If you were expecting to hear a lot about Will Smith’s slap in the face from Chris Rock at the Oscars on March 27, tonight’s Saturday night live opening didn’t have much to offer.
Sure, James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump popped up near the end to declare, “I saw a slap, I enjoyed a slap, I was very impressed with my hitch.” Johnson’s Trump twirled a few references to the King’s previous films Richard stars around and went on to say, “Quite an arm on Hitch, I always knew Hitch had an arm.”
“Back in Pursuit of Happyness, he’s beating the machine in and out of the subway,” Trump rambled this season. “I thought it was great. You know, they slept in the bathroom in the movie. It’s so sad. It’s a sad night for Hitch too.”
And that was it before the convo moved on to the latest January 6 revelations.
Instead, it was, “Good morning Vietnam!” yelled SNL’s Alex Moffat as a dimwitted Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy at the start of tonight’s cold opening of the NBC show.
The bespectacled Moffat as Doocy began sitting alongside castmates Heidi Gardner as Ainsley Earhardt and Mikey Day as Brian Kilmeade, joking with his peers about what they were up to, Donald Trump’s truth app and crush on Sen Ted Cruz at the SCOTUS confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. All of this could have jumped into a variety of topics with standard Fox News hyperbole.
At the end of a week that has seen the whole planet talking about Smith’s attack on Rock, to dig Jada Pinkett Smith over her hair, SNL then decided to go to judge Clarence Thomas and his increasingly infamous wife, Ginni Thomas appears to have been deep in the MAGA trenches during the 2020 election and attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
So what we got was SNL heavyweights Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon as the seemingly deeply compromised couple. “Judge Thomas always plays close to the ball, I respect that,” Kilmeade quipped from Day, as Thomas von Thompson brushed off even the most innocuous requests. “Well Ginni the left is losing their minds right now over some perfectly normal message you sent to your pal Mark Meadows on January 6th, is that right?” The impassioned Day Kilmeade added – as you can see below:
Justice Clarence and Ginni Thomas join Fox & Friends presenters to address the news about their eventful week pic.twitter.com/pADny2ERao
– Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 3, 2022
“I take my duty as Yoko Ono of the Supreme Court very seriously,” said SNL’s MVP McKinnon as mad-eyed Mrs. Thomas pinned her husband. “All I want is a tidal wave of biblical vengeance to wash away the Biden crime family as far as Gitmo, and then we release the Kraken,” she continued, drawing quite extensively on Thomas’ actual now-published lyrics on the former The Celebrity Apprentice Host’s last chief of staff at the White House.
Despite the plethora of easily derided topics since SNL’s last new show last month, the Lorne Michaels-produced series stuck to its tried-and-true Fox News schtick tonight. After the not-very-well-done sit-down with Justice Thomas and Ginni Thomas, the Cold Open switched back to FNC’s The Five and Cecily Strong making a drunk Judge Jeanine Pirro.
Strong’s Pirro delved at least a little deeper into currently available material and jumped into a segment called “Disney vs America.” Illuminate the chaos at the House of Mouse over how to deal with Florida’s patently discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” law. “Now it’s woke up, Disney won’t stop until all of Disney World is full of Twinkerbells and Cinderfellas and that gay Mr. Toad.” Before literally opening a beer, Strongs also gave Pirro a plug for Kyle Rittenhouse’s new cookbook and some greetings GOP Congresswoman Madison Cawthorn’s wild claims about cocaine and orgy invitations in DC
It was all a bit of a disappointment and a way out as the week raged about what Michael and the latest Not Ready For Primetime Players would come up with to tackle the attack on one of their alums.
Some have whispered if the 1990-1993 performer and three-time host Rock himself could make an appearance on SNL tonight. After three nights in Boston to open his Ego Death World Tour, the New Jack City vet traveled just over 100 miles from Manhattan in Atlantic City today for two evening shows at the Borgata Event Center.
Back to its first new show since March 12, SNL certainly had plenty to choose from for its cold opening.
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden’s strategic impromptu call for regime change in the Kremlin, tomorrow’s Grammys, and this week’s launch of CNN+ all had to be contenders. There was Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s insanely partisan hearing for SCOTUS, and oh yes, Smith’s widely condemned slap on rock at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27th.
Even when Saturday Night Live decided to pretty much skip the slap itself, there was still the fallout and blame game that Smith was allowed to stay at the Oscars to collect his best actor award after attacking Rock. Also, there was the resignation of the former Fresh Prince from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the past 30 hours, before the group’s board of directors took possible steps to eject the 20-year-old member or suspend him.
A comedy goldmine in every sense, though at its core the incident was dark at best.
Tonight’s show 16 of SNL’s 47th season features Jerrod Carmichael in his hosting debut and rapper Gunna as a musical guest. Next week Jake Gyllenhaal will return for his second hosting stint (last was in 2007) and Lizzo will be both host (her first time) and musical guest (her second time) on April 16th. It’s worth noting that April 16 is just two days before the board of AMPAS meets to make its final decision on what punishment Will Smith will receive for his self-described “shocking, painful and inexcusable” behavior at the 94th Academy Awards has to expect.
Check out tonight’s cold openings above.