Saturday Night Live cold open: Charles Barkley and the Final Four

After a hiatus of reasonable length, tonight Saturday Night Live returned with a new episode — and a lot of cold-open material.

Entering the installment, we 100% thought that we were expecting something inherently political from the get-go, mostly because that is what this show often does. Yet, instead, we got something that was political by proxy as Kenan Thompson dusted off his impression of Charles Barkley as he discussed the Final Four … but also a number of other hot-button topics. It started with immigration, but eventually went into the Artemis II and the mission going around the Moon.

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We won’t say that Barkley is the best impression that Kenan does, but there’s something about his commitment to it that just makes us so happy whenever he does it. The fact that he continued to do the whole “can I say something?” so many times was great, mostly because it got funnier and funnier as it went along.

For the real political connection…

Well, Ashley Padilla turned up as Pam Bondi close to the end of the sketch — we still can’t speak to how great the impression is, but we do think her turning up in the cold open as a prominent political figure is a huge reminder that she is going to be a big part of the show for many years. She’s not even a main cast member yet!

Related – See more news when it comes to the next Saturday Night Live host

What did you think about tonight’s Saturday Night Live cold open?

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