“Saturday Night Live” cold-open Saturday featured a glitzy sketch titled “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular,” with parodies of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.
In the sketch, actress Kate McKinnon portrayed Ingraham and Alex Moffat played Carlson, hosting the “celebration” from Mar-a-Largo. They immediately leaned into jokes about Carlson and Ingraham’s comments on the Ukrainian invasion by Russian military forces before saying that the “real victims” of the invasion were “the oligarchs” and their “sugar babies,” which was met with muted laugher, as seen in the clip below.
The Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular pic.twitter.com/OTWES5RMil
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) March 6, 2022
James Austin Johnson returned with his impression of former-President Donald Trump, who was “manning the phone lines” for the fundraiser-telethon for the oligarchs. As the camera cuts to Trump, he’s seen making comments on Rihanna’s incredible maternity fashion, saying, “and you know the thing about Rihanna is, you know what, she can pull it off, but she can be nine months, body’s still incredible.”
He later turned to the topic of bread. “My favorite food is probably bread, you know? And more specifically bun. I like bun. Bun is great, especially with respect to burger. And you know what? Now they want to go beyond burger, can you believe that? I want to stay right at burger. Beyond is not good. Joe Biden has gone beyond burger, and it has not gone so well.”
Cast member Bowen Yang portrayed a close-to-the-knuckle Steven Segal, who is a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the New York Times. “As someone who proudly pretends to be both Native American and Japanese, I feel for all people. Putin and I are, as they say in ancient Japan, Eskimo brothers,” Yang said in character as Segal.
Mikey Day and Cecily Strong sang a duet in character as Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle. The couple belted a spoof on Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow,” from “A Star is Born,” with the lyrics, “Tell me something boy / Don’t you love that big Russian convoy.”
Actor Oscar Isaac hosted the episode, but did not make an appearance in the skit, sticking with SNL tradition.