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Saturday Night Live Shifts Red in Post-Trump Election Cold Open

Sorry to everyone who bet money on Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris doing a mournful piano version of “Apple” by Charli XCX. Saturday Night Live decided to pivot right wing in their first post-election cold open. In a very “jk! jk!” way. Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, and Kenan Thompson started the sketch with what seemed like an earnest tone-setting moment. But sike! They love that Trump was elected and definitely aren’t disingenuously going MAGA in order to avoid being rounded up when the pogroms start. Behold James Austin Johnson’s buff Trump, isn’t it pleasing to our prez? And Dana Carvey debuted a new Elon Musk impression, the court jester to Trump’s mighty king. Elon, predictably, didn’t love the joke. “SNL has been dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality,” he wrote on Twitter. Was that before or after you did the Wario sketch?

Saturday Night Live Goes Red Post-Trump Election