The episode, hosted by Timothée Chalamet, also featured musical performances by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
While the pandemic has made Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, a highly visible figure in American life, “Saturday Night Live” has been circumspect about satirizing him in comedy sketches. When Fauci first turned up as an “S.N.L.” character this past spring, during one of the show’s remotely produced at-home episodes, he was given a mostly glowing treatment and played by none other than Brad Pitt (after Fauci himself had made the suggestion in a CNN interview). Presumably Brad Pitt had other commitments this weekend — instead, the “S.N.L.” cast member Kate McKinnon added another role to her ever-growing roster of celebrity and political impressions and played Fauci in the show’s opening sketch. McKinnon was joined by Heidi Gardner, playing Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, as they explained to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (Beck Bennett) how Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, newly approved for emergency use, would be distributed to the American public. Following some applause from the audience, McKinnon said, “Let’s try to keep the woos to a minimum, please. As you all know, woos spread droplets.” McKinnon proudly announced that “the vaccine is approved and I am officially joining the Biden administration to continue the fight against Covid.” With some hesitation, Gardner added, “And I think I’ll be joining as well, right? Remember when Trump said to inject bleach and I did a stanky little face? And I almost whispered, ‘No’? Remember?” McKinnon said that “we’re doing this vaccine World War II-style,” and further explained: “We made England go in first, see what’s what.
