Saturday Night Live pulled no punches on President Donald Trump and his coronavirus rhetoric on this week’s “Weekend Update” segment. Co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che cracked jokes about Trump’s case of COVID-19 and how it has developed over the last week. The two even went so far as to question whether the president’s apparent recovery is real and whether his life is still in danger.
“This week was mental illness awareness week, and trust me, we’re aware,” Jost said, kicking the news-style segment off. “President and active bioweapon Donald Trump took his doctors hostage and broke out of the hospital like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.” Jost and Che then summarized the president’s activities throughout the week with snarky remarks about his health and his mental state. They made cynical allusions to the ways Trump risked Americans’ health with his behavior while sick and likely infectious.
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Many of the questions and concerns Jost and Che raised in the segment were already prominent on social media, though they gave a cohesive voice to them when taking the whole week in review. For example, Jost played a video where Trump addressed Americans, apparently from the White House lawn, pointing out that it looks like it could have been shot in front of a green screen. “It’s a little suspicious when you green screen yourself into the place where you already are,” he said.
“President Trump claimed to have survived the coronavirus. Yay,” Che said sarcastically. “I’m not gonna say I’m disappointed, but it kinda feels like when there’s a car crash and the only survivor is the drunk driver.” Che smirked as this joke elicited a surprised groan from the crowd — a response that the comedian has mastered over the last two seasons or so.
Che then referenced the experimental antibody treatment Trump has been receiving and raving about all week from Regeneron. He noted that the drug is made from stem cells, which are derived from the remains of abortion procedures, though Trump claims to be vehemently “pro-choice.”
“It’s kind of funny that these old Republicans are so anti-abortion when it comes to everybody else, but then they do a complete 180 as soon as stem cells can save their lives, or when I get their daughter pregnant,” he said.
Che also hinted vaguely at The New York Times‘ report finding that Trump is a massive shareholder in Regeneron and may have been promoting the drug for his financial gain.
“Actually, maybe we should be more optimistic about this,” Che quipped. “I mean, there’s two ways we can look at it. Either Trump’s telling the truth and we finally have a cure for COVID, or Trump is lying and he’s still gonna die.”
SNL is not taking any weeks off before the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 3. A new episode premieres next Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
