The return of SNL last week brought back Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump to deal with the start of an impeachment inquiry. This week, however, Baldwin’s Trump took the episode off as the cold open instead focused on what’s happening in Vice President Mike Pence’s residence in Washington.
Still, the star of the sketch was not a cast regular, for Matthew Broderick appeared as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Alongside the show’s Pence, Anthony Barr, and Rudy Giuliani, they tried to decide how best to handle the impeachment inquiry, which grew in scale over the past week. Barr tells Pence to relax and have another glass of milk, which is on a table in a decanter, assuring him that presidents get impeached every “30 years or so” and it’s not a big deal.
Broderick’s Pompeo was brought in to huge applause, and Pence asks about Pompeo getting subpoenaed by congress. He admits that happened but says “I think I bought myself a little time.”
The camera then cuts to the House Intelligence Committee calling out “Pompeo,” similar to what happened in Ferris’ classroom with his last name. It’s an iconic scene from Broderick’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and it’s not the last reference to the movie made in the segment.
The theme of the sketch is that it’s every man for themselves in the White House, with characters gradually leaving Pence alone in his own strategy meeting to get out of impeachment unscathed. Barr leaves, as does Kate McKinnon’s Rudy Giuliani, who in this sketch apparently appeared on Fox News as the Joker from the Joaquin Phoenix film that opened this weekend. It’s about as disturbing an image as you’ll ever see on TV.
The show did manage to get one last Ferris Bueller joke in before Pompeo leaves for good.
“Impeachment moves pretty fast,” Broderick said. “If you don’t stop to look around, you might miss it.”
