Saturday Night Live opened its Season 47 over the weekend with a new cast-member offering his parody of US President Joe Biden.
Johnson, known for online viral impressions of ex-President Donald Trump, appeared as Biden in the cold open with the Democrat looking back upon his summer as “bad — not Cuomo bad, but definitely not Afghanistan good”.
Biden is then shown desperately trying to get the Democrats to compromise on his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Two Democratic “moderates” that had opposed the Biden administration's proposed "Build Back Better" bill are then introduced, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) played by Cecily Strong, and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) played by Aidy Bryant.
Strong's Sinema says: "I didn't come to Congress to make friends and so far, mission accomplished".
As they are joined by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), played by Ego Nwodim, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), played by Melissa Villaseñor, Joe Biden flounders in a bid to negotiate a compromise between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.
“I wore a dress that said, 'Tax the rich’ and then spent all night partying with the rich,” says the stand-up comedian parodying Ocasio-Cortez.
When Biden asks Sinema what she likes, she replies, "Yellow starbursts, the film 'The Polar Express' and when someone eats fish on an airplane."
The infrastructure bill became central to the during the “Weekend Update” fake news segment of the show.
The passing of the bill on Friday “should be enough to clean as many as two of LaGuardia’s toilets", joked Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost.
Referring to the Dems’ pledges that the package would expand internet access across the country, Jost quipped against a backdrop oft January’s US Capitol riot: “Which is great news because when has internet ever been bad for America?"
On the Victoria gubernatorial race, won last week by Republican Glenn Youngkin who ran against Democrat Terry McAuliffe, co-anchor Micheal Che pointed to a photo of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and noted:
"But on the bright side, losers from Virginia usually get a statue."
James Austin Johnson followed up his debut impression of Biden with a portrayal of ex-POTUS Donald Trump in the cold open, congratulating Glenn Youngkin “and mostly myself” on victory in Virginia.
"It’s great to be frankly winning again. How we love to win – And you know what? You’re going to see a lot more winning where that came from. Let me tell you, you’re going to see it a lot," Johnson, as Trump, told Youngkin, played by cast member Alex Moffatt.
On Twitter, users were split in their reactions to the show, with some finding it “hilarious”. “So funny. America provides such good material for the writers."
Others on social media were less than enthusiastic.