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It was inevitable that \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d would sample heavily from the buffet of satirical potential offered by Thursday\u2019s State of the Union. Perhaps the only question going into this weekend\u2019s broadcast, hosted by Josh Brolin and featuring the musical guest Ariana Grande, was who would play Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, who delivered the much-discussed Republican response<\/a> to President Biden\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n As it turned out, \u201cS.N.L.\u201d did not draw from its own cast for this role, but it didn\u2019t look far to find someone: Britt was played by Scarlett Johansson, the two-time Academy Award-nominated actress, six-time \u201cS.N.L.\u201d host and \u2014 yes \u2014 wife of Colin Jost, the Weekend Update co-anchor.<\/p>\n Following a brief introduction from Ego Nwodim as CNN\u2019s Abby Phillip, the show began with Mikey Day, now the resident Biden impersonator at \u201cS.N.L.,\u201d taking his place in front of Punkie Johnson (as Vice President Harris) and Michael Longfellow (as Speaker Mike Johnson).<\/p>\n \u201cFolks,\u201d Day said, \u201ctonight I\u2019m going to cover a lot. There\u2019s going to be a lot of applause. So, Kamala, I hope you didn\u2019t skip leg day, girl. You\u2019re going to be up and down all night.\u201d (Naturally, Johnson stood up and applauded; Longfellow did not.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Day continued: \u201cTonight, I\u2019m also going to be talking about my predecessor,\u201d he said. \u201cMainly because every time I say predecessor, Mike Johnson shakes his head, like he just accidentally caught 30 seconds of the show \u2018Euphoria.\u2019 Look at that weirdo.\u201d<\/p>\n After being booed by Heidi Gardner (who was playing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene), Day threw to the Republican response: \u201cI think she\u2019s going to help me more than anything else I could say here,\u201d he said. \u201cEnjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n Johansson sat in a replica of the kitchen where Britt gave her now-notorious speech, mimicking the senator\u2019s staccato delivery and odd turns of phrase.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight,\u201d Johansson said, \u201cI\u2019ll be auditioning for the part of scary mom. And I\u2019ll be performing an original monologue called \u2018This country is hell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Johansson added, \u201cLike any mom, I\u2019m going to do a pivot out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking. And rest assured, every detail about it is real. Except the year, where it took place and who was president when it happened<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As her rebuttal proceeded, Johansson slipped into a QVC sales pitch and an allusion to the hypnosis scene in \u201cGet Out<\/a>.\u201d She noted that \u201ckitchens are where families have the hard conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike the one we\u2019ll have tomorrow about how Mommy freaked out the entire country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As a host, Brolin seemed game for just about anything \u201cS.N.L.\u201d threw at him, especially if it involved stripping down<\/a> to his underwear<\/a>. But he shone just as brightly (while keeping his clothes on) in a segment where he sings a slow jam with Andrew Dismukes, who plays an airplane passenger trying to watch a movie on Brolin\u2019s screen. The guys look dashing in their Michael Bolton-style wigs, Chloe Troast comes in with a vocal flourish at the end, and it\u2019s probably the most that anyone has talked about the Brad Pitt sci-fi thriller \u201cAd Astra\u201d since it was released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the State of the Union.<\/p>\n Jost began:<\/p>\n Well, on Thursday, Sleepy Joe finally woke the hell up. President Biden delivered the State of the Union and he honestly kind of crushed it. I mean, even Trump\u2019s house elf, Lindsey Graham, was laughing and enjoying it. Normally he\u2019s only that happy when he\u2019s secretly watching \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race.\u201d Biden\u2019s speech was great. But you could also tell the bar was very low. The New York Post\u2019s headline was just, \u201cHe\u2019s Alive.\u201d That\u2019s it. That\u2019s like a headline you see about Bigfoot. Biden also got a big response while addressing the issue of abortion when he said, \u201cWe\u2019re about to find out how much political power women have.\u201d Then he turned to Kamala and said, \u201cExcept you.\u201d Former president and current reverse-mortgage applicant Donald Trump criticized Biden\u2019s speech, saying, \u201cThe words are not flowing smoothly out of his mouth.\u201d Well, we can\u2019t all speak with the same effortless grace as Donald J. Trump. [Clip of Trump slurring his words at a rally.] It sounds like someone just inserted a colonoscopy camera.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Che continued:<\/p>\n Some Democrats criticized President Biden for talking about migrants by using the term \u201cillegals.\u201d But come on, he\u2019s 81 years old, let him slide. He means well. Like when my mom put up that sign to \u201cStop Oriental hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n We\u2019ve still got a few months to go before Grande and Bowen Yang share the screen together in the coming film version of \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/a> Presumably, it will have slightly higher production values than this very silly parody of Baz Luhrmann\u2019s movie musical \u201cMoulin Rouge!\u201d in which Grande and Yang take the parts played by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor (the film\u2019s doomed lovers, Satine and Christian). Though the sketch has a tenuous tie-in with this weekend\u2019s Oscars, it\u2019s mostly an excuse for the two actors to sing in a bombastic, Luhrmann-esque style as they perform snippets of songs that include TLC\u2019s \u201cCreep,\u201d Styx\u2019s \u201cCome Sail Away\u201d and \u2014 repeatedly \u2014 \u201cHappy Birthday to You.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMusic video of the week<\/h2>\n
Weekend Update jokes of the week<\/h2>\n
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Absinthe hallucination of the week<\/h2>\n