The treat: In the opening sketch of its Halloween episode, “Saturday Night Live” brought back the beloved guest host Tom Hanks to reprise his role as David S. Pumpkins, a cheerful man in a black and orange suit who inexplicably keeps appearing in horror-themed attractions.
The trick: It was all just a setup for James Austin Johnson to crash the scene in his recurring role as President Trump and wax satirical on the Republicans’ dimming hopes in the coming election.
This weekend’s broadcast (hosted by Inde Navarrette and featuring the musical guest Gracie Abrams) lured viewers in with a seemingly familiar premise: In the midst of a theme park ride that paid homage to famous murderers (like Lizzie Borden), there was Hanks as Pumpkins, flanked by two dancing men (Mikey Day and the “S.N.L.” alum Bobby Moynihan) in skeleton costumes.
“I’m going to freak you out!” Hanks promised in his goofy Pumpkins voice. When asked to explain what he was doing there, he started to say, “Two words —”
Johnson immediately interrupted, saying, “Midterms.”
Speaking to the audience, Johnson said, “Aw, are you sad you don’t get to see your third David Pumpkins scene? I’ll save you four minutes: He keeps popping up and confusing the people on the ride. The end.”
Johnson observed that he and David S. Pumpkins had several qualities in common: “We both appeared in 2016,” Johnson said. “We’re both very loud, very orange and very frankly, annoying!”
He complimented Hanks on his rear end, pointing out that he’s been making many similar remarks lately. “They’re calling it gay dementia,” Johnson said. “Dementia, short for, da men should show me their butts.”
“The midterms are on Tuesday and the polls say we’re doing very badly,” Johnson said. Holding up a bruised hand, he added, “And they’re saying Texas is turning purple, just like my hand. And if it goes blue then, just like my hand, I will leave it for dead.”
Johnson gently roasted Hanks (asking that, if Hanks was here, who was narrating World War II documentaries?) and introduced the “late, great Nicki Minaj”(played by Saidah Belo-Osagie) as his next press secretary.
“I’m out here killing it,” Belo-Osagie said, “and by it, I mean my career.”
Johnson urged viewers to vote Republican, because, he said, “If these Democrats win, and they get all that power, they will — do nothing. Just like the last time.”
Then he invited out Veronika Slowikowska, who played the short-lived White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, and asked her to open the show.
Reading directly from a cue card, Slowikowska said, “With confidence.” She continued, “Live from New York — and from so many cities — ” pronouncing “Live” to rhyme with “give”). Johnson stopped her there. “No, no, no, you whiffed it,” he said, as he threw her off the stage.
Opening monologue of the week
In her debut as an “S.N.L.” host, Navarrette joked about her breakout role in the hit horror film “Obsession” and invited some of the cast members to show off their satirical Halloween costumes. She also noted that she had recently been cast to play Rogue in a coming movie about the Marvel superhero team the X-Men.
“And I know it’s really important for Marvel that you get really fit, so I’ve been working out a lot,” Navarrette said. “So every morning I put on my little whore outfit and I hit the gym.”
Her line was a callback to a remark the comedian Shane Gillis made on “S.N.L.” as guest host on Oct. 10. During his monologue, Gillis said, “I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women just dress like whores now?”
That remark drew a wide range of criticism and pushback from other actors and comedians including Dan Levy, Phoebe Robinson and Cecily Strong, an “S.N.L.” alumna. Gillis was also mocked on the Weekend Update segment of “Saturday Night Live U.K.,” where the anchor Ania Magliano talked about bike shorts being distributed to women in Munich before a carnival ride at an Oktoberfest celebration, where traditional dirndl skirts are popular.
Though the women were protected from being “up-skirted,” Magliano said, they were still at risk of “something much worse.” Her screen then showed a picture of Gillis.
Weekend Update jokes of the week
Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on elections in the United States and in Israel.
Jost began:
The midterm elections are only three days away and it’s not looking good for Republicans. But President Trump is laser-focused on the issue that matters most: men’s asses. This is how he talked about Ohio Senate candidate Jon Husted. [He played a montage of Trump talking about Husted’s rear end, and copied a two-handed gesture Trump made to illustrate its shape.] Just in case you don’t know what it looks like. You know who I feel bad for? Pete Hegseth. I mean, he’s out here doing televised push-ups to get Trump’s attention. Zero compliments on his body. Even Vice President JD Vance came out and said that he was jealous that President Trump has never complimented his butt. What the hell is going on? Your party is about to lose the midterms. Stop playing “Smash or Pass” with each other. President Trump said at a rally this week that his voice is operating at about 49.2 percent. Out of 10. But Trump admitted that his campaign schedule has not been easy, saying that God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day. In fact, Trump said the only thing God made to never quit was Jon Husted’s ass.
Che continued:
President Trump attacked Democrat Abdul El-Sayed with Islamophobic rhetoric, saying that for El-Sayed to get into the Senate, he should have to go through a metal detector. While Trump supporters just take the window. [His screen showed a photograph from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot]. Ted Cruz said that if Abdul El-Sayed is elected to the Senate, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result. Then he went back to the Senate to cut health care and food stamps. This week, a record number of people voted in Israel’s election. Which is great to see, regardless of if you’re on the right side or the left side or the genocide.
Weekend Update guest of the week
Though he didn’t get much to do in this week’s opening sketch, Moynihan was graciously brought back to the Weekend Update desk to reprise his old recurring character Drunk Uncle, a beer-swilling inebriate who spouts comical malapropisms, misinformation and conspiracy theories. In this appearance, Moynihan delivered a hilarious ramble on the Milwaukee Brewers’ victory in the World Series and the general state of Major League Baseball (“Now there’s a Mrs. Met? Come on, there’s only one gender”).
At the end of his segment, Drunk Uncle was joined by Christian Yelich and Brice Turang of the Brewers, as well as the team’s manager, Pat Murphy. “We have something in common, Drunk Uncle,” Turang said. “We also have been drinking since Wednesday.”
Memorial of the week
Near the conclusion of the broadcast, “S.N.L.” paid tribute to Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday. The show ran a short but much-replayed clip of Stewart’s memorable introduction of the rap group Salt-N-Pepa, who were in the musical guest slot when he hosted in 1994.
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