This week’s Saturday Night Live cold open proved that Melissa McCarthy isn’t the only actress capable of managing a hilariously convincing portrayal of a male Trump administration figure, with Kate McKinnon taking centre stage as Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Whereas McCarthy ranted and raved as White House press secretary Sean Spicer, McKinnon delivered a more subdued but equally pointed performance as Sessions in a skit inspired by one of the most iconic fictional characters associated with Sessions’ home state of Alabama, Forrest Gump.
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Seated on a bus stop bench next to Leslie Jones, McKinnon introduces herself to Jones as the Attorney General, and tells her that “you meet so many nice people” when working in government.
One of them is “my good friend Kellyanne,” she says, pulling out the now-infamous photo of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway seated on an Oval Office couch with her legs folded.
“She ain’t got no legs,” she says in a southern drawl.
McKinnon then pulls out a box of chocolates and says, “I always say life is a like a box of chocolates. Sure are a lot of brown ones in there!” prompting Jones to leave in a huff.
A bus then pulls up at the stop, before leaving to reveal a new stranger on the bench. McKinnon then brings up U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent speech to a joint session of Congress.
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“The president made a great speech. Folks were thrilled on account of it was real words in a roll for a whole hour,” she says, adding that she then began receiving alerts accusing her of being a liar, ostensibly in reference to accusations Attorney General Sessions didn’t disclose his meetings with the Russian ambassador during the U.S. presidential election.
“I didn’t know what to do so my lawyer said ‘Run, Jeffrey, Run!’,” she exclaims, a reference to the famous line “Run, Forrest, Run!” from the film Forrest Gump.
“I never talked to the Russians, ever, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that,” she concludes, before a bus pulls up and leaves to reveal a new bench mate.
“I talked to the Russians,” she says, changing her tune.
McKinnon then says that she happened to meet with Russian ambassador Sergei Kesleak, adding, “I remember any name with the words ‘gay kiss’ in it.”
Another bus then comes and goes to reveal a shirtless Vladimir Putin, played by Beck Bennett, seated on the bench.
“This meeting never happened,” he says, with McKinnon replying that “I wasn’t gonna remember it anyway” before accepting Putin’s fist bump.
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The skit then ends with the episode’s host Octavia Spencer taking a seat on the bench and introducing herself as “Minny,” reprising her role from the 2011 film The Help.
Spencer then offers McKinnon a chocolate cake which she gleefully accepts and bites into, likely unaware that Minny’s chocolate cake is laced with a special ingredient — poop.
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