UPDATE With Video Saturday Night Live gave Morning Joe what it had coming tonight, with Kate McKinnon and Alex Moffat introducing cooing, note-perfect impressions of Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough – and Alec Baldwin literally phoning in his Donald Trump.
Moffat’s grouchy, exasperated “Oh, Mikaaaa” just might be a new SNL catchphrase.
Just days after the real-life Morning Joe cohosts announced their engagement, McKinnon and Moffat, who’ve clearly been doing their homework, unveiled a new SNL cold open bit, complete with classic-rock intro (a Morning Joe staple) and the MSNBC duo’s familiar talking-over-one-another style that soon devolved from political debate into heavy-breathing sweet nothings.
As Kate/Mika rambled on about the health care bill and Republican moral bankruptcy, Alex/Joe interrupted with “Oh, Mika, that’s enough, ok, you’re being sickening because you know it…pushes…my…buttons…”
Cut to a stunned Mike Barnicle (Bobby Moynihan), then Mark Halperin (Beck Bennett) and finally Willie Geist (Mikey Day).
Baldwin – live, on the phone – called into Morning Joe as a White House spokesman who sounded suspiciously like Donald Trump, boasting about the “amazing” success of the health care bill. Reminded by Scarborough that the proposal still has to pass the Senate, Trump-soundalike “John Miller” responded, “The what now?”
The sketch was SNL‘s freshest cold open in weeks, possibly since Melissa McCarthy debuted her Sean Spicer months ago – an impression we’re likely to see next week when McCarthy hosts the May 13 episode.
Tonight’s episode is hosted by Chris Pine, who was not in the cold open.
