Saturday Night Live cold open: Oscars red carpet & George Santos

Saturday Night Live

Tonight’s new episode of Saturday Night Live started off with a touch of current events — in particular, the Oscars pre-show.

This was actually a pretty perfect send-up for Hollywood red-carpet shows, whether it be the bland hosting or the awkward close-ups of feet that happen on the red carpet. We also had Kenan Thompson impersonating Mike Tyson, who for whatever reason was tasked with discussing the safety of the show this year. (Yes, be prepared for a lot of Will Smith slap jokes — what we saw here was more or less a precursor to that.) Then, Chloe Fineman did a pretty great job as Jamie Lee Curtis, who does have a chance of walking away with a trophy tonight. At the end we had Bowen Yang as Tom Cruise … or, to be more specific, George Santos pretending to be Tom Cruise.

As for what else there was, we had some comments about the Oscars’ inclusivity and also a joke about how the betting community is now into the show more so than ever before. While there wasn’t any real point to this sketch, there were a few jokes here and there. This was more of a series of vignettes than anything that was actually tied together.

The real value of this cold open? It just allowed the cast to come out and do a lot of different impressions, and also for Sarah Sherman to come out as Michelle Williams’ acting coach. None of this is going to go viral in the way that the show probably hoped.

At this point, we tend to think the producers are saving some of their biggest stuff for later on in the show. With Jenna Ortega as a host, you do have to imagine that there’s a chance for a Wednesday sketch or something else that will get a ton of attention.

What did you think about this particular Saturday Night Live cold open?

Be sure to let us know right now in the comments! Once you do just that, keep coming back for some other updates. (Photo: NBC.)

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