Saturday Night Live mocked Biden’s predictions that the world is headed towards a ‘nuclear armageddon during their cold open Saturday. The cast couldn’t help but to stab at the many crises we have all faced under Biden and Americans’ current stress levels.
“For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if, in fact, things continue down the path they’d been going,” Biden told Democratic donors in New York.
In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States under President John Kennedy and the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev came close to the use of nuclear weapons over the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.
“If the Cuban Missile Crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing it,” Jean-Pierre said Friday.
Biden also told attendees that he knows Putin “fairly well” and said the Russian president was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.”
SNL put together a mock game show to play out Biden’s comments. The host of the game show (Bowen Yang) mentioned real headlines to contestants in the sketch until they inevitably broke down in some way.
“Have you noticed that everyone around you is angry and crazy?” Yang asked at the top of the sketch with a game-show-host grin. “People are flipping out at Target, stabbing is back and the only thing that can cheer us up is watching a sexy show about Jeffrey Dahmer.”
The first contestant (Heidi Gardner), who Yang described one of the only four “people in America who have not yet snapped,” was read increasingly concerning news about a potential nuclear threat from Russia and President Biden’s ability to deal with it.
“On Thursday, Biden said we are closer to nuclear Armageddon than we’ve been in 60 years,” the host said.
When Gardner’s character answered, “don’t know where to put that in my brain but I love Biden,” Yang sadistically reminded her of Biden’s age.
“When Joe Biden was born we didn’t have highways,” Yang said, adding the president didn’t get his first computer until he was 53 years old.
He then played a real video clip of Biden on ’60 Minutes” talking about his “mental acuity.”
“How would you say your mental focus is?” the “60 Minutes” interviewer asks in the clip before Biden answers: “Oh, it’s focused.” He then laughs and mumbles, then: “I think it’s – I haven’t – look.”
The sketch then cuts to Gardner furiously chugging a glass of wine.
A second contestant (Chloe Fineman) reached her breaking point (during which the fake game show allowed her to hit a flight attendant in a nod to recent disgruntled passenger outbursts) after she was told about Herschel Walker’s abortion allegation, 86% of kids say their dream job is to be a social media influencer and that Chris Pratt plays Mario in the new animated movie.
The third contestant (Kenan Thompson) snapped after just hearing the name “Elon Musk.”
“That man needs to shut his mouth!” an infuriated Thompson shouted. “Rich dude talking about going to Mars, well take your a– to Mars then!”
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The final contestant (Davon Walker) wasn’t bothered by news that 401ks are down by 20% or that the Mars company has announced that in the “name of inclusivity” the orange M&M has anxiety but he started to stress out when the host brought up Ye, the rapper former known as Kanye West.
“It’s OK, I still like his music,” Walker’s character said through deep breaths after the host said Ye called Lizzo fans “demonic.”
The host continued, “Kanye West also recently opened a private school,” prompting Walker to say, “Ok, it’s cool, yeah, that’s good right.”
Then the host said, “and he says he’s never read a book in his life.”