Saturday Night Live returned for a 50th season this weekend and kicked off the premiere with a cold open about the presidential race, immigrants and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
SNL alum Maya Rudolph brought joy to the campaign trail as Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Well, well, well, look who fell out of that coconut tree,” Rudolph said from a mock Harris rally. “Your fun aunt has returned. The funt has been rebooted — too funt, too furious.”
The Loot star walked on stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom” and danced to TLC’s “Creep,” before welcoming fellow comics Jim Gaffigan as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz; Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden; Andy Samberg as Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff; and Bowen Yang as Sen. J.D. Vance.
Related Story: Diddy’s Lawyer Blames Racism for Mogul’s Downfall
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, James Austin Johnson brought doom and gloom to the campaign trail as former President Donald Trump.
Standing behind plexiglass, Johnson led a MAGA rally and rambled about Harris’ racial identity, Diddy, and he repeated the baseless claim Trump made on the Sept. 10 presidential debate about immigrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re taking your pets and they’re doing freak-offs,” said Johnson. “They’re doing freak-offs with the dogs and they’re making the geese watch. It’s very sad, they’re doing a Diddy.”
The Diddy reference followed the mogul’s Sept. 16 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. The Southern District of New York’s 14-page criminal indictment alleged the Bad Boy Records founder lured and forced women to participate in drug-fueled parties called “freak-offs” with male sex workers.
During SNL‘s “Weekend Update,” Michael Che took another swipe at Diddy and the 1,000 bottles of baby oil the indictment said federal agents found when they raided the mogul’s homes.
“An attorney for Diddy said his client wants to testify at his trial, saying, ‘I don’t know if I can keep him off the stand,’ because you can’t hold a guy back wearing all that baby oil,” Che said mockingly.
His co-anchor Colin Jost continued to pile on.
“Sean Combs’ defense attorney also argued that his client is not like R. Kelly. First of all, it’s never a great sign when the first person you compare your client to is R. Kelly,” Jost said. “But I have to agree, it’s true. Diddy is nothing like R. Kelly, I mean, R. Kelly’s songs are good!”
The SNL season premiere was hosted by Hacks actress Jean Smart, with singer-songwriter Jelly Roll serving as musical guest.
Watch this weekend’s SNL cold open below: