It’s been a memorable week for public figures committing crimes, and ‘Saturday Night Live’ gave some of them a forum to apologize for a fictional talk show called ‘Oops, You Did It Again’ hosted by the relatively flawless Britney Spears.
This week’s broadcast, hosted by ‘Bridgerton’ star Regé-Jean Page and featuring musical guest Bad Bunny, began when cast member Chloe Fineman, who played Spears, reminded viewers that they knew her ‘from my upbeat Instagram- videos and the word ‘conservatorship. ”
She added that she now had a show where “people could apologize for things they did wrong because after the ‘Free Britney’ documentary came out, I get hundreds of excuses a day.”
Her first guest was Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, played by Aidy Bryant in braided hair, blue jeans and a Cancún family vacation T-shirt. Bryant held up a frothy drink and explained unconvincingly that she wasn’t actually tanned – “I just cried myself red over my fellow Texans, and that’s why I drink in their honor,” she said.
Bryant added that she was “in a little bit of hot water, which I think is something no one in Texas has.” When her apology fell short, she said, “I’m sorry, I’m pretty bad at human things.”
The next guest on the show was Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo from New York, played by Pete Davidson. Davidson first asked the audience if it had welcomed him “because indoor dining is back in New York,” then sheepishly admitted, “Okay, I know. It’s the stuff in the nursing home.”
Asked to elaborate, Davidson added, “Some of the people who died in the nursing homes were counted not as deaths in a nursing home, but as hospital deaths. What actually happens at Disney World, okay? People die and they move bodies. They say, “Oh, I think Brenda died in the parking lot, not on the teacups.” ”
Told that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio felt he should be examined, Davidson lashed out, “I will bury him in the tallest grave this city has ever seen,” he said.
The third and final guest was Gina Carano, the former “Mandalorian” star who was fired by Disney, played in the sketch by Cecily Strong.
Although Strong denied doing anything wrong, Fineman reminded her that she shared an Instagram post comparing US politics to Nazi Germany.
“I never would have made that Nazi comparison if I had known everyone was going to be such a Nazi about it,” Strong said.
When Bryant’s Cruz tried to sympathize with her, Strong wiped her off, “I’m strong and you’re a pile of soup,” she said.
Cultural barometer of the week
‘SNL’ was generous this week when it came to acknowledging actors new to the pop culture firmament, including the host, Page (whose periodic romance ‘Bridgerton’ was satirized in this somewhat bawdy sketch which was broadcast late at night). Earlier in the evening, in a series of actor round tables hosted by Ego Nwodim, Page appeared as the actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami”. Chris Redd played the star of “Judas and the Black Messiah” Daniel Kaluuya.
Those actors’ recreations and their award-winning films were pretty flawless. The jokes, however, were mostly about the fact that Nwodim’s character fawn was above the actors’ British accents (and about Kenan Thompson as Ice Cube, whose attempts to impersonate British didn’t go as smoothly).
Music video of the week
Nwodim returned for some well-deserved filming time in this slickly produced music video, playing a nightclub patron whose fantasy of having it out with a handsome fellow reveler (Page) gives way to the reality that she basically lived in closed last year. her apartment and gradually lost her mind. (Hence the song title, ‘Loco’.)
As Nwodim raps in the video: “I’m loco, as in my brain done-o / But hey, you laugh or you cry like ‘Coco’.” Among her few acquaintances are Davidson (who has gone so crazy in his own quarantine that he understands the movie “Tenet”) and Bad Bunny (as a singing houseplant).
Weekend Update jokes of the week
At the Weekend Update desk, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff about Cruz’s canceled vacation in Cancún and the Texas winter weather crisis.
Jost started:
Well, if you hate Ted Cruz this was a pretty fun week. And if you like Ted Cruz, then you are Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz, whose face is slowly being claimed by nature, said his decision to go on a family vacation to Cancun during Texas weather conditions was clearly a mistake. Just like the tattoo he got there. [At that moment, a satirical photo appeared behind Jost of a lower-back tattoo of a leaping dolphin.]
Jost continued:
Cruz initially released a statement saying he was only going on vacation because his daughters forced him to go. And if you think throwing his daughters under the bus was bad, Cruz would want you to know that that statement was his wife’s idea. I just love that after he left Texas, he came back in a Texas flag mask like nothing happened. That’s like Jared and Ivanka walking Fifth Avenue in “I Love New York” shirts.
Che picked up the riff and added:
Cruz would have returned from Mexico earlier, but it took him about 40 minutes to get out of a hammock. This week’s massive winter storm caused millions of Texans to lose power. It was the most snow seen in Texas since Michael Irvin’s Super Bowl party. Many Texans are without heat and clean water after the pipes were frozen in the extreme cold. “Boy, something like that would never happen in New York,” said people who have never lived in the projects.
Weekend Update at the desk of the week
Davidson returned to the Weekend Update desk for the latest in his series of personal monologues, this one on the impact of Valentine’s Day in lockdown. As Davidson explained, “it was not my fault the first time I was alone.” And, he said, after watching the documentary “Saving Britney” with his mother, he had to leave the home they share on Staten Island.
Davidson said with pretended annoyance, “My mother has much more of a business to take over my finances than Britney’s father ever did. I was like, ‘Wait, can she do that? And she hasn’t? Doesn’t she love me? All Britney did was shave her head. I have a life size tattoo of the owl from Tootsie Pop. “
Davidson added, “My mom is a lot like this show. No matter what I do, I am never asked to leave. In addition, they are both very old and noticeably tired. “