'SNL' Cold Open Goes Inside White House TikTok Briefing
Saturday Night Live ended its streak of March shows with host Zoe Kravitz and musical guest Rosalia. But before they took the stage, the cast started the broadcast with another political cold open. This time around we get a chance to go inside The White House for Joe Biden's meeting with the TikTok influencers.
This gave the show a chance to skewer a lot of cringe responses to the Ukraine invasion. We get to see the show take on AnnaLynne McCord, without mentioning her name, by giving her poem for Vladimir Putin some more spotlight.
Chris Redd also provides a top-notch Jason Derulo performance that genuinely captures the R&B star's essence. We also get Kenan as a roofer from Pittsburgh that was confused for Charli D'Amelio, TikTok pranksters, and Aidy Bryant as a wild pre-teen girl who thinks Hunter Biden is to blame for this invasion. Bowen Yang is the best, though, appearing as what seems to be a take on Kazuhisa Uekusa with a plunger stuck to his chest and a serious lack of table cloths.
March has been an odd month for SNL, between the tensions in Ukraine leading to a haunting cold open to start the month. After keeping the comedy at a limit for a week, the show returned to normal the following week with Oscar Isaac as host and a Ukraine telethon on Fox News to kick things off.
Zoe Kravitz has had an eventful few months herself, with The Batman finding tons of success at theaters and her new romantic connection with Channing Tatum. Batman sees her as the latest in the role of Selina Kyle, taking over for Anne Hathaway after her turn in The Dark Knight Rises.
Rosalia is making her second appearance on SNL following her 2020 appearance with Bad Bunny, performing their collaboration "La Noche De Anoche." The song was a huge hit and became the biggest debut for a song fully in Spanish in history.
Both are helping to close out an eventful month for the show, including new milestones for past and present cast members. Kenan Thompson also passed a monumental record, taking part in 1,500 sketches across his time on the series. John Mulaney's return also represented his fifth hosting appearance, opening the door to the series' Five-Timers Club. He even got Conan O'Brien to return to NBC to recreate the first Five-Timers sketch way back in the early '90s.