It’s not even close to the Yuletide, but when Will Ferrell hosts “Saturday Night Live” and Paul McCartney appears as the musical guest, that’s occasion enough to pay homage to “A Christmas Carol.”
This weekend’s “S.N.L.” opened with a parody of the classic Charles Dickens novella — only this time it was President Trump, played by his longtime impersonator James Austin Johnson, getting a visitation from the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein, played by Ferrell.
The scene began with Johnson, having returned from a tiring trip to China, apologizing to Jeremy Culhane (who was playing Vice President JD Vance) for not taking him along.
“I would have, but I didn’t want to,” Johnson explained. He also gave Culhane a gift he said he’d brought him from President Xi Jinping of China, which turned out to be a Chinese finger trap.
“What did you give him?” Culhane asked.
“Taiwan,” Johnson replied.
Settling in for a nap, Johnson rested his head on a gold bar that he said was given to him by Switzerland “as a straight-up bribe.” He dreamed of getting a visit in the Oval Office from Epstein’s ghost (Ferrell), dressed in chains and tattered rags.
Shocked at the ghost’s appearance, Johnson said, “Jeffrey, I thought you were dead!”
“I am, remember?” Ferrell answered. “I killed myself. Wink.”
While Ferrell complained that the afterlife was “really, really hot,” Johnson lamented that things were not going well for him here on Earth.
“My approval rating’s in the 30s,” he said.
“Gross,” Ferrell said. “Call me when it hits 17.”
The two men shared a laugh, with Johnson adding as an aside, “Dark. Very dark.”
Later, when Johnson went to give him a high five, Ferrell didn’t reciprocate, joking, “You know what? This time I’m going to leave you hanging.”
Ferrell explained that, like the ghosts in the Dickens tale, he had the power to show the president visions of the future. (“Wow, I’m surprised there is one,” Johnson remarked.)
Those visions included Ashley Padilla as Kristi Noem, the former homeland security secretary, now selling vacuum cleaners on the Home Shopping Network. (“The best way to clean up that mess your dog made — besides a gun,” she said.”)
Another vision found Colin Jost (as the defense secretary Pete Hegseth) and guest star Aziz Ansari (as the F.B.I. director Kash Patel) hosting a podcast together. (Its sponsors included a line of cologne called Incompetent, which Ansari said was made from his forehead sweat and described as “a smell so strong it’ll cross your eyes.”)
If his defense secretary was podcasting, Johnson said, “I guess that means the war in Iran is over.”
“Yup,” Ferrell answered. “We came in second.”
Opening monologue of the week
When Ferrell emerged to deliver his monologue so soon after appearing in the opening sketch, something seemed amiss. In fact, the first person to take the stage wasn’t Ferrell at all — it was the drummer Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who has embraced his designation as Ferrell’s doppelgänger, and who was playing with McCartney’s band on “S.N.L.” A few moments later, the real Ferrell burst onto the stage, slightly out of breath, claiming that Smith had pushed him down backstage to steal the monologue from him. “Lorne had to give me mouth-to-mouth,” Ferrell explained.
McCartney appeared as himself in the segment, mostly to stand onstage and have Ferrell pepper him with the titles of great Beatles songs he had written. McCartney turned up later in a sketch about car mechanics and also played three songs during the show: “Days We Left Behind,” “Band on the Run” and “Coming Up.”
Weekend Update jokes of the week
Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on Trump’s visit to China.
Jost began:
This week, President Trump traveled 14,000 miles round trip to China for a 48-hour summit, which historians are already calling “could’ve been an email.” President Trump arrived in China, but instead of Xi Jinping, he was greeted by the country’s vice president, Han Zheng. Or as Trump called him, Xi Jinping.
Che continued:
President Trump was greeted at the Great Hall of the People by schoolchildren jumping up and down in excitement, shouting, “It’s the man from the hats we make!” President Trump brought his son Eric to China. As a gift.
Jost joked about the oil shortage in Cuba:
This week, C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba, which has run out of oil and is experiencing massive blackouts. We sent the C.I.A. director because the F.B.I. guy is also experiencing massive blackouts. [His screen showed an image of Patel.]
Che then returned to the topic of America and China:
U.S. and Chinese authorities conducted a joint operation to arrest members of a drug-smuggling ring. So great work, Agents Carter and Lee. [His screen showed an image of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in the film “Rush Hour.”]
Class dismissed of the week
Way back when Ferrell last hosted “S.N.L.” in 2019, he was featured in a sketch about an imperious high-school drama teacher and his students gathering nervously as they wait for him to post a cast list for the school musical. Though that sketch was not shown on the live broadcast, a version recorded at an “S.N.L.” dress rehearsal was posted online and became a viral sensation (in part because of how blatantly everyone is breaking in the sketch).
This week provided the opportunity for a sequel to the unaired segment, with Ferrell returning as the teacher. Though most of the cast members in the original sketch have since moved on, both Mikey Day and Kenan Thompson reprise their characters, alongside new students played by the current “S.N.L.” cast. There’s also a delightful cameo from Molly Shannon, another alum and one of Ferrell’s former co-stars, playing a choir teacher who gets a bit too handsy with a student played by Tommy Brennan.
And on that note: Have a great summer, stay cool, and see you in the fall!
Dave Itzkoff is a former Times culture reporter.
The post What the Dickens? Will Ferrell Plays Ghost of Epstein on ‘S.N.L.’ Season Finale appeared first on New York Times.
