The latest Saturday Night Live cold open beginning and ending with Donald Trump shouldn’t be a surprise. Most of this season’s introductory sketches have not only been political, but they’ve generally had something to do with the embattled American president and the looming threat of impeachment. What’s more, they’ve usually featured one of two things: (1) Alec Baldwin’s mediocre Trump impression or (2) a huge swathe of guest stars playing roles instead of the SNL cast members. Thankfully, though it was still Trump-focused, this weekend’s cold open skipped both of these facets.
Instead, Aidy Bryant’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer-esque snowwoman introduced the audience to three separate family dinner conversations (thanks to three “hacked” Google Nest cams) in which Trump’s impeachment, among other subjects, takes precedence. In the first one, located in San Francisco, cast members Cecily Strong, Melissa Villaseñor, Kyle Mooney, and Bowen Yang portray a progressive liberal family that prays to a “gender-neutral spirit” and celebrates Trump’s impeachment.
The second family, living in North Carolina, sees Beck Bennett, Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, and Chloe Fineman as a conservative family whose older members think the impeachment is a “disgrace.” Though, to be honest, the real star of the sketch is the third family. Hailing from Atlanta, Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, and Chris Redd actually yearn for political arguments over the father’s penchant for discussing Bad Boys III and The Masked Singer. “You mean how Trump is definitely getting impeached and definitely getting reelected?” Thompson’s patriarch exclaims. “I’m good.”
So, yes, per the tradition established by the past few seasons (and Trump’s volatile presidency thus far), the SNL cold open was yet again all about the New York real estate tycoon turned politician. But hey, at least Lorne Michaels and company decided to use the show’s own cast members instead of Baldwin and the usual carousel of guest actors.
