Premiering the evening earlier than Easter, the newest episode of “Saturday Night Live” opened with a serene picture of the sketch present forged members sitting at an extended desk, completely costumed and positioned to parallel Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” But the tranquility was short-lived with the arrival of forged member James Austin Johnson, who took over the chilly open by telling the story of Easter as a monologue delivered by Donald Trump.
Last week’s episode additionally opened with a Trump spoof after the previous president was indicted by a grand jury. On April 4, Trump pled not responsible to 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data. His arrest and arraignment made him the primary president in U.S. historical past to ever be charged with against the law after leaving workplace. And this milestone was additionally addressed with this week’s chilly open.
“A well-known, fantastic man arrested for no motive in any respect. If you haven’t put it collectively of us, I’m evaluating myself to Jesus once more. And what higher time than on his birthday, Easter,” Johnson as Trump mentioned. “As we communicate, I’m being persecuted on a stage, the likes of which the world has by no means seen. Even worse than the late, nice Jesus.”
Embodying Trump, Johnson went on to supply comparisons between himself and Jesus: “we’re each very tall, very fashionable, and each, frankly, white Americans.” He additionally jokes that, like Jesus, he held large rallies and his followers obtained in extreme hassle. Johnson’s Trump additionally referred to Jesus’ Eastertime resurrection over a three-day interval: “I’d have performed it sooner. Possibly two days. I might have performed it so much sooner,” Johnson sneered.
The biblical allusions continued with Johnson paralleling Florida governor Ron DeSantis to Judas, the notorious apostle who betrayed Jesus and suffered a macabre demise.
“I’ve even obtained my very personal Judas: Ron DeSantis,” Johnson mentioned as Trump. “Ron DeSantis got here to me, tears in his eyes, and mentioned, ‘Help me, Mr. Trump, I’m going to lose my election.’ So I very generously pretended to love him. And then he did a Judas, and now he can’t even get the gays out of Disney World.”
The jab comes the identical week as DeSantis’ newest try to realize management over Disney World and different Orlando theme parks with threats of accelerating taxes within the space.
The April 8 episode options former “SNL” forged member Molly Shannon as host with The Jonas Brothers because the night’s musical visitor.
“Saturday Night Live” stars Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Punkie Johnson and Andrew Dismukes in addition to Michael Che and Colin Jost, co-anchors of Weekend Update. James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker are featured gamers.
Produced by Broadway Video and SNL Studios, the sequence is at the moment on its forty eighth season. Lorne Michaels stays connected to the sketch present as sequence creator with Liz Patrick within the director’s chair.
Watch “Saturday Night Live” at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
