Saturday Night Live has returned to our TV screens, this time with jokes about COVID-19 and with host John Mulaney playing U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a number of cast members reprising their roles as rival Democrats in the running.
The cold open on Saturday night was set in a White House press briefing room featuring SNL cast member Beck Bennett as vice-president Mike Pence.
“President Trump has put me in charge of the coronavirus even though I don’t believe in science,” Bennett jokes.
“I have to admit, this disease has been quite a test of my faith, just like dinosaur bones or Timothée Chalamet.”
Michael Bloomberg, played by actor and comedian Fred Armisen, was the first to pose questions to Pence at the make-believe presser, raising his hand as if he were a reporter for Bloomberg News.
“How’d you get past security?” Bennett-as-Pence asks, flustered.
“I just walked in coughing and everybody got out of my way,” Armisen said.
Kate McKinnon channeled rival Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, appearing next to Bloomberg and asking: “Did you really think you were going to get away from me that easy?”
“It’s my job now, I follow you around and make your life a living hell,” she said, referring to the way the real Warren grilled the real Bloomberg onstage about nondisclosure agreements his employees had signed.
“I might be fifth in the polls but I’m number one in your nightmares, Mike.”
Mulaney in his role as Joe Biden — freshly victorious from Saturday night’s South Carolina primary — addressed the novel coronavirus that has seen more than 85,000 cases reported around the world.
Larry David jumped in as Bernie Sanders: “You gotta admit, folks, universal healthcare doesn’t sound too crazy now, does it.”