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In its final episode of the season, just before its cast members pack up their fright wigs and false teeth to head out on their summer vacations, \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d gave its viewers what they presumably wanted: an opening sketch featuring James Austin Johnson as former President Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s broadcast, which was hosted by Jake Gyllenhaal and featured the musical guest Sabrina Carpenter, began with Johnson recreating one of the many public statements that Trump has made during his criminal hush-money trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like being in court because they say very mean things about me while I am trying to sleep,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut I love being out here, in the hallway outside court, daring judge to imprison me. He gave me a gag order. I said, \u2018That sounds like a challenge on RuPaul.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing the trial as \u201cvery eye-closening,\u201d Johnson said it would likely end with him \u201cbeing sent to a horrible place I do not want to go to \u2014 the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He added, \u201cFor me, much better to not win and say it was rigged and then get very rich raising money to stop the steal, and you never have to do president again. I like that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
With closing statements likely to come next week, Johnson said, \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to testify at all. I\u2019m just not going to, out of fear. You see, they do a terrible thing when you testify, which is they write it down and we don\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then introduced a few of the candidates he said he was considering for his vice president on the 2024 Republican ticket, including Devon Walker as Senator Tim Scott. \u201cI\u2019m here to help Trump win the Black vote,\u201d Walker said. \u201cSpecifically, my vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
His next potential running mate was Heidi Gardner, who came out as Governor Kristi Noem, holding a gun to a stuffed toy dog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kidding,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fake dog, but it\u2019s a real gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson also brought out Michael Longfellow, who was dressed as the \u201cSilence of the Lambs\u201d character Hannibal Lecter, who Trump often references in his speeches. Johnson then asked for him to be taken away, saying, \u201cHe\u2019s giving me Pence vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In closing, Johnson promised \u201cthe summer of Trump,\u201d saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to be doing another Jan. 6, this time in July. It\u2019s going to be fun to see all those guys back at the Capitol but this time in shorts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can Jake Gyllenhaal sing? Have you already forgotten his lead performance in the 2017 Broadway revival of \u201cSunday in the Park With George\u201d<\/a>? We\u2019re just going to assume it\u2019s what \u201cS.N.L.\u201d had in mind when they cast him in this offbeat update of another Sondheim musical, \u201cFollies,\u201d playing the comp\u00e8re of a club who starts off singing what sounds like \u201cBeautiful Girls,\u201d but turns into a musical tribute to the most average, khaki-clad men this side of a J. Crew outlet store.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re more into slow jams than Sondheim, you\u2019ll appreciate Gyllenhaal\u2019s vocal efforts in his opening monologue<\/a>, where he was joined by Walker, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson and Punkie Johnson in a sendup of Boyz II Men\u2019s \u201cEnd of the Road.\u201d In their sweater vests (and whatever the heck Gyllenhaal was wearing) they bid farewell to \u201cS.N.L.\u201d Season 49 and reminded Gyllenhaal that, no, this episode does not actually count as the start of Season 50.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n We\u2019ll give \u201cS.N.L.\u201d credit for this much: When they want to parody \u201cScooby-Doo,\u201d they go all-out.<\/p>\n They got the colorful costumes and the set design of the classic cartoon crime caper just right; they brought in Carpenter, their popular musical guest, to play Daphne; and they whipped up a pretty credible animated Scooby in a matter of days. Did they do it all in the service of one extremely gross and lengthy punchline? Yes, they did that too. Don\u2019t watch this one on a full stomach of Scooby Snacks.<\/p>\n Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on President Biden and former President Trump\u2019s agreement to hold debates in June and September.<\/p>\n Jost began:<\/p>\n President Biden and President Trump have agreed to two debates this summer. For a preview of the debates, take a bottle of Ambien and Adderall at the same time. Biden posted a video challenging Trump to the debate, saying, \u201cMake my day, pal.\u201d To which Trump responded, \u201cLet\u2019s get ready to rumble.\u201d Two phrases that are guaranteed to lock up the youth vote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Che continued:<\/p>\n Donald Trump said that at the debates, he wants both of them to stand instead of sit. So that\u2019s the status of our presidency: Standing is a feat of strength. I think we could learn a lot more watching them both try to get out of a bean bag chair.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When the actor Steve Buscemi was punched in the face<\/a> in Manhattan earlier this month, he became the most visible recent victim of a random crime that has also happened to his fellow performers Michael Stuhlbarg<\/a> and Rick Moranis<\/a>. So it fell to \u201cS.N.L.\u201d, in a sketch presented as a would-be N.Y.P.D. news conference, to state the obvious: Stop punching character actors in the face.<\/p>\n Despite its good intentions (and its shout outs of versatile That Guy types like Stephen Root and Stephen Tobolowsky), the conference soon broke down into a debate over what constitutes a character actor. Because it\u2019s the \u201cS.N.L.\u201d season finale, Jon Hamm was there to play himself \u2014 but only to make sure that he wasn\u2019t personally at any risk.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t get punched,\u201d Hamm said, \u201cWithout this beautiful face, I\u2019m just a tall guy with a perfect body.\u201d Relatable!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMeddling kids of the week<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Weekend Update jokes of the week<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Public service announcement of the week<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n