A Cold Open involved James Austin Johnson, as Biden, blaming COVID on people seeing « Spider-Man: No Way Home. »
Saturday Night Live returned from its winter hiatus with a cold open that saw its version of President Joe Biden blaming the current COVID-19 surge on people seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home. The year’s first episode kicked off with James Austin Johnson reprising his role as Biden for a mocked up news conference during which he told the nation to stop watching the movie that broke box office records last month. « Hello, my fellow Americans, » he said. « As I keep saying every chance I get, we’re in the middle of a cold, dark winter. This winter is so dark, Republicans don’t think it should vote. » He continued: « This virus has disrupted our lives. It’s canceled holidays, weddings, quinceañeras, gender-reveal parties, wildfires that started as gender-reveal parties. » It has also disrupted SNL, with Roddy Ricch dropping out as musical guest of Saturday’s episode after being exposed to COVID-19. But Johnson’s Biden claimed there was « one simple thing » Americans could do to make the virus go away. « Stop seeing Spider-Man, » he said. « Think about it, when did Spider-Man come out? December 17. When did every single person get Omicron? The week after December 17. » Johnson’s Biden then took questions from the White House press corps. A reporter, played by Ego Nwodim, asked if he had really just blamed the spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus on people seeing the Spider-Man movie.
