President Trump’s “shithole countries” controversy was seemingly tailor-made for Saturday Night Live. The outrageously racist comment—even for him—was made in a closed-door meeting with members of Congress so there is no video of him making it. Who wouldn’t want to see Alec Baldwin’s Trump recreate it on SNL?
But instead of starting in the Oval Office, this week’s new episode opened on the sexual tension of Morning Joe.
After moving quickly past Trump’s latest “blatant use of racist language,” the show welcomed a very special guest, Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff—as portrayed by SNL alum Fred Armisen. Was there anything he left out of the explosive book, they wanted to know?
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For one, Wolff said, there were the “baby races” in which Trump “would ask to have two babies placed in his office, usually of different ethnicities, someone would put a bowl of goldfish crackers on the other side of the room, and Trump would say ‘one thousand bucks on the black one.’”
As for the book’s alleged inaccuracies, he said, “You read it, right? You liked it? You had fun. Well, what's the problem? You got the gist, so shut up.”
Armisen, however, wasn’t even the most impressive cameo in the show’s cold open. For more than a year, SNL has struggled with how to portray Steve Bannon, turning him into a faceless Death figure incapable of making jokes or being funny. This time, when he joined the show, the hood came off and underneath was none other than Bill Murray.
“I never said Don Jr. was treasonous,” Bannon told Wolff. “Well, I certainly never said that he cracked like an egg on TV.” When Wolff said “that sounds exactly like you,” Bannon admitted, “OK, that does sound like me. Yeah, alright, good reporting.”
Murray’s Bannon insisted that his “dynasty” was still “dawning” despite his ouster from Breitbart News, but when the hosts asked him what he’s up to now, he replied, “I’m working on a web series for Crackle. It’s called Cucks in Cars Getting Coffee. I’m also coming out with a new line of wrinkled barn jackets calls Frumpers for Guys. Springtime—skin care line. Blotch.”
“I convinced this country to elect Donald Trump and I can do it again,” he continued. “I’m already auditioning candidates. Got some prospects. Logan Paul. Martin Shkreli. The Subway guy, Jared Fogle.” He even had a new slogan: “It’s time for America to slide down the Bannon-ster.”
The sketch ended with a third special guest, this one actually a part of SNL’s cast. As newly crowned 2020 frontrunner Oprah Winfrey, Leslie Jones appeared to add fuel to the fire.
“Well, I am a celebrity, so I’m qualified,” she said. “But I’m different from Donald Trump because I’m actually a billionaire. So who knows? I mean, there is only one job in the world more powerful than being president. Being Oprahhhhh!”
