With 2024 underway and the presidential race in full swing, it was time for “Saturday Night Live” to get back to doing what it loves best: mocking former President Donald J. Trump .
In its first new show of the year, hosted by Jacob Elordi and featuring musical guest Reneé Rapp, “SNL” kicked off with a skit with its resident Trump impressionist James Austin Johnson. It parodied Trump's spontaneous remarks in a Lower Manhattan courtroom where he is standing trial again on charges that he defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll, following a jury verdict in May that Trump defamed and sexually assaulted her .
After a brief introduction by Chloe Fineman, who played Alina Habba, Trump's lawyer (“I'm new to this and learning,” she said), Johnson appeared as Trump and quickly scaled back his own legal representation.
“You're great on TV,” Johnson told Fineman, adding, “Maybe the worst lawyer I've ever had, which is quite an achievement.” Look at this team – this is the low point, folks, this is the one who said “yes”. I'm in the running for president, and this is the best I can get. Feels like a red flag, doesn’t it?”
Johnson turned to his remaining lawyers and said, “By the way, you're not getting paid.”
He promised to abide by a confidentiality agreement that prevented him from speaking about the current defamation trial. “So I'm not going to say the judge is an idiot,” Johnson said, “or where he lives or what kind of crappy car he drives. “I didn't know they still made Wagoneers.”
Johnson celebrated his first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses by defeating rivals like Ron DeSantis (“Ron DeStupid,” he said. “It just works. We're going with Ron DeStupid”) and Vivek Ramaswamy (“who dropped out of the race and has Agreed to live in my suit pocket,” he said. “I love my little 'Ratatouille'.”
He then contrasted himself with President Biden, his likely rival in this year's election. “He sniffs little girls’ hair,” Johnson said. “Of course I’m different, I do far worse things. Have you ever seen the video of me dancing with Epstein? Boy, is that some dark energy?”
Johnson predicted he would prevail because of his loyal voters: “We just need them to stay alive until November,” he said. “Stay alive until November. Just pull the lever and drop dead.”
Whatever the case, Johnson predicted that 2024 would be an exciting year for him. “I’m either going to go to prison, become president or, frankly, the purge,” he said. “Maybe all three; Let’s rotate the chamber.”
Celebrity Service of the Week
Awards season has already spawned several viral video clips of celebrities talking to each other in inaudible conversations on camera. So who better to interpret what they're saying than two professional lip readers played by Elordi and Bowen Yang? Well, probably everyone else – the two were truly awful but hilarious as they misinterpreted a romantic heart-to-heart between Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner and an obvious Jennifer Lawrence joke. Fittingly, for a comedy sketch about spoken language and its meaning, no written words can do justice to the dopey voice Elordi adopts when he tries to lip-read Travis Kelce, a Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Taylor Swift's boyfriend .
Fly across the friendly skies for the week
There's essentially nothing positive about this month's episode in which a door plug blew on an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff. But that didn't stop “SNL” from looking for a positive twist in this fake commercial for Alaska Airlines, which reveals the company's (fake) new slogan: “You didn't die and you have a cool story.” In the replacement Advertisement also notes that Alaska was the carrier of an episode in which an off-duty pilot was accused of trying to shut down a flight's engines in October and was charged with more than 80 counts of attempted murder. A flight attendant, played by Kenan Thompson, says, “Now we're so proud to say this was our second worst flight.”
Weekend Update Jokes of the Week
Over at the Weekend Update desk, Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to discuss the 2024 presidential election.
Jost began:
Well folks, the year is 2024. But is it? [His screen showed photographs of Trump and Biden] I don't know about you, but when I think about 2020, I never think that we should rewind this year. And if you're confused, you're not the only one. At a rally on Thursday, President Biden said he was confused when he claimed he had just taken a photo with a woman who wasn't even there. Then the next day, Donald Trump repeatedly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi. Guys, I don't know if we should have this election. Honestly, it's starting to feel like elder abuse. And I don't even blame them – I blame us for letting it happen. It reminds me of those bum fight videos where two homeless people fight over money. And now we look back and ask ourselves: How could we as a society allow this? So I think the best solution is to simply tell Trump and Biden that they both won. And that we are very proud of them. And that they can rest now.
Che:
In Monday's Iowa caucuses, Ron DeSantis defeated Nikki Haley in second place. [His screen showed a photograph of DeSantis smiling awkwardly.] Well, whatever that is, that should put a face on his face.
Weekend Update Desk Segment of the Week
When news broke Friday that Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina had endorsed Trump at a rally in New Hampshire, Devon Walker impersonated Scott to justify his support. After making fun of Scott's voice (“My voice is like if Bill Clinton was actually Black,” Walker said. “I sound like the Princess and the Frog. I sound like Forrest Gump doing a rendition of Ja Rule.” “). Walker explained that he didn't see color: “When I looked at all the people at Trump's rally, I didn't see a single color,” he said. He also claimed that asking whether Haley was born in America was not a “racist dig.” Walker then pulled out what he described as a real “racist dog whistle” and blew on it, seemingly to no avail – until Jost, wincing in discomfort, asked, “What's that noise?”