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“Saturday Night Live” kicked off this week’s episode with a sketch that skewered the latest round of firings in the Trump administration and featured guest appearances by show veterans.
In the cold open, a parody of Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN, 12-time “SNL” host John Goodman was on hand in the role of ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Tillerson, the former head of ExxonMobil, was fired by President Donald Trump this week.
“It’s just crazy how one day you’re the CEO of Exxon, a 50 billion dollar company,” Goodman as Tillerson lamented in a thick Southern accent. “And the next you get fired by a man who used to sell steaks in the mail.” Goodman as a frustrated Tillerson then breaks a water glass in his hand.
Goodman was joined by two familiar faces: “SNL” alums Bill Hader (the host of this week’s episode) as short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and Fred Armisen as “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff.
“I’m the fidget spinner of the White House,” Hader as Scaramucci bragged. “I made a big splash and then one day everybody was like: Whoa, what the hell was that about?”
And as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Kate McKinnon riffed on the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was axed two days before he was to retire and be eligible for full pension benefits. She also took aim at frequent speculation that Sessions may be fired, too.
“I’m just a simple man who wanted to make things bad for immigrants and now here I am taking the away the pension of a Christian white. It ain’t right,” McKinnon as Sessions said, referring to McCabe.
Asked to explain McCabe’s firing, McKinnon’s Sessions efforts an explanation and finally says, “I don’t know, I can’t even dance around it — Trump made me do it. McCabe, he saw too much.”
Asked by Cooper about the possibility Sessions could be the next to go, McKinnon as the attorney general said, “you all need me right now, because if I get fired, he’s going to launch Robert Mueller right into space,” referring to the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice.
Hader and Armisen teamed up again for the second sketch of the night: A revival of “The Californians,” a soap opera parody in which the two play dim-witted Los Angelenos who speak with stereotypical accents for which the sketch is known.
Kristen Wiig and Vanessa Bayer, two former cast members who appeared in previous editions of “The Californians,” were not around this weekend. But the sketch nodded to them with framed pictures and an explanation for Bayer’s absence: Rosa, the housekeeper character she played, had been deported.
Hader also reprised his popular “Weekend Update” role of Stefon, a scenester with nightlife suggestions. The character is considered a fan favorite.
The musical guest this week was the rock group Arcade Fire.