During Saturday Night Live‘s first episode since ABC‘s Roseanne revival started, the NBC sketch comedy had a couple of jokes about the beloved ’90s show’s return.
“Okay, that’s it from me. Let’s do the Baltics quick and get out of here.” #SNL pic.twitter.com/6fvIfs48D9
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 8, 2018
In the cold open, Alec Baldwin’s President Donald Trump thought about Roseanne while the prime minister of Lithuania was talking.
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“Oh my god, I’m already so bored,” he said in an inner monologue. “I wish I was watching Roseanne. How great is that show? Roseanne loves me. She’s like a good Rosie O’Donnell.”
Roseanne came up again during “Weekend Update” when Michael Che asked Angel (Heidi Gardner), the girlfriend in every boxing movie ever, about the show.
“Did you hear Roseanne is back?” Che asked.
Angel looked disgusted.
“What? I thought they retired that show in the ’90s,” Angel said. “But now they’re going to bring it back? And I’m supposed to believe that it’s different just ’cause Darlene’s got a gay son? Well, I don’t need no fancy reboot, all right! I’m ride or die! I still watch Frasier on VHS!”
The first joke about Trump liking Roseanne star Roseanne Barr so much was a reference to Trump calling Barr to congratulate her on the great ratings for the premiere episode. It averaged 18.2 million viewers on March 27.
“It was pretty exciting, I’ll tell you that much,” Barr told the New York Times of Trump’s call. “They said, ‘Hold please for the president of the United States of America’ and [that] was about the most exciting thing ever. It was just very sweet of him to congratulate us.”
In the show, Roseanne Conner is a Trump supporter, just like Barr is in real life. But when Barr was asked if Trump is the reason behind her show’s great ratings, she laughed.
“It’s all me,” she told TMZ.
The show did best in Middle America, earning a 19.0 rating in Tulsa, Oklahoma alone. Roseanne‘s other top markets were Cincinnati, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
“I just wanted to have that dialogue about families torn apart by the election and their political differences of opinion and how we handle it,” Barr told the Times. “I thought that this was an important thing to say at this time.”
Photo Credit: ABC
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