Saturday Night Live Spoofs

Alec Baldwin returned as host to SNL this weekend for a 17th time.

It took nearly an hour for Baldwin, now resident impersonator of President Trump, to don a certain familiar wig and assume the role that has infuriated the current real-life occupant of the Oval Office.

In the meantime, SNL took plenty of satirical shots at the Trump administration, starting with the return of Melissa McCarthy as the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer. It was truly an entertaining episode inspired by current political events.

MELISSA MCCARTHY AS SEAN SPICER

McCarthy, who made a surprise appearance last week as an agitated Spicer, was the opening of this week’s show. As Spicer, she announced to the White House press corps that “I’m calm now,” then stopped herself from swearing because, as she explained, “That’s the old Spicey, and this is the new Spicey.”

She went on to use action figures and Barbie dolls to explain a new process of “extreme vetting”; chastise the news media for failing to report on terrorist attacks like “the Horror at Six Flags,” “the Slaughter at Fraggle Rock,” and “the Night they Drove Old Dixie Down”; and plug some of Ivanka Trump’s merchandise—a bangle and a shoe (“These babies are real head-turners”), before introducing the new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, played by Kate McKinnon.

The Sessions character began to explain, “We all know there are two kinds of crime: regular and black,” only to be hastened away by McCarthy.

KATE MCKINNON AS SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN

During “Weekend Update,” McKinnon showed up again as Senator Elizabeth Warren, in a short desk-side segment that referenced Tuesday’s incident when Warren was silenced by Republican senator Mitch McConnell for reading a letter from Coretta Scott King that criticized Sessions’ record on civil rights.

Playing Warren, she began to interrogate the “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost; “It says here that you and Michael Che are credited as full cast members on the show, is that correct?” she asked. “Yet you only perform on a 10-minute segment entitled—I think I have it here—it’s called ‘Weekend Update’? And yet, you collect the same paycheck of a cast member who appears throughout the entire show?”

ALEC BALDWIN KILLS IT ONCE AGAIN AS TRUMP

Baldwin appeared at last as Trump in a parody of “The People’s Court,” to which the president turns after an appeals court refused to reinstate his travel ban. A judge played by Cecily Strong asked him, “Mr. Trump, you understand this is a TV court, right?” He replied, “That’s O.K. I’m a TV president.”

Baldwin’s Trump called the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, (a bare-chested Beck Bennett), as a character witness. In broken English, he testified, “Lay off President Trump, O.K.? This man is a great friend. He’s my little American happy meal. He’d do anything for you. Go against his own country, just to make you happy.”

As he left the courtroom, Bennett added, “See you at Mar-a-Lago, baby.”