“Saturday Night Live” returned for a new year, rising to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Launch of coronavirus vaccine and a crisis on Wall Street during the show’s cold opening.
In a skit called “What’s Up,” actress and comedian Kate McKinnon hosted a mock talk show in recent weeks with a crowd of cast members who faked various news figures.
Among them was Greene.
“Thank you for receiving me,” he tells comedian Cecily Strong, who portrays Greene to McKinnon, immediately offering him a handgun.
McKinnon then asks about some of the conspiracy theories she promoted on social media before being elected to Congress in November.
Strong’s Greene shakes up a list of false claims about the 2018 Parkland High School shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, wondering, “Has anyone actually seen this?”
McKinnon, seemingly worried and puzzled, asks, “Are you an American representative?” and presses her about what her colleagues on Capitol Hill did in response to her statements.
“I was promoted to the Board of Education,” says Strong’s Greene.
“So the government is not working,” McKinnon said.
Pete Davidson, a member of the cast, continues to join McKinnon, playing the role of a man identified as the “majority shareholder of GameStop”.
“Uhhh, we sell games,” says a seemingly ignorant Davidson. “People are now downloading all their games, so we’re kind of like you call it.”
– A dying business? McKinnon asks. “So now it looks like …”
“Is the whole system a joke?” Davidson says.
A rush on GameStop shares last week by online armchair investors led to an increase in the company’s value on Wall Street before the Robinhood stock trading app suspended trading on the company, a move that was met with bipartisan reactions.
Keenan Thompson, a longtime cast member, also appeared during the show’s first cold opening of the new year, playing OJ Simpson and wearing an ankle-tracking device while boasting the coronavirus vaccine.
“So among the top 3 percent of all Americans who received the vaccine was OJ Simpson?” McKinnon asks.
“Guilty of being accused … of the vaccine,” Simpson replies.
“Okay, so launching the vaccine doesn’t work,” she said.