A lot has happened in the past week: Charli XCX and Troye Sivan brought their Sweat Tour to New York, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s campaigns marched along, and the entire world fell in love with a pygmy hippopotamus. Plenty of material for SNL to work with during its 50th season premiere. Notably, Bowen Yang put on his best Essex drawl to portray Charli XCX, and put on a hippo costume to share some familiar-sounding insight into Moo Deng’s viral fame.
On Weekend Update, Yang played Moo Deng the hippo, who gave a monologue about setting boundaries with her millions of new fans: “Reminder, women owe you nothing. When I’m in my enclosure, tripping over stuff, biting my trainer’s knee, I am at work. That is the project.” She also clarified that she will not be endorsing a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Wait… I’ve heard this one. Yang also interviewed Roan for Interview last month.
As Charli, Yang hosted a political talk show called the Talk Talk Show with DJ Troye Sivan, played by Sarah Sherman. (You may recall Timothée Chalamet and Boygenius played Sivan on the show last fall.) “Charli” chatted with guests Susanne Bartsch (Jean Smart), Kaitlan Collins (Chloe Fineman), and Jasmine Crockett (Ego Nwodim), and gave a quick rundown on what is brat or nat.
And speaking of the election, the episode’s cold open saw Maya Rudolph reprise her Kamala Harris impression at a campaign rally in the swing state of “Wisconsipensylvageorgia.” She brought along her running mate Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan), her husband Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg), and Joe Biden (Dana Carvey). Meanwhile, things did not go so well at Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) and JD Vance’s (Yang) rally, though “Vance” did quote Radiohead’s “Creep.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Marcello Hernandez played a disillusioned Bad Bunny in a game show sketch, a Spirit Halloween commercial flaunted a vague Taylor Swift costume, and host Jean Smart was joined by her Hacks co-star Hannah Einbinder to introduce musical guest Jelly Roll before performing “Liar.” Jelly also debuted the new song “Winning Streak.” Watch it all below.
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
