Actress Scarlett Johansson parodied Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) rebuttal to the State of the Union last week in the cold open of “Saturday Night Live” after the response was met with widespread criticism and mocking on social media.
The episode opened with a brief introduction from cast member Ego Nwodim, who was playing CNN’s Abby Phillips, before cutting to Mikey Day, who was playing President Biden delivering his “State of the Union” address.
“Folks, tonight I’m going to cover a lot. There’s going to be a lot of applause. So, Kamala, I hope you didn’t skip leg day, girl. You’re going to be up and down all night,” Day said, before Punkie Johnson, playing Vice President Harris, stood up and applauded.
He was later booed by Heidi Gardner, playing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — who heckled Biden during his address Thursday night. He then introduced Britt to give the Republican response, saying, “I think she’s going to help me more than anything else I could say here.”
Johansson, playing Britt, delivered the mock rebuttal from a kitchen like the junior Alabama senator did last week.
“My name is Katie Britt and I have the honor of serving the great people of Alabama. But tonight I’ll be auditioning the part of scary mom performing an original monologue called ‘This Country is Hell,’” Johansson said.
“You see, I’m not just a senator. I’m a wife, a mother and the craziest bitch in the Target parking lot. I’m worried about the future of our children. And this is why I’ve invited you into this strange, empty kitchen, because Republicans want me to appeal to women voters and women love kitchens,” she added.
“Saturday Night Live” also took aim at some aspects of her speech that were criticized online, including her telling a story about a woman who was sexually abused in a sex trafficking operation run by cartels to make a point about immigration. However, The Associated Press reported that the incident did not occur in the United States or under Biden’s administration.
“And like any mom, I’m going to do a pivot out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking. And rest assured every detail about it is real, except the year, where it took place and who was president when it happened,” Johansson said.