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No, that wasn’t a rerun: Will Ferrell revived his trademark impression of former President George W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
“I know what you’re thinking: What the heck is this handsome devil doing back in the Oval Office? Well, the truth is, this is just a set,” Ferrell, the host of the episode, said in the cold open. “I had it built in my basement in Texas so I could pretend to still be president sometimes.”
Ferrell-as-Bush said he has been “too busy doing oil paintings” to follow political news, but he noticed he was “suddenly popular.”
“Donny Q. Trump came in and suddenly I’m looking pretty sweet by comparison,” Ferrell-as-Bush said, adding that he might end up on Mount Rushmore “right next to Washington, Lincoln, and I want to say, uh, Kensington?”
But the former chief executive had a message for everyone wishing he was still in office: “I was really bad. Like, historically not good.”
At the end of the sketch, Ferrell’s Bush was joined by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Leslie Jones) to wax nostalgic about “the good old days when we were in charge.” They sang a short ditty to the tune of the opening theme from the classic sitcom “All in the Family.”
The lyrics poked fun at the Bush era (“Boy the way the game was played / Everybody knew their place / Cheney shot a guy in the face“) and nodded to the present day (“The housing market went to hell / Nazis kept it to themselves”) in equal measure.
Ferrell, hosting “SNL” for the fourth time since leaving the cast in 2002, used his monologue to riff on his long history with the show. He pretended to have amnesia after saying he had hit his head on a steel beam: “I can’t remember a thing. Except that I was going to sing.”
He then broke into song yet again with a slapdash version of “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” from the musical “Annie.” All the while, Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson tried to restrain him.
“SNL” returned to political headlines at the top of “Weekend Update.” The two anchors joked about a report that President Donald Trump sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last Junebut backed down when the White House counsel threatened to resign.
“So he tried to obstruct justice in an obstruction of justice investigation,” Colin Jost quipped. “It’s like getting pulled over for drunk driving and then challenging the cop to a keg stand.”
The musical guest was Chris Stapleton. He was joined by Sturgill Simpson in a surprise that delighted some country music fans.