With Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump blessedly out of the picture, and no clear strategy for how to mock Joe Biden, Saturday Night Live has been relying on the immensely talented Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong to do most of the comedic heavy-lifting. And on Saturday night, they came through yet again.
This week’s cold open began with a Britney Spears-hosted talk show called Oops, You Did It Again—and the guests joining Chloe Fineman’s Britney were none other than Aidy Bryant’s Ted Cruz, fresh off his embarrassing trip to Cancun during an energy crisis in his home state of Texas. Bryant’s Cruz emerged to roars from the crowd sporting braided hair, while balancing rollaway luggage in one hand and a pina colada with an umbrella in it in the other.
“Hola, everyone,” he said, adding, “Oh, I’m not tan. I just cried myself red over my fellow Texans. And that’s why… I drink in their honor.”
When Britney asked about how Cruz “abandoned” the crisis for a family vacation in Mexico, Cruz replied, “And now I’m in a little bit of hot water, which I’m told is a thing no one in Texas has.”
Then, he issued his version of an apology: “I deeply regret my actions over the last couple of days—mostly flying United. Ah, I’m sorry! I’m pretty bad at human stuff.”
Ever the intrepid host, Britney pressed Cruz on how people have been calling him a “coward” for his, well, cowardly actions. “Let me ask you this: would a coward have the cajones to blame his actions on his young daughters?” said Cruz. “The whole trip was the girls’ idea! They love Cancun. There’s so much for kids to do—the topless beach, shots at Senor Frogs, swimming with sick dolphins. They love it.”
Later on, Cecily Strong’s Gina Carano joined the chaotic couch. Carano, as you may have heard, was fired from the Disney+ Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian after tweeting about everything from QAnon conspiracies, to Pizzagate conspiracies, to transphobia, to anti-mask nonsense, to COVID skepticism, to downplaying the plight of Holocaust victims.
“I’ve done nothing wrong. Nobody can even explain what I did wrong. Explain it!”
“OK, on Instagram, you said conservatives have it as bad as people living in Nazi Germany,” fired back Britney.
“OK, congrats—you explained it. Look, I never would have made that Nazi comparison if I’d known everybody was gonna be such a Nazi about it.”
