Chris Rock hosted the season 46 premiere of Saturday Night Live and unloaded on President Trump.
The comedian walked on stage wearing a mask and started his monologue by addressing the “elephant in the room” — COVID-19.
“President Trump is in the hospital from COVID, and I just want to say my heart goes out to COVID,” he joked.
After removing his mask, the SNL alum let viewers know NBC had taken safety precautions for the show’s first episode taped in Studio 8H since March. He noted that the in-house audience was made up of first responders.
“Everybody in this audience has been checked, and all week I’ve had things going up my nose, every day I come in here,” he said, “I haven’t had so much stuff up my nose since I shared a dressing room with Chris Farley.”
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After his tacky reference to late comedian Chris Farley [who died of a drug overdose], Rock returned to Trump and his family.
“I mean, what job do you have for four years no matter what?” he asked. “Show me one job. Like if you hired a cook and he was making people vomit every day, do you sit there and go, ‘Well, he’s got a four-year deal. We’ve just got to vomit for four more years.’”
Rock said the U.S. needs to tighten the rules to become president.
“You realize there’s more rules to a game show than running for president? Like Donald Trump left a game show to run for president because it was easier,” he quipped. “You can’t just throw your son on Jeopardy, or your son-in-law. Steve Harvey can’t put his family on Family Feud.”
He also called out the Democrats and said they should’ve nominated a younger candidate than Joe Biden.
“Do the Democrats even want to win?” he asked. “The Democrats just keep putting up 75-year-old people to run against Trump. One thing we can say about Trump, he’s got the most energy of any 75-year-old person on the face of the earth. Even Mick Jagger’s like, ‘slow down, Donald.’”
Joking aside, Rock encouraged everyone to vote in November.
“Hey, we’ve got to take this serious,” he said. “We’ve got to get out there. We’ve got to vote. But they don’t want us to vote. The government does not want you to vote. Why do I know they don’t want you to vote? Because Election Day is a Tuesday in November.” He continued, “If this show was ‘Tuesday Night Live,’ it would have gotten canceled in 1975.”
Rock ended his monologue by quoting James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it’s faced.”
The show kicked off the premiere with Jim Carrey making his debut as Biden alongside Alec Baldwin’s Trump, for a take on Tuesday’s chaotic presidential debate. Megan Thee Stallion served as this weekend’s musical guest.
Watch Chris Rock’s monologue in the video below.
