Saturday Night Live cold open: Donald Trump’s loser tree + Scarlett Johansson
So … who did we get? Unsurprisingly, we got the return of Baldwin as Trump, and apparently the producers decided to bring in Cecily Strong as Melania Trump, Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway, Aidy Bryant’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Beck Bennett’s Mike Pence, and Leslie Jones as Omarosa in order to hang ornaments of people he hates on his new “loser tree.” Eventually some of the Trump children showed up, and that included a cameo from Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka. (Is Johansson so notable as Ivanka that she needs to be the permanent person playing this role?)
One of the more amusing moments in here came in presenting Jeff Sessions (also McKinnon) as Elf on a Shelf, shrunk down and clearly recording this on a separate stage.
We’ll admit that Baldwin as Trump isn’t all that exciting anymore — in the early days what was exciting about Baldwin was that it felt special or different. This was basically a roll-call of some of the most notable SNL impressions over the year — many of them were amusing but not hilarious. As a year-in sketch this was rather fun; however, as a cold open it was rather lacking when it comes to humor. The show tried to end with Omarosa coming back playing the theme song from The Apprentice like she was John Cusack in Say Anything … but how many times can that joke really work over the years?
As for whether or not this is the final show for Baldwin, don’t count on it — he now seems to be banking on playing Trump however long the show will have him.
What did you think about this week’s Saturday Night Live cold open? Be sure to share some of your thoughts on the subject in the comments! Take a look over here to read our full review of tonight’s episode hosted by Kevin Hart.
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