It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had a newSaturday Night Liveto enjoy and this week’s was a pretty great one!Ramy Youssefhostedthis week with musical guestTravis Scott, andit started off on a great note! For the first time in a long while, the cold open and opening monologue set the right tone for the episode as a whole, and struck the perfect balance of comedy and commentary.
Youssef did a great jobin his monologue, bringing out his comedy chops, and the cold open set us up for the holiday weekend!
Trump’s Cold Open Resurrection
James Austin Johnsongot to just show usall how funny his impression of former presidentDonald Trumpcan be. Starting with the virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene finding Jesus' empty tomb and making the joke about how they need to figure out a nameotherthan Mary, we see “Jesus” come out of the tomb to celebrate Easter! The Jesus in question though, is Johnson as Donald Trump where he proceeds to make fun of Trump and Trump’s view of himself.
Pointing out that yearly, Trump seems to compare himself to Jesus, what works about Johnson’s portrayal of the 45th president is that he has a perfect balance of mockery and honesty in his quips, and it makes for a fascinating segment each time they add him to the cold open. It was simple, funny, and a great way to start the show, especially as it devolved into a Trump infomercial selling toasters and bibles. You can buy a Trump toaster that puts Hello Kitty on your bread! How great is that?
Ramy Youssef Flexes His Stand-Up Chops in Opening Monologue
Youssef is a stand-up comedian as well as an actor sothey gave him the comedian treatmentby letting him do a stand-up set as his monologue. What worked was Youssef proudly shared his heritage in his monologue, talking about celebrating Ramadan, and his hopes for the future of our country. He also made sure to use his monologue to call for a ceasefire and free Palestine.
Talking about how he has a lot of prayers now and doesn’t really have any ideas, he shared how he wants a free Palestine, for the release of all the hostages and made sure it was clear that he meantallthe hostages. He ended the serious moment with a joke asking the god he was praying to,whilehe was at it, to free Mr. Bojangles. It was everything we love about Youssef as a performer andset the tone for a great show!
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