Dec 6, 2020

9 min read

‘S.N.L.’ Parodies Rudy Giuliani and Melissa Carone’s Disastrous Hearing

Cecily Strong took center stage in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch playing a real-life figure who had already reminded viewers of one of her best-known characters.

Cecily Strong (left, with Kate McKinnon as Rudolph W. Giuliani) played Melissa Carone, who had already reminded “S.N.L.” fans of Strong’s character the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party.Credit…NBC via YouTube

By Dave Itzkoff

Dec. 6, 2020, 4:27 a.m. ET

The emergence of a new public figure in the political sphere is a precious moment for fans of “Saturday Night Live,” one that often sets off a guessing game of which cast member (or, lately, which celebrity guest star) will be playing that person by the weekend. Who would make the best Brett Kavanaugh? The perfect Robert Mueller? The ideal Dr. Anthony Fauci?

So last week at a Michigan House hearing, after Rudy Giuliani helped introduce audiences to Melissa Carone, a contractor for Dominion Voting Systems with an assertive confidence in her unverified claims of voter fraud that a Wayne County judge had already described as “simply not credible,” viewers of “S.N.L.” went into action.

In particular, the “S.N.L.” faithful couldn’t help but draw comparisons between Carone’s distinctive cadence and the speech patterns of the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party, the recurring character played by Cecily Strong.

And sure enough, Strong took center stage in this weekend’s opening sketch, playing Carone in a parody of the Michigan hearing.

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The sketch also featured Kate McKinnon as an audibly flatulent Giuliani, who told the legislators that he and President Trump planned to keep contesting election results: “First in Michigan, then in Georgylvania, and then Pennsachusetts and then North Dacanada,” she said.

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McKinnon added that she would introduce “a dozen highly intelligent, barely intoxicated individuals who are all eyewitnesses.”

That parade began with Strong, as Carone, who emphatically told the House members: “Excuse me, maybe try losing the attitude first. Just like you lost all those Trump ballots.”

More witnesses testified, including Heidi Gardner as a woman who said she ate ballots; Beck Bennett as the My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell; Alex Moffat as the victim of an alien abduction; and Chloe Fineman, playing Nicole Kidman’s character from HBO’s “The Undoing.”

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But time and again, the proceedings were interrupted by Strong, who continued to spin conspiracy theories (“I voted for Trump, yet Biden won? Hmmm. Maybe a little too random”) and confused Dominion with Domino’s Pizza. (“Well, for starters they cheated me out of my cheesy bread,” she said, adding: “Either way my vote took longer than 30 minutes so it’s supposed to be free.”)

Before wrapping up the hearing (and the sketch), McKinnon’s Giuliani vowed: “I would say the defense rests, but we will never rest. Not until this election is overturned. Or I get a full pardon and $10 million in cash.”

Eminem parody of the week

It took a moment for the premise of this filmed segment to become clear: Santa Claus (played by Jason Bateman, the evening’s host) and his elves (Bennett, Fineman and Kyle Mooney) read through letters from children before they come across a disturbing request from an especially dedicated Santa fan. That fan is Stu (Pete Davidson), who raps his Christmas wish as an homage to Eminem’s “Stan”:

I won’t be greedy or needy or ask you for too much.
Just want one thing and hope you still got that magic touch.
’Cause getting this present is the only thing keeping me alive.
Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a PS5.

The sketch also features McKinnon in the role of Dido, Eminem’s collaborator on the original song; Bowen Yang as Elton John, who famously sang a duet of “Stan” with Eminem at the 2001 Grammys; and stick around till the very end for one last surprise cameo.

Weekend Update jokes of the week

At the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che riffed on President Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his election loss and on the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

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Jost began:

Yesterday, Trump’s lawyers opened another door on their advent calendar of losing as they had election lawsuits tossed in six different states. Proving once again that this administration will never stop fighting — except the coronavirus. In a psychotic OnlyFans video this week, Trump said that this was a rigged election at the highest level. Dude, you’re the highest level. You were in charge when the election happened. And hey, look, I will believe any conspiracy theory you want, as long as in 44 days, you leave. I will believe there were suitcases of hidden ballots. I’ll believe that the votes were counted illegally in Spain. Or — this is a real theory — that North Koreans in ships dropped off ballots in Maine. Because, you know, it’s easier for North Koreans to get to the East Coast. Whatever you want us to believe, sir, I am in. OK? I see you, you is smart. You is kind. You is important. But you is need to go.

Che continued:

The C.D.C. has recommended that the first people in the U.S. to receive Covid vaccines should be health care workers and residents of nursing homes, while the first people to actually receive it will be guests of Colin and Scarlett’s holiday yacht party. I got mixed feelings on this vaccine. On one hand, I’m Black, so naturally, I don’t really trust it. But other the other hand, I’m on a white TV show so I might actually get the real one.

‘S.N.L.’ Parodies Rudy Giuliani and Melissa Carone’s Disastrous Hearing

Editors’ Picks

Meryl Streep Isn’t on Our List of Greatest Actors. Here’s Why.

That Mysterious Monolith in the Utah Desert? It’s Gone, Officials Say

This Japanese Shop Is 1,020 Years Old. It Knows a Bit About Surviving Crises.

Eminem parody of the week

Weekend Update jokes of the week

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