Over the last decade or so, Saturday Night Live has gotten increasingly comfortable with turning to outside help for political impressions if they don’t feel they have the cast member to pull it off. We saw that with Alec Baldwin during Donald Trump’s Presidency. We saw that with Tina Fey while Sarah Palin was running for Vice President, and last night, we saw it with Scarlett Johansson who showed up for a surprise cameo to play Katie Britt. The popular actress did her own version of Britt’s much talked about response to the State Of The Union, and so far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
The sketch in question was the show’s cold opening. It started with a send-up of Joe Biden’s State Of The Union that was largely one joke about him trying to show how youthful and energetic he can still be. Then the sketch kicked it over to Johansson for her impression of Katie Britt, and business really picked up. The general response to Britt’s real life speech was that she seemed a bit rehearsed and theatrical, and Scarlett leaned into that hard to deliver an over the top yet pretty accurate at moments take on the Alabama Senator. You can watch it below…
If there was any question as to how that impression is going over, all one has to do is look at the numbers. The sketch has already been watched more than 700,000 times on YouTube, which is more than three times higher than the next highest sketch. SNL’s tweet, which notably cuts out the portion of the sketch with Biden’s speech, has more than 30,000 likes. None of the other sketches or performances have more than 8,000 likes. In addition, there are several other tweets showing excerpts of the sketch that have attracted huge like numbers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Johansson is, of course, no stranger to Saturday Night Live. She’s married to Weekend Update host Colin Jost and is a member of the noted Five Timers Club, having hosted the show six times. She’s also made surprise cameos in the past, most notably playing Ivanka Trump. Each appearance has been a good reminder of how skillful she can be at comedy, despite a movie career that has mostly included more serious and dramatic projects.
Saturday Night Live mostly does apolitical sketches, but the long-running sketch comedy show’s more culturally relevant moments are more often related to the political sketches. With the primaries winding down and the main campaign season about to begin, it’ll be interesting to see how much Saturday Night Live is going to lean into politics. The show arguably has the best Trump impression it has ever had right now with James Austin Johnson’s so accurate it's scary take, but it shies away from using it on a weekly basis. As the election season heats up, however, Americans will likely get more invested in politics, and we may start seeing significant time devoted to politics each week. We’ll see.
There are always complaints Saturday Night Live is biased in its political coverage, with the louder accusations arguing it leans to the left, but the show has proven it’s been willing to take shots at both parties over the years. We’ll have to see whether it tries to find a middle ground or focuses more on just going after Trump for the next year.
Last night marked Johansson’s first appearance on SNL since she hosted the show back in 2019. If nothing else, it was a great reminder that she’s a fantastic host and is way overdue for another chance to deliver the monologue. Upcoming host Ramy Youssef will get his chance next, but it won’t be until March 30th, as the show will be giving us reruns for the next few weeks.
