Anna Daniels
SNL has been off the air for a couple of weeks, and since the news cycle moves at hyperspeed in this political climate, they had a lot to cover. Apparently, for the show’s writing staff, that meant they should cram as many topical jokes into the cold open as they possibly could. Though it begins with Beck Bennett as Mike Pence, who has been chosen to head up the United States’ effort to combat coronavirus (which, unfortunately, is not a joke), the sketch also references the recent Democratic debates, bringing on the usual group to play all of the Democratic candidates.
With Rachel Dratch as Amy Klobuchar, Fred Armisen as Mike Bloomberg, Colin Jost as Pete Buttigieg, Larry David as Bernie Sanders, and Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren, the sketch also cast Mulaney as Joe Biden (apparently, both Jason Sudeikis and Woody Harrelson were unavailable this weekend), with the others commenting that he looked “different.” (His response? “The surgery is starting to settle.”)
The sketch’s highlight was undoubtedly SNL‘s hyper-exaggerated version of Warren’s ruthless attacks on Bloomberg, including that the former Mayor of New York “invented traffic” and even “wrote and directed Cats,” but trotting out the same group of guest stars for every cold open is bound to get stale, and it’s starting to feel that way by this point. Beyond that, the sketch ran entirely too long, although it may have been a strategy to give Mulaney — who vanished after a few lines — time to change and prepare for his monologue.
Written by: Looper
