For the second time this month, SNL opened with one of Fox News’ most unhinged hosts. No, not Tucker Carlson. Cecil Strong again busted out her deafening Judge Jeanine Pirro, to shout about yet another rollercoaster week. On the plus side: the Biden-led Build Back Better bill passed the House (though not before Kevin McCarthy’s deranged, record-breaking, much-mocked filibuster). On the negative: Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted for shooting three protesters, killing two. One of these things Strong’s Pirro liked.
“That lovable scamp was put through a nightmare of a trial just for doing the bravest thing any American can do — protecting a used car lot in someone else’s town,” her Pirro loudly declared.
She also brought on Rittenhouse trial judge, Bruce Schroeder (Mikey Day), who let loose a little Freudian slip. “It was all standard procedure,” he said. “That’s why I ordered that the prosecution not use the word ‘victims,’ they were rioters, and hey were not shot, they were ge-doinked. That did not give my client and unfair advantage in any way.”
When Strong’s Pirro pointed out that he called Rittenhouse “my client,” not “the defendant,” he apologized. “Oooh, yeah, sure. I keep doing that,” he said.
Talk moved to the Build Back Better bill, even to Joe Biden’s colonoscopy. (“What was President Brandon doing getting socialized buttplay paid for by your tax dollars?”) But she eventually deferred to her favorite former president-turned-failed blogger, Donald J. Trump, played once again, with almost creepy verisimilitude, by new cast member James Austin Johnson. Along with a spot-on impersonation, Johnson also likes to do some free associative rambling, meaning he can start by talking about politics and suddenly, somehow start talking about teen TV.
“We’re coming back,” Johnson’s Trump said. “We’re coming back in 2024. Everyone loves reboots. People loved it before they are going to like it again — just like iCarly. Just like iCarly.” In another rant, he got on the subject of Gossip Girl, bemoaning the reboot and getting into the weeds about the original, which the real Trump probably knows very well, too.
You can watch the sketch in the video above.