A Bannon-Kushner Showdown and Spicer as the Easter Bunny on ‘Saturday Night Live’

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/arts/snl-alec-baldwin-donald-trump-bannon-kushner.html

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A power play between Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner, and a widely condemned news briefing by Sean Spicer from the past week, did not escape the notice of “Saturday Night Live,” which satirized the tribulations of these White House staff members in a new episode hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

Alec Baldwin returned to play President Trump in the show’s cold open, working from the Oval Office with Vice President Mike Pence (played by the cast member Beck Bennett). In the sketch, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pence to read from his list of accomplishments from his first 100 days in office. Mr. Pence opened a folder, read a single item — “nominated Neil Gorsuch” — and closed the folder.

As Mr. Trump, Mr. Baldwin lamented, “I’m so sad my presidency is finally coming to an end.”

Mr. Bennett, as Mr. Pence, corrected him, “No, sir, you still have over 1,300 days left.”

Mr. Baldwin said: “I don’t know. Have you seen my tweets about North Korea? This could all be over by Monday.”

He added: “I take North Korea very seriously. Kim Jong-un is a bad, bad guy. He’s a warmonger. He’s quick to anger. He’s a huge narcissist. He’s got a stupid little haircut. I mean, why would they let a man like that run an entire country?”

Mr. Baldwin then summoned Mr. Bannon, his chief White House strategist (depicted, as is “S.N.L.” tradition, as the Grim Reaper), and Mr. Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law (played by Mr. Fallon, who was attired as the real Mr. Kushner was on a recent visit to Iraq) to inform them that only one of them would be allowed to continue working with him.

Against dramatic music and lighting that evoked Mr. Trump’s boardroom reality show, “The Apprentice,” Mr. Baldwin evaluated the two candidates.

“Jared,” he began, “you take the most beautiful photos. Steve, you take the worst photos I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not joking. When I see a photo of you, it makes me want to puke.”

Addressing Mr. Fallon again, he said, “Jared, I’ve sent you all around the world to represent me, but no one’s ever heard you speak. You’re like a little Jewish Amélie. Steve, you may be smart, but I once walked in on you eating a live pig in the Roosevelt Room.”

Mr. Baldwin said that whomever he did not pick would have to leave the Oval Office “and join Kellyanne Conway in the basement.” However, he said, that person “will get to come back at the end of all of this and help send me to prison.”

He revealed that he had chosen Mr. Kushner, and the Bannon character was taken away by another Grim Reaper. He called Mr. Kushner “an inspiration,” explaining, “You’ve shown everybody that if you’re born rich and marry my daughter, you can do anything you want.”

Instructing Mr. Fallon to “fix everything,” Mr. Baldwin sat himself at a smaller desk, next to the larger one he’d started at, where he and Mr. Fallon proclaimed the start of the show.

Later in the program, Melissa McCarthy (appearing by satellite from Los Angeles) reprised her recurring “S.N.L.” role as Mr. Spicer, the White House press secretary.

Mr. Spicer had drawn intense criticism over a news briefing on Tuesday in which he said that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was worse than Hitler, “who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” (ignoring his use of gas chambers during the Holocaust), and then clarified his remarks to say, incorrectly, that Hitler “was not using the gas on his own people.”

Mr. Spicer also used the phrase “Holocaust centers,” apparently meaning concentration camps.

As Spicer, Ms. McCarthy took the press room podium dressed in an Easter bunny costume and said she would deliver an apology. “Yes, you all got your wish this week, didn’t you, huh?” she said. “Spicey finally made a mistake.”

After stumbling over Mr. Assad’s name — she called him “Bazooka Phylicia Ahmad Rashad” — Ms. McCarthy said, “I know they’re not really called Holocaust centers. Duh. I know that. I’m aware. I clearly meant to say concentration clubs.”

She also chastised “nitpickers,” who “solely focus on every little slur and lie I say.”

“I am sensitive to the fact that they were sent there on trains,” Ms. McCarthy said. “But hey, at least they didn’t have to fly United, am I right?”

Using a pair of VeggieTales toys to give an error-filled retelling of the story of Passover, Ms. McCarthy started to say, “Not even Hitler — ”

“I’m not going to go there again,” she said. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on Jews.”

Before attempting to leave the stage in a vehicle shaped like an eggshell, Ms. McCarthy leaned into the microphone and said, almost as an afterthought, “Oh, by the way, the president’s probably going to bomb North Korea tonight.”

She added, “Just eat as much candy as you want, because this is probably our last Easter on earth.”