz further warned her Texas voters, “February is going to be cold, so you may want to book your Cancún vacation now,” she said. “Live más, everyone.”
After yelling at her remaining sponsors (including Covid Negs, “the Covid test that’s guaranteed to be negative even if you have it”), McKinnon brought in Pete Davidson as Novak Djokovic, the unvaccinated tennis star recently deported from Australia.
“People love to rip you off your pedestal just because you’re very rich or you’re the best at tennis or because you’re going to a charity event with 200 kids while you’re dripping with Covid,” Davidson said.
Ego Nwodim appeared as conservative commentator Candace Owens (“It’s my greatest honor to keep fighting for African Americans,” she said, “no matter how many times they ask me to stop”), followed by James Austin Johnson in his recurring role as former President Donald J. Trump.
“I’m back just like ‘Tiger King 2’,” Johnson said. “You had fun the first time, but now you think, how can more people of this not be in jail already?”
This time, his Trump-style free associations were accompanied by a round of Wordle, the popular online word game (as well as a boast that he’d beat Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he opposes him for the presidential nomination). After some rumbling over the booster shot, John Mayer, Hilary Duff and Jason Momoa, Johnson landed on the correct Wordle answer which turned out to be – what else? —Trump.
Opening monologue of the week
Forte, who was a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” from 2002 to 2010, made his first appearance as host this weekend. And to hear him tell it, he wasn’t at all bitter that he was finally allowed to do it after hosting duties had previously been performed by his fellow alumni Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, and Fred Armisen. (Then Wiig again, then Hader, and four times Jason Sudeikis, Seth Meyers, and John Mulaney.)
But Forte wasn’t exactly happy with Wiig’s performance on stage. (“This is what I flew here for,” she explained as he chased her away. “Oh, great, so you know where the airport is,” he replied.) He wasn’t too happy about next week’s host, Willem Dafoe, at the house when “SNL” boss Lorne Michaels claimed Forte’s booking had been a mistake: “I texted Willem and, you know, autocorrect,” Michaels said.
MacGruber of the week
Come on, you didn’t think you’d get a Forte-hosted episode without a return (or three) from MacGruber, the hapless MacGyver wannabe he came from on “SNL”?
It’s been over a decade since Forte last starred MacGruber in an “SNL” sketch (though the character had his own movie and a streaming TV series). But rest assured, MacGruber is still an overconfident blowhard who finds himself trapped in rooms with ticking time bombs heralding his impending demise.
Oh, and now he’s an inveterate conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. Did we mention he was joined by Wiig and Ryan Phillippe, and he also believes in QAnon?
Weekend Update jokes of the week
At the Weekend Update desk, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on President Biden’s recent press conference and the Senate’s defeat of a voting rights bill.
Jost started:
President Biden marked the end of his first year in office with a two-hour press conference. Because that’s how long it took to list everything that went wrong. It was actually the longest presidential press conference in history. But as I’ve been told many times before, just because you’ve gone for a long time doesn’t mean you’ve done well.
Che continued:
Senate Republicans lined up to shake hands with Kyrsten Sinema after she voted against changing the filibuster to take the vote. Ah, the US Senate. Holding back black people with a silent handshake since 1787. Senator Bernie Sanders suggested he support the replacement of fellow Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Damn it, Bernie, are you stabbing your own colleagues in the back? That is unforgivable. I would never want to fire Colin, no matter how much better I think Bowen is. [The screen shows an image of Che anchoring Weekend Update with his “S.N.L.” co-star Bowen Yang]
Most important news development of the week
What started out as a not-so-innocent visit to the Weekend Update desk by Alex Moffat as his recurring character Guy Who Just Bought a Boat turned into an opportune opportunity to tell Jost about this week’s news that he and Davidson are among the investors. who won an auction for a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat.
Joining Jost and Moffat at the desk, Davidson declared in a tone of deep sadness, “We bought a ferry – the windowless van of the sea.”
Jost replied: “Yes, it is very exciting. We’ve thought about everything.”
To which Davidson added in disbelief:Even the mayor tweeted about it. And that’s how I found out we have a new mayor? What happened to Bloomberg?”
