“Saturday Night Live” returned for a new year, poking fun at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the coronavirus vaccine rollout and a Wall Street crisis during the show’s cold open.
In a segment titled “What Still Works?” actress and comedian Kate McKinnon hosted a mock talk show with a slew of fellow cast members spoofing various figures in the news in recent weeks.
Among them was Greene.
“Thanks for having me,” comedian Cecily Strong, portraying Greene, tells McKinnon, immediately offering her a handgun.
McKinnon then asks about some of the conspiracy theories Greene promoted on social media before being elected to Congress in November.
Strong’s Greene rattles off a list of false claims about the 2018 Parkland school shooting and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, asking, “Did anyone actually see it happen?”
McKinnon, apparently concerned and perplexed, asks, “You’re a U.S. representative?” and presses her about what her colleagues on Capitol Hill have done in response to her statements.
“They promoted me to the Education Committee,” Strong’s Greene says.
“So government does not work,” McKinnon replies.
Fellow cast member Pete Davidson joined McKinnon next, playing the role of a man identified as the “majority shareholder of GameStop.”
“Uhhh, we sell games,” an apparently oblivious Davidson says. “People download all their games now, so we’re kind of like what you would call — ”
“A dying business?” McKinnon asks. “So now it seems like — “
“The entire system is a joke?” Davidson says.
A rush on GameStop stock last week by armchair investors organized on the internet caused its value on Wall Street to skyrocket before stock trading app Robinhood suspended trades on the company, a move that was met with bipartisan backlash.
Longtime cast member Kenan Thompson also made an appearance during the show’s first cold open of its new year, playing the role of O.J. Simpson and wearing an ankle tracking device while boasting about getting the coronavirus vaccine.
“So among the first 3 percent of all Americans given the vaccine was O.J. Simpson?” McKinnon asks.
“Guilty as charged,” Thompson’s Simpson replies.
“All right, so the vaccine rollout, it doesn’t work,” McKinnon says.