“Saturday Night Live” was born more than 45 years ago, and it exploded across American culture. If you missed the show, you had no idea what everyone was talking about around the water cooler on Monday morning (yes, there really were water coolers back in the 1970s).
Somehow, the edgy show kept its finger on the pulse of culture, lampooning anything and everything. Sure, it had its dog days (anyone remember cast members Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer and Charles Rocket?), but somehow the show survived for four decades.
But around the time George W. Bush took over the White House (SNL loved Bill Clinton), the show got hyper-political. What followed was eight years of mocking Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, followed by an eight-year lovefest for Barack Obama and another four-year hatefest for Donald Trump.
And now, like all the awards show ratings lately, SNL is on a big skid.
Viewers of Saturday Night Live this past weekend fell by more than half from last week (when Elon Musk hosted) to its “lowest ratings ever” of just 3.5 million, the Daily Mail reported.
“Last night’s results represent a new [household] season low and match a 18-49 low in the metered markets,” Deadline reported.
The once must-watch show has almost completely laid off hitting President Joe Biden. But SNL did take aim on Saturday at top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci and mocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its announcement last week that Americans fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus no longer need to wear masks in most settings.
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.”
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Source: Dailywire
