‘SNL’ Cold Open Tackles Novak Djokovic, the Green M&M, ‘How I Met Your Father’

Saturday Night Live’s latest cold open was filled with political and pop culture references from the previous weeks — including Novak Djokovic, Wordle, How I Met Your Father, Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet, the green M&M and, of course, Donald Trump.

Kate McKinnon’s Laura Ingraham made an appearance on her version of The Ingraham Angle. Before welcoming several guests, McKinnon’s Ingraham took a stab at Joe Biden’s presidency, saying that everyone could agree that “it’s a disaster.” She went on to list inflation, gas being $19 and the green M&M, who’s been “canceled just for being a whore.”

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Aidy Bryant’s Ted Cruz, Pete Davidson’s Djokovic, Ego Nwodim’s Candace Owens and James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump were guests on the makeshift news show.

“The beard’s still going strong, huh” McKinnon’s Ingraham said while introducing Bryant’s Cruz. “Oh, yeah, my beard is like January 6: Shocking at first, but sadly, it’s been normalized.”

Bryant’s Cruz touched on apologizing for calling the Capitol Rioters “terrorists,” saying he never should’ve called them that. “The truth is they are big, burly men with big D energy,” he said, adding that people should book their trips to Cancun soon because it’s going to get cold soon.

McKinnon’s Ingraham then welcomed Davidson’s Djokovic, who addressed being deported from Australia for refusing to get vaccinated. “I never thought I would hear myself use the word deported in a bad way,” McKinnon told Davidson. “My visa was denied, but then I appealed,” he told her, adding that the judge’s ruling was “out.”

Next up was Nwodim’s Owens, who began her appearance on the show by saying, “Martin Luther King would’ve voted for Trump.”

“Liberals tried to make everything about race,” Nwodim’s Owens continued. “To quote the only words that Martin Luther King ever said: ‘I have a dream.’ That’s it. End of quote. Nothing about money or jobs or schools, unless you count his tombstone, which says, ‘Great job, gang racism over.'”

Throughout the cold open, Ingraham thanked the sponsors she still had: COVID Negs, which gives you a negative result, even when you’re positive; White Pizza “for when Italian is too ethnic”; the Bible Belt; and Paula Deen’s Chickpea Mash, “not radical Islamic hummus.”

The final guest of her show was Johnson’s Donald Trump, who played a game of Wordle, featuring words such as Boost, Mayer, HIMYF, Momoa and Prada, which led to the final word, “Trump.”

“I’d rather be mayor of anything,” Johnson’s Trump said, discussing the word Mayer, “than be Governor Ron DeSantis. I’d beat him so bad if he went against me, just like I beat Hillary because the only Hilary we like is Duff from How I Met Your Father.”

MacGruber star Will Forte hosted the episode, with rock band Måneskin as the musical guest.

In Forte’s opening monologue, he took jabs at how he’s the last of his former SNL co-workers to be asked to host the sketch series. As he’s trying to enjoy the moment, Kristen Wiig crashes the monologue to a louder applause than Forte received. Wiig went on to appear in sketches with Forte throughout the night.

Lorne Michaels made an appearance, saying there’s been a mistake in asking Forte to host, and it was actually supposed to be Willem Dafoe, who also stopped by Studio 8H on Saturday night.

“I texted Willem, and, you know, autocorrect,” Michaels told Forte. (Dafoe is set to host on Jan. 29).

During Weekend Update, Davidson and Jost referenced their purchase of a Staten Island Ferry: “We’re boat people, Colin.”

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