The latest episode of Saturday Night Live took aim at US President Joe Biden, poking fun at the recent CNN town hall meeting in Baltimore, which became a fertile ground for Biden-related memes.
Former cast member Jason Sudeikis returned to the show for the episode, where he played the 2013 version of the 46th US president. A March 2021 version of Joe was played by Alex Moffat, while the contemporary President Biden was portrayed by James Austin Johnson.
The sketch starts with contemporary Joe Biden receiving bad news from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki saying that the CNN Town Hall meeting was watched by no one, and that the president's approval rating is in the dumpster.
"I don't understand. People used to like me," Biden says to himself. "The press would call me Uncle Joe. I miss the old me. Where the hell did that guy go?"
This joke was made in a reference to a recent town hall meeting, where President Biden among other things, at one point asked himself what he was doing there while struggling to answer a question from the audience.
At that moment, Vice President Biden from 2013 appears in aviator sunglasses and doing finger guns.
President Biden wondered how the man who just appeared in front of him could be himself.
“You seem so happy. So carefree. So — what is the word I am looking for?”, the contemporary Biden said.
“Lucid!” the 2013 Biden responded.
Sudeikis Biden explained that “where I am from, we are still VP. Easiest gig in the world. We’re like America’s wacky neighbour, you know. Just pop in with an ice cream cone, some aviator shades, finger guns. Shake a few hands and rub a few shoulders.”
Moments later the 2013 Biden rubs the president’s shoulders and smells his neck, in a nod to strange habits Biden had been repeatedly criticised for in the past.
“You like that?”, the VP said. “Look, I hope this doesn’t sound sexist, but you have got to smile more, sweetie.”
At the end of the sketch, the two Bidens briefly meet a third version of the US president, from March 2021.
Netizens reacted to the sketch differently.
While some Twitterati were angered that SNL took a shot at the incumbent president...
...others seemingly enjoyed the sketch, with some pointing out that if SNL made President Joe Biden their target that means that the 46th's "crashing failure could no longer be ignored".