Saturday Night Live‘s second cold open of 2021 is here and surprisingly broke the trend of totally political intros. While some political jokes were there, the main structure of the SNL segment was that of a Super Bowl pre-game show. There were plenty of jokes about how crazy it is to have Super Bowl LV during a pandemic, with Aidy Bryant pulling double duty as both coaches involved in the game.
Partway through the segment, James Brown (Kenan Thompson) asked Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid what his strategy was for beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “We’re going to pass it, then we’re going to run it,” Reid, played by Bryant, said. “And when they have the ball, we’re gonna stop it.” Next, Bown introduced Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, also played by Bryant! All she had to do was put on a pair of glasses, a beret, and a vest with the Bucs logo on it. When asked what his plan was, Arians said almost the same general thing.
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One of the other hosts (Chris Redd) said he wanted to hear what Reid had to say about what Arians just said. This meant Bryant had to switch hats to play Reid again, and she clearly struggled to hold it together. Bryant’s performance as the two coaches earned a loud applause from the crowd.
Another bizarre part of the sketch came earlier, when the CBS hosts introduced new commercials. First, they showed a commercial featuring footage of protests and a narration about “striving for equality.” It turned out the commercial was for Cheez-Its. To balance that, there was a Papa John’s commercial for the conservatives in the crowd. “At Papa John’s, we know you want real ingredients, no additives, no preservatives, and no child sex trafficking in the basement,” the narrator said. “Sorry Democrats, you’ll have to get your child sex trafficking pizza over at Hillary’s Pizzeria.” The ad also made a reference to the baseless QAnon conspiracy, by telling customers to bring their “Q-pons.”
This week’s episode was hosted by Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy, with musical guest Phoebe Bridgers. Both stars made their debut on the long-running sketch comedy series. The Feb. 13 episode will also feature first-time guests, host Regina King and musician Nathaniel Rateliff. King recently directed One Night in Miami, which is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and earned King a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director. As for Rateliff, he released his latest album, And It’s Still Alright, in February 2020. New SNL episodes air Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
