Recapping the week in American political news has provided endless fodder for Saturday Night Live’s cold open. Predictably, this all made it into the Season 51, Episode 5’s edition. Starring James Austin Johnson as Trump, the audience was treated (or subjected) to a monologue recapping the bulk of the previous week’s chaotic events.
A quick IRL recap for those not keeping up: The government shutdown surpassed its previous record, and will enter its 40th day on Sunday, November 9. Because of the closure, food assistance benefits were cut and airline travel has been thrown into chaos. In addition to the serious issues, there’s also been the usual gamut of bizarre happenings at the White House. Most notably, a guest passed out and required medical attention during a press conference at the Oval Office,
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The jokes on all of these topics were solid, especially considering that the show has been struggling to nail political cold opens as reality gets harder and harder to parody. Johnson, as Trump, delivers his lines so convincingly it’s hard not to fear he’d continue speaking for an uninterrupted 90 minutes like the actual president is known to do. Fortunately, Johnson’s concise four minute performance was much funnier—and coherent—than the subject of his impersonation.
“Each week, I like to create a big visual that sort of sums up how things are going,” Johnson’s Trump said. “Last week, it was the demolishing of the East Wing. This week, it’s a medical professional almost dying in my oval office at the mere thought of charging less for drugs. Maybe next week, a bald eagle will fall dead out of the sky and splat right on the White House lawn.”
Even as tight as the punchlines were, the real star of the show was Austin’s neck prosthetic. The incredibly lady-parts-looking skin flaps were a clear homage to the Time Magazine cover that prominently featured Trump’s saggy neck. Any time Johnson made a slight adjustment to his head, the neck wiggled with him.
“People are saying, but sure, how will I afford my Thanksgiving turkey for my family?” Johnson said, mimicking Trump’s emphatic head movements. As he did so, the prosthetic stretched and contracted like a fleshy accordion. “Well, good news is your family’s not coming because all the planes are gone. We call that problem solving problem. Killing two birds with another bird. Now you got a bunch of crazy birds.”
It’s not that the prosthetic outshined the rest of Johnson’s performance, per se. But it was a deft comedic touch that poked the president about a subject everybody knows he’s sensitive about.
We look for the neck to continue doing its thing because when has Donald Trump ever worn a turtleneck?
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