As Facebook and Instagram are banned in Russia, President Joe Biden turned to TikTok stars to win the “information war” against Moscow on the latest episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
The show began with James Austin Johnson’s Biden gathering at the White House with young singers, rappers, pranksters and make-up artists, a middle-aged roofer who the White House mistook for Charlie D’Amelio, and a 55-year-old man. who has a toilet plunger stuck to his nipple.
The sketch was hardly far-fetched; White House officials briefed 30 viral activities on the war app on Thursday via Zoom on Thursday.
“People say this is the first war on TikTok,” the president told social media stars. “It’s hard for me because I’m the presidents landline, so I need you. I understand Putin. I understand war. There’s one thing I don’t understand: the computer.”
“He means technology but says ‘computer,'” spokeswoman Jen Psaki, played by Kate McKinnon, said.
From LR: Kate McKinnon as Press Secretary Jan Psaki, James Austin Johnson as President Biden and Bowen Yang. Youtube / SNL
Biden was stunned when the lovable character Aide Bryant accused his son Hunter of starting the war in Ukraine.
“You don’t expect a girl with animal makeup to be right,” Johnson joked.
The parody came to an end when the camera zoomed in on the piston stuck to Bowen Young’s chest as he poetically praised his TikTok channel for peace in Europe.
Host Zoë Kravitz shared her creative process behind creating the role of Catwoman in The Batman.
“To prepare for the role, I watched Musical Cats every day for a year, and I heard that Joaquin Phoenix was preparing for Joker the same way Joaquin Phoenix was preparing,” Kravitz told viewers in the studio.
A cat signal broadcast over Manhattan called Michelle Pfeiffer and Eartha Kitt’s catwomen of yesteryear (McKinnon and Ego Nwodom) to interrupt her monologue, along with catwoman played by Bryant and comedian Katt Williams spoofed by Chris Redd.
Actress Zoë Kravitz appears in the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live. SNL/Youtube
In her first skit, Kravitz played a garrulous lady-in-waiting who used her speech at a wedding reception to inform the groom (Kyle Mooney) that the bride (Cecilia Strong) was driving drunk, sleeping with over 900 men, and storming the Capitol. January 6.
A pre-recorded ad hoax extolled the Amazon Go contactless store that bills you electronically. While white shoppers enjoyed not opening their wallets, shoppers of color Kravitz, Nvodim, Kenan Thompson and Punky Johnson braced for arrest for walking out of the store without paying.
McKinnon played a nerdy high school student who needed to call a fellow geek (Bryant) for real-time advice on how to flirt with Kravitz after their school day.
In the “Princess and the Frog” clip on the lesser-known Disney Channel, Princess Kravitz refuses to kiss Redd’s frog when he explains how amphibians have sex and confesses that he is the Prince of Newark, New Jersey.
Redd himself lost interest when Kravitz admitted to dissecting frogs in high school.
Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy broke into the writer’s room to find the cat they gave Kravitz in the latest sketch from the comedy outfit Please Don’t Destroy.
When a frantic search found Paul Dano hiding under the couch, the actor said he was doing research for his role as The Riddler in Batman.
Thompson also played a con man who informed his children and their mother in a videotaped will that they would need to make a series of films he had written to pay off the family’s debt. He also apologized to his son (Redd) for his genetic erectile dysfunction, bequeathing him a used penis pump.
Colin Yost and Michael Che poked fun at recent current events in the Weekend Update, joking that news articles in Russia now have to mention that Russian President Vladimir Putin is below average “6’5 and not crazy.”
“Tuesday was International Women’s Day, so I hope you remember to smile,” Che joked.
The fake anchor also followed up with The Post’s article about New York coat racks being baffled by a man pissing on a subway car during rush hour.
“Perhaps they were too nervous to say anything because I’m on TV,” he blurted out.
A week after the no-guest segment, the fake hosts welcomed Kyle Mooney as Dan Bulldozer, a beefy, bearded Instagram influencer based on Dan Bilzerian.
Bulldozer boasted of snowboarding with a bazooka and sleeping with hundreds of models on yachts, but admitted he struggled to find happiness and wear shirts.
From LR: Mikey Day, musical guest Rosalia, host Zoe Kravitz and Chris Redd. NBC
Alex Moffat also joined the host as Terry Fink, an Oscar-winning critic under the influence of LSD.
Fink was under the false impression that Belfast was directed by Johnny Knoxville and explained how watching Encanto convinced him to sell his kidney for dogecoin.
Andrew Dismuks played the annoyed host in the game “Word Crunch” in which contestant Kravitz couldn’t stop coming up with obscene compound words.
In the final sketch, Ian became very enthusiastic and emotional as he explained the power of the brass band’s performance of “Don’t Stop Believin'” to his brunch buddies.
“The instruments do what Steven Tyler sang,” Bowen explained.
“Stephen Tyler was not on The Journey,” Nwodim retorted.
“Does not matter!” Yang exclaimed as his dance moves knocked over the waiter’s trays.
Spanish singer Rosalia performed her new songs “CHICKEN TERIYAKI” and “LA FAMA” in a rare non-English SNL performance.
Reigning tabloid kingpin Pete Davidson was once again conspicuously absent as he continued filming.
The show will return next week for the fourth consecutive live show hosted by Kieran Culkin, with musical performances from Ed Sheehan.