Is it a new season of “Saturday Night Live” if it doesn’t start with James Austin Johnson doing an impression of Donald Trump?
The first episode of Season 52, hosted by NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, opened with a spoof of the surprising relationship between New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the president. Or as Johnson calls it, “one of those unlikely animal friendships, like when a tiger gets together with a baby goat.”
Comedian Ramy Youssef returned as Mamdani, this time concerned about the nor’easter about to hit New York City. Youssef films a TikTok as the mayor, then asks, “What reckless lunatic would travel to see me in this kind of weather?” It’s, of course, Johnson as Trump.
The pair chat about their shared Queens heritage before Youssef remarks, “I could’ve grown up in one of your apartment buildings in Queens.” Johnson quips back, “Not with that last name.”
Then comes another surprise guest, this one here to see Trump. Johnson repeats the line, “What reckless lunatic would travel to see me?” It’s Ashley Padilla as Trump’s famously devoted executive assistant, Natalie Harp.
Padilla says she “ran here from D.C.”
Jalen Brunson, king of New York
A few months after leading the Knicks to their first NBA title since 1973, the point guard was back on national television to host SNL. Brunson was the first NBA player to host the show since LeBron James in 2007 and the first athlete since Travis Kelce in 2023.
In his monologue, Brunson opened the floor to questions, calling on four suspiciously tall audience members in the form of teammates Josh Hart, Karl Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby. As each was introduced, the audience erupted in cheers, capping off the team’s summer as New York City’s most beloved celebrities.
Brunson was featured in many basketball-centered skits, with the audience at one point breaking into an “MVP” chant.
‘Weekend Update’ compares Anthropic CEO to Gollum
As ever, “Weekend Update” hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost took their time in the middle of the show to poke fun at the political stories of the day. This week, it was Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, former vice president Kamala Harris campaigning for Democrats in the run-up to the midterms and the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.
Recent “Update” regulars Jeremy Culhane and Jane Wickline also appeared. Wickline portrayed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — who recently called for a slowdown in the development of AI — as a Gollum-like character talking to himself about controlling his own creation. Wickline asks Che, “What if there was a button where when you pushed it, everyone dies? Would you push the button?” Che emphatically responds, “No!” Then Wickline, with mock shock, asks, “Really?”
Culhane reprised his role as right-wing host Tucker Carlson to review the summer’s big movies. The second-year featured player opened his recap with, “It’s movie time. Let’s find our seats, silence our cellphones and abandon Christian values.”
Culhane also brought back his catchphrase from previous appearances as Carlson, asking the audience, ”What are we doing? What’s going on?”
New season, new cast members
The show’s two summer additions both made their first appearances. Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter showed up in a pretaped sketch early in the night that used the origin story of musical guest Katseye as a jumping-off point.
The pair played contestants on a new season of “Dream Academy,” the competition that the real music group originated from. Belo-Osagie appears quickly as Neelsa, a typical contestant on the show, while Reiter plays Margle, a … less traditional contestant.
Padilla, playing the producer of the show, explains that Margle and Duff (a similarly outside-the-box contestant played by Wickline) are on the show only because the pair “witnessed a hit-and-run caused by a music executive,” before motioning to herself as the culprit.
Wickline then deadpans, “She dragged that guy for two blocks.”
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