Sophia Michaels
A U.S. fighter jet shooting down China’s bizarrely conspicuous spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina is all people could talk about on Saturday, after days of the balloon floating over the country ahead of a high-level diplomatic meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials. And SNL opened tonight’s show with a riff on the balloon, featuring Chloe Fineman’s Katy Tur.
“Our long national nightmare is over: we got the balloon,” announced Tur. “The discovery of the massive surveillance balloon earlier this week inflamed already volatile U.S.-Chinese relations, and had many on the right calling the Biden administration’s response soft.”
She then mocked the right-wing hysteria over the balloon, pointing to made-up tweets from Donald Trump Jr. saying, “If my Dad was President, there would be no balloons!!!!!!” and Marjorie Taylor Greene offering, “Look it’s the real moon!” According to the AP, “U.S. officials said Saturday that similar Chinese balloons transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the Trump administration and once that they know about earlier in the Biden administration. But none of those incidents lasted this length of time.”
Fineman’s Tur welcomed General William Hamilton, a Pentagon official and aviation expert played by Kenan Thompson, onto her MSNBC program.
“The balloon was somehow able to get past our West Coast anti-balloon defense system, the Seattle Space Needle,” he explained. “But once it was here, we were able to keep an eye on it with our sophisticated tracking technology of going like this [looks up].”
He added, “And I want everyone to know that we will not tolerate any form of Chinese spying. But to be honest, they already have everything they need from TikTok, so scroll away kids!”
Then came a fun surprise: Tur threw to a live feed featuring “the remains of the balloon,” or Bowen Yang in a balloon costume with water wings on floating in the ocean.
“Well, ya got me! Congrats, you shot a balloon,” offered Yang’s balloon. “I entertained you people for four days and then I get shot by Biden? I can’t believe I’m Joe’s Osama.”
Asked why the balloon chose to float over Montana, the balloon replied, “I loved the show Yellowstone, so was just there. It’s like Succession… but outside. Now I’m all wet, so… what a day!”
