‘SNL’ Tackles Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s Final Presidential Debate in Cold Open With Jim Carrey

Saturday Night Live served up another debate sketch this weekend, this time parodying the second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Despite some recent negative reviews from viewers, Jim Carrey was back as Biden, with Alec Baldwin playing Trump. The cold open also featured an appearance from former cast member Maya Rudolph as NBC News journalist Kristen Welker, instead of her usual role as Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris.

During the sketch, the writers brought up many of the comments from the debate, particularly Trump’s statement that the country was “rounding a corner” on the coronavirus despite a growing number of cases and deaths. “We’re doing terrific,” Baldwin’s Trump claimed. “We’re rounding the corner. In fact, we’re rounding so many corners, we’ve gone all the way around the block, and we’re back where we started in March!” Carrey’s Biden said the country was in a “third wave” and where he comes from, if a girl gave you a third wave, “you were practically married.”

At one point, Biden got so angry, he was “Eastwood-ing” and the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly played. Biden then noted how many attack lines Trump has had. Trump then said he could not show anyone his plan because it is “under audit,” just like his tax returns. At one point, Biden said, “Mularkey,” which was on Welker’s Biden bingo card. There was also a reference to Rudy Giuliani’s controversial moment in the Borat sequel, with Kate McKinnon playing the part.

Last week’s episode opened with a parody of Biden and Trump’s dueling town halls this month after the original second debate was canceled. In the SNL version of events, the town halls became increasingly chaotic as they went on, with Trump having a Wrestlemania-style brawl with Savannah Guthrie (played by Kate McKinnon). At the same time, Biden’s turned into a calming PBS show like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. In the end, Trump said the election would come down to one central question for voters: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” An animated U.S. map screamed “No” in response.

This weekend was the fourth consecutive week with a new SNL episode and featured singer Adele as host and R&B musician H.E.R. as the musical performer. SNL creator Lorne Michaels had already planned five episodes in a row, but NBC announced Thursday there would be an unprecedented sixth new episode airing on Saturday, Nov. 7. This plan means the show will not have to wait an extra week to respond to the presidential election. The show’s 46-year history has never aired that many new episodes without taking a weekend off. NBC has not announced the new guests for the upcoming episodes.

Even before NBC announced the sixth consecutive show, Michaels was not sure the crew could do it. “We don’t know that we’re going to be able to pull it off,” Michaels told the New York Times before the season kicked off. “We’re going to be as surprised as everyone else when it actually goes on.”