“Saturday Night Live” imagined Joe Biden soliciting advice from TikTok creators in the show’s cold open during Saturday’s show, which turned into a showcase for famous TikTok personalities as played by “SNL” cast members.
The sketch opened by explaining that since access to Facebook and Instagram was shut off in Ukraine during the invasion by Russia, TikTok remains one of the last major social media services that could be used to turn the tides of war. James Austin Johnson’s Joe Biden was joined by Kate McKinnon as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and the sketch began with a joke about Biden not understanding technology.
“I understand Putin, I understand war, but there’s one thing I don’t understand: computer,” Johnson’s Biden said, to which McKinnon replied, “And by computer he means technology.”
The sketch then went around the room to give the spotlight to various TikTok personalities, including a woman (played by Chloe Fineman) introducing herself as “actress on social media” who suggested using poems to fight Putin. When that idea was shut down, she hopped on the “Here are five tips to defeat Putin” trend and started pointing to nonexistent text.
Next up was Andrew Dismukes as a play on prankster personalities. “Let’s just say I do raps and pranks,” he said before shouting out “The Boo Boo Boys.”
Chris Redd appeared as Jason Derulo, who could only say his own name in a sing-song voice, and Biden turned to Aidy Bryant as a mild-mannered 12-year-old girl who introduced herself by saying she does “silly animal makeup for kids.” When asked what ideas she had for defeating Putin, she launched into a Hunter Biden conspiracy theory, outing herself as a member of the alt right.
And finally, Bowen Yang joined the sketch late (and shirtless) as “a guy who does a bunch of insane tricks using a toilet plunger stuck to my nipples.”
Much to Biden and Psaki’s dismay, a solution to fighting Russia was not discovered from this hodgepodge of social media stars.
Watch the full cold open in the video above.
