Tom Hanks returned to “Saturday Night Live” on Halloween night to revive his lounge-y David S. Pumpkins character in a cold open that skewered President Trump’s increasingly bizarre comments on the stump and his fixation with men’s physiques.
The segment also featured Saidah Belo-Osagie as Nicki Minaj in a spoof of the star’s vocal support for Trump and his MAGA movement. The bit cast Minaj as Trump’s next choice for press secretary, on the heels of Katie Zacharia’s spectacularly quick flame-out in the job earlier this month.
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The segment opened with Grace Reiter and Jeremy Culhane as a young couple taking a ride at a low-end amusement park Halloween celebration. Kenan Thompson then pops up in a ghoulish Grim Reaper costume to guide the couple through a series of scary scenes. Pumpkins, the character that Hanks first limned for the show in 2016, popped in with a dorky dance routine accompanied by Mikey Day and a special cameo appearance by former “SNL” trouper Bobby Moynihan. Day and Moynihan wore full-body skeleton jumpers with white face paint.
As the ride continued, James Austin Johnson turned up as President Trump, who stepped in to interrupt the ride and lament about Republicans being poised for a thumping in the Nov. 3 midterm election. The segment then went into a string of surprisingly risqué jokes about Trump’s unusual obsession with the butts of candidates that he has been endorsing as he’s hosted a string of campaign rallies in recent weeks.
“We both appeared in 2016. We’re both very loud, very orange and, frankly, very annoying,” Johnson as Trump said. “Good acting, great ass. A great ass on Hanks — something that I’ve enjoyed lately admiring. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just that I might be gay.”
Trump then whined that “the midterms are on Tuesday. The polls say we’re doing very badly — aww aww. They’re saying Texas is turning purple, just like my hand.” Johnson then raised his hand to show a gigantic bruise. Johnson as Trump called Texas’ GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ken Paxton, “an ugly son of a bitch” but urged voters to chose him over Democrat James Talarico. Trump acknowledged that Talarico is “much better looking. What a dynamic ass.”
As Trump spoke, the other players in the scene were in freeze mode. Thompson’s Grim Reaper character broke from the scene and rushed past Johnson as Trump. Trump called out “thank you for that donation” to which Thompson replied, “Yeah, you wish, bitch.”
Belo-Osagie barreled into the segment as Minaj toward the end as Trump hails her devotion to the cause. “Trump’s out here killing it — and by it, I mean my career,” Belo-Osagie as Minaj said. Trump noted that Minaj is well-known for her curvy rear-end: “Perhaps if it was on a man, I could admire it,” Johnson as Trump remarked.
In closing, Trump brought out Zacharia who flubbed her attempt to deliver the signature “SNL” opening line, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”
The Halloween installment of “SNL” is hosted by “Obsession” star Inde Navarrette, with Gracie Abrams serving as musical guest.
Fox Style News Syndicate. Sourced from broadcast reporting: Read Full Source Coverage.