The coronavirus was a big topic during this weekend’s Saturday Night Live with host John Mulaney, even for one of the “cut for time” sketches. In “Love Is Blind,” the SNL team parodied the popular Netflix reality show of the same name, but with a little twist. The characters were all meeting each other while under quarantine for the coronavirus.
Love Is Blind launched on Feb. 13 and quickly became a reality hit for Netflix, following the success of The Circle. In Love Is Blind, a group of men and women are kept in paired “pods” and spend 10 days getting to know each other without ever really seeing one another. After that, the couples go to a retreat in Mexico, where they meet the other contestants they could have fallen in love with. Some of the contestants got engaged and even married, while others did not get engaged. The series finale was released on Feb. 27, and a reunion special will be released via YouTube on March 5.
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In the SNL sketch, the contestants are quarantined because they tested positive for conronavirus. They are also tested to find a cure for the virus. Mulaney played Dirk, a 31-year-old “boss executive” who falls in love with Ego Nwodim’s Raquel, a 34-year-old “picture taker.”
“I wish I could be there to hug you, because I’m a hugger,” Dirk told Raquel. “And also, I don’t wash my hands, and I put my fingers in my mouth.”
“OK, you’re my husband!” Raquel replied.
Dirk then tried to propose to Raquel, but collapsed in the process.
“Breaking news! I’m engaged,” Raquel said in a confessional.
After the two met, Raquel still agreed to get married.
“You are definitely covered in corona, but I’m 34, so yes, yes, yes!” Raquel said as she coughed.
The coronavirus was mentioned several times throughout Saturday night’s episode. During the cold open, the Democratic presidential candidates kept interrupting Vice President Mike Pence’s (Beck Bennett) press conference on the virus. Later, “Weekend Update” anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che ripped President Donald Trump’s administration for their responses to it. During the epic “Airport Sushi” sketch, Bowen Yang played an Asian visitor who lambasted the others for assuming he had the coronavirus.
The coronavirus outbreak has spread to more than 60 countries. The global death toll is now at about 3,000, with more than 2,800 reported in mainland China, reports USA Today. There was also a large outbreak in Italy, where the number of infected people reached 1,964 and the death toll climbed to 34.
Photo credit: Will Heath/NBC
