Saturday Night Live Has Got 2020 Covered in New Teaser

Saturday Night Live is only one episode into its 46th season and it’s already captured the complete mess this year has been. Ahead of tonight’s episode with Bill Burr and Jack White, SNL released a brief clip of highlights from last week’s episode — one that featured the return of Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump impression and the debut of Jim Carrey as presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Coupled with a coronavirus joke from both Colin Jost and Michael Che — plus a cameo by Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris — the quick teaser encapsulates this year to a tee. You can see the teaser above.

Earlier this fall, SNL creator Lorne Michaels revealed Carrey decided to board the show as Biden for the duration of the election after having a chat with Jost, a head writer on the show.

“There was some interest on his part. And then we responded, obviously, positively. But it came down to discussions about what the take was,” the executive producer explained. “He and Colin Jost had a bunch of talks. He and I as well. He will give the part energy and strength, and … [Laughs.] Hopefully it’s funny.”

He added that even though Season 45 ended with a handful of remotely produced episodes, the show would return to Studio 8H at 30 Rock for the new season, explaining the need for a live studio audience for the sketch comedy show.

“We need the audience, obviously. With comedy, when you don’t hear the response, it’s just different. With the kind of comedy we do, which quite often is broad, timing gets thrown off without an audience,” Michaels explained. “And for me, what is most important is when you’re absolutely certain of some piece on Wednesday, and then the dress-rehearsal audience sees it on Saturday and tells you you’re wrong. . . .I think us coming back and accomplishing the show will lead to — I hate to use the word normalcy — but it’s a thing that is part of our lives coming back, in whatever form it ends up coming back. So the physical problems of doing it — number of people who can be in the studio, number of people who can be in the control room, how you separate the band so that they’re not in any jeopardy — all of those are part of the meetings we’ve been having”