“Saturday Night Live” has been uber-liberal for its entire existence, often to the point where it simply isn’t funny anymore.
When Joe Biden became president, the long-running late-night comedy show didn’t hit him for months, and even then the ribbing was light-hearted — a far cry from how the show treated former President Donald Trump.
But SNL on Saturday did hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its ever-evolving mask guidance and took aim at the top immunologist in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In the show’s cold open, cast member Kate McKinnon played Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) who served on Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force and is now Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19.
“It’s your boy, Fauci, the patron saint of Purell,” said McKinnon, wearing fake ears and speaking in Fauci’s trademark gravelly voice.
“The CDC announced that people that are vaccinated no longer need to wear masks, outdoors or indoors. Pretty great, right?” McKinnon said. But “a lot of people had questions, such as, ‘what does that mean? What the hell are you talking about? Is this a trap?’”
The fake Fauci then said he’d found a few doctors who minored in theater to act out various scenarios to help clear up the confusion.
In the first scene, a couple pretended to be in a bar. Cast members Beck Bennett told Aidy Bryant that the fact that he is “entering a bar at 11 a.m.” should be proof that he is not “vaxxed.”
BRYANT: Welcome to a bar.
BENNETT: Thank you. Do I still have to wear a mask indoors?
BRYANT: You actually do not.
BENNETT: Great.
BRYANT: Well, as long as you’re vaccinated.
BENNETT: No, I’m not.
BRYANT: Oh, then that’s bad.
BENNETT: Well I’m entering a bar at 11 a.m., did you really think I was vaxxed, because that’s on you.
BRYANT: Right, I deserve COVID.
BENNETT: And … scene.
McKinnon said that message wasn’t right, adding that “we have to trust each other.”
In the next scenario, Bowen Yang played an airline passenger who is told he will still have to wear a mask when not eating or drinking. He moved on quickly, saying he has been inside for a year. He then asked the flight attendant if she would like to “bang,” telling her to “Hop on, let’s go for a real ride.”
McKinnon took issue with that message too, saying, “the lesson should have been, you need masks on planes. Not, everybody horny now.”
After a few more scenes, the last one featured a group of people dancing together. As they celebrated, Bennett ended the fun by saying, “Now, let’s talk about Israel.”
“That seems like a good place to end,” McKinnon said. “So, in summary, please everyone get the vaccine and enjoy life with no masks.”