SNL Kicks Off Season 46 With Spoof on Trump/Biden Debate
Though my fascination with this show has waxed and waned over the years, one thing still remains true; Saturday Night Live seems to always do a killer job casting the right characters to play contemporary political figures. And, of course, there is no exception this year.
As the world heads further into 'uncertain times' (Man, I hate saying that), the political firestorm surrounding November's election continues to heat up, too. With that being said, the only real way you can kick off season 46 of Saturday Night Live was to spoof last week's Presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
The show, hosted by Chris Rock, finally came back in full-force with a live studio audience and actors performing skits in house. If you remember, the last several episodes of season 45 back in May were filmed via Zoom and Skype as cast members filmed portions of the show from their apartments in quarantine.
The cold open, prior to Chris Rocks' stand-up style introduction monologue, consisted of Chris Wallace opening the debate and President Trump, played by Alec Baldwin, and Joe Biden, played by Jim Carrey, took to the stage to recreate last Tuesday's program. As you would imagine the skit was full of Baldwin shouting random things and interrupting Carrey as he would try to speak. Naturally, there were several moments of Carrey (Biden) forgetting where he was in a sentence and drifting off. We also got to hear Joe Biden's inner monologue as he fought off fits of rage during all of the interruptions.
Maya Rudolph, who plays a hilarious Kamala Harris, also joined in on the fun and came out on stage to 'scold' both boys for their behavior and reminded them there would be snacks backstage after the show.
Chris Rock seems to fumble his first couple of minutes on stage as he addresses safety changes to the show and, for a couple seconds, seems to forget the people in front of him are called first responders. However, he recovers with a big laugh while joking about snorting drugs with Chris Farley.
What would an SNL episode be without 'Weekend Update'. Here you can see the show take on everything from masks, COVID and Trump, to the ban of TikTok here in the United States.