‘SNL’ returns to analyze Marjorie Taylor Greene, COVID vaccine rollout

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From the attack on the United States Capitol to the inauguration of President Joe Biden and all the COVID-19 developments in between (including a still-growing number of California cases, a UK variant, and a very slow vaccine rollout), there So much has happened since “Saturday Night Live” last aired a new episode that it seemed an increasingly impossible task for the NBC late-night sketch comedy series to respond to the news. But the January 30 episode – the first of the New Year and the new political government – did its best by kicking things off with a fake show-in-the-show cold open sketch titled “What Still Works?” in which Kate McKinnon looked at what still worked in American society.

“It’s a new year and we have a new president, so some things should work,” she said.

Starting with a look at the government – and including special guest congressman, education committee member, and QAnon promoter Marjorie Taylor Greene (played by Cecily Strong), she had her doubts it was. It didn’t help that Strong’s Greene sat down, offered her a gun from her purse, and then launched a list of her theories, including that both the Parkland shooting and 9/11 were hoaxes. About the first, she said, “The teachers were actors and the kids were puppets,” wondering aloud, “Did anyone actually see it happen?” about the latter.

In addition, she claimed that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers.

“Are those real things you believe and tell other people about?” McKinnon asked. “You represent the American people, you can google and it says, ‘She’s a real member of the US government.'”

Concluding that the government is not working, McKinnon said she regretted not having ‘taken that gun’ before taking a look at the stock market condition, with Pete Davidson joining her as Derrick Boner, ‘the new majority shareholder of GameStop ‘.

McKinnon broke GameStop’s recent rise in shares by pointing out that it was valued at $ 17 / share two weeks ago and then moved to $ 413 / share. “Would you say this reflects the kind of business GameStop has been doing for the past two weeks?” When Davidson’s Boner pointed out that people are now downloading all of their games, McKinnon said it was a “dying company.”

“The whole system is a joke?” he said.

Of course, that prompted McKinnon to add the stock market alongside the government to the ‘not working’ pile before moving to social media, which some people think never worked.

Mikey Day and Alex Moffat joined her, playing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg respectively.

“Fundamental Facebook is still working,” said Moffat’s Zuckerberg. “Not only does it help form online communities, it also helps people meet in real life, such as at the Capitol.”

The introduction of the vaccine was next, with Kenan Thompson playing OJ Simpson as a recent recipient.

“Teachers can’t get the vaccine, but you can?” McKinnon asked. ‘People with long-term lung disease can’t, but you can? Out of all 3% of all Americans who got the vaccine, OJ was Simpson. “

The final subject was Tom Brady, and at a rare moment when the episode’s host participated in the cold open sketch, John Krasiski played Brady and came to speak for himself. But when McKinnon listed his accomplishments from his 10th Super Bowl to taking on “one of the worst franchises in football” to the championship in his freshman year, she just went ahead and declared that he was still working.

“It’s not like you’re some weird Trump guy or anything, right?”

“Thanks for having me,” he said, getting up and leaving the stage.

Watch a clip from the “SNL” January 30 cold open below:

The first sketch after Krasinski’s monologue also responded to recent politics, with the host playing a small town Georgia Sheriff who introduces his young New York relative (played by Davidson) to some of his townspeople. As Georgia turned blue in the election, they claim they are just like New York – and are quick to show how they think, with complaints about CNN, “with its corporate, neoliberal, ‘both sides’ nonsense,” as Aidy Bryant’s character said it (Just give me my Rachel Maddow! ”), list their pronouns, call Michelle Obama’s“ Becoming ”“ the good book ”, serve avocado toast, and shout out their Jewish senator (Jon Ossoff).

When Moffat showed up wearing a MAGA hat, Krasinski pointed out that “this is Stacey Abrams’s country” and had his deputy (Andrew Dismukes) escort him to the state line. But when Melissa Villaseñor, who played health inspector, complained that no one was wearing masks, they exclaimed that the pandemic was a hoax.

“Saturday Night Live” airs Saturdays from coast to coast at 11:30 pm ET / 8:30 pm PT on NBC.

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