'SNL': Jon Lovitz's Alan Dershowitz Visits Hell in Cold Open With Adam Driver as Jeffrey Epstein

Saturday Night Live had a lot of political ground to make up with its return following a long [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Saturday Night Live had a lot of political ground to make up with its return following a long winter break this weekend. The long-running sketch comedy show took aim at President Donald Trump's ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate, which started this past week. Former SNL cast member Jon Lovitz played lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump's defense team.

While Dershowitz tried to start his speech in the Senate, he had a heart attack and was briefly brought to hell, where he was met by the Devil (Kate McKinnon). It turns out Satan is a big fan of Dershowitz, and interviewed the lawyer for her podcast.

While in hell, host Adam Driver showed up as Jeffrey Epstein, who is "just hanging." Next up, Bowen Yang showed up as the guy who wrote "Baby Shark" and Heidi Gardner played Flo from the Progressive commercials. The now-deceased Mr. Peanut also turned out to be in hell. Sen. Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) also uses hell as a sauna. Even Mark Zuckerberg (Alex Moffat) is in hell as the IT guy.

SNL has used the cold open exclusively for political sketches in recent seasons, and often features surprise guests. Several of these cold opens have focused on Trump's impeachment. In November, the show did a Days of Our Lives-inspired parody of the House Intelligence Committee hearings, with Mad Men star Jon Hamm making a surprise appearance as then-Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor.

Trump was impeached by the House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, related to a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president withheld military aid and an invitation to the White House unless Zelensky announced an investigation into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. The articles were submitted to the Senate on Jan. 16, with the trial starting this week.

This weekend's episode was hosted by Driver, who just received an Oscar nomination for Marriage Story. It is the actor's third time hosting the show. Singer Halsey was musical performer.

This weekend starts the first of three consecutive new Saturday Night Live episodes. On Feb. 1, the night before the Super Bowl, Houston Texas star J.J. Watt will make his SNL debut the night before Super Bowl LIV, with country star Luke Combs performing.

On Saturday, Feb. 8, the night before the 2020 Academy Awards, RuPaul's Drag Race host RuPaul will host for the first time. Justin Bieber will perform for the third time, and first time since he also hosted a 2013 episode.

SNL airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: NBC

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