NBC sketch-show “Saturday Night Live” delivered a series of comedic slaps to an increasingly gaffe-prone President Joe Biden, focusing on his recent conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.
The sketch began with President Biden standing at the lectern during at a post-meeting press conference, which he began by misreading the teleprompter and calling Xi “Roman Numeral 11.”
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Calling the meeting “a total win,” Biden went on to add, “We made agreements about communications, fentanyl, climate change, but most importantly, got the thing America really needs right now: more pandas!”
Things got dicey for “Biden” again when he opened up the floor and took questions from the press.
“Would you like to completely undo your accomplishments by calling him a dictator again?” one reporter asked.
“I would!” Biden replied.
In an effort to draw attention from that response, Biden brought out a panda and pointed again to the fact that China had agreed to loan the U.S. more pandas after the loan expired on the pandas at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo.
Bowen Yang, as panda Tian Tian, said, “I’m honored to be here. But am I the only one who was surprised that the presidents of the two biggest economies in the world met and everyone’s just like, ‘What’s up with the pandas?'”
When the topic turned back to more serious questions — specifically the ongoing war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas — “Biden” tried to pivot back to the pandas again: “Y’know what, I think people are really liking the panda, right? Next question!”
Biden met with the Chinese leader — to whom he aptly referred as a “dictator” shortly afterward — late last week in San Francisco, and he touted the success of that meeting, saying that among other things, the pair had set the stage for future conversations: “We should pick up the phone and call one another [if we have concerns] and we’ll take the call. That’s important progress.”