Saturday’s cold open, performed about 12 hours after Biden was declared president-elect, assembled a cast of characters that had become all too familiar during this election week. There was a perpetually awake Wolf Blitzer, played by Beck Bennett, and Alex Moffat’s John King, whose fingers had been reduced to nubs thanks to 85-straight hours of operating CNN’s touchscreen electoral map.
And Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph, as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, offered their version of the real-life victory speech that occurred just hours before.
Related Austin Butler Gives Emotional Tribute to His Late Mother in ‘SNL’ Monologue Cecily Strong Says Goodbye to ‘SNL’ in Final ‘Weekend Update’ Appearance Related Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Movies: 53 Films the Director Wants You to See Oscars 2023: Best Sound Predictions
“We kept edging closer and closer, it was like having sex with Sting — but what a release, man!” Carrey said in a recap of a drawn-out election night that he likened to the musician’s tantric sex practices. “I’ve never felt so alive, which is ironic because I’m not that alive.”
With a white pantsuit and silk scarf, Rudolph was dressed in a pitch-perfect recreation of the outfit that the real-life Harris wore during her Wilmington, Delaware victory speech earlier that night.
But things took a fantastical turn when Bennett’s Blitzer offered to cut to Trump’s concession speech, something that has not happened yet.
Baldwin’s Trump framed it as a “victory speech,” vowing to “fight this thing to the bitter end.”
That’s when he got behind a piano to break into a downtempo rendition of “Macho Man.”
“This isn’t goodbye, America. I’m just going to say ‘See you in court,’” Baldwin said after finishing his tune.
The song, originally performed by the very gay Village People, was an unwittingly ironic fixture at Trump’s rallies. Anderson Cooper gave us one of the more memorable TV moments of the election cycle in October when he tried to hold back his laughter as the song blared during a live shot from a Trump event.
This was the second time “SNL” had Baldwin at a piano. For the Season 42 finale in 2017, Trump and his inner circle gathered to sing “Hallelujah” in a nod to McKinnon’s earlier performance.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.