Dana Carvey trades ‘SNL’ Joe Biden impression for Elon Musk

Saturday Night Live not ready to lose Dana Carvey again just yet.

The NBC sketch show’s post-election episode on Saturday was without Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris for the first time this season following the real-life Harris’ defeat by former President Donald Trump this week. But returning alum Carvey, who has portrayed President Joe Biden since Season 50’s premiere, was back in Studio 8H, this time as billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk.

The cold open began with cast members Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández and Colin Jost sarcastically insisting that they had all supported the president-elect all along. “We have never wavered in our support for you, even when others doubted you,” Yang proclaimed to the camera, addressing Trump. “We see ourselves in you,” Nwodim insisted. “We look at you and think, ‘That’s me.'”

After declaring that the season’s three new featured players — Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline — were the only staffers who voted for Harris, Sherman said the show was excited to debut a new impression: “Hot Jacked Trump. ”

“They finally got the body right,” said SNL’s resident Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson, wearing an exaggerated muscle suit. “From now on we’re going to do a very flattering portrayal of Trump because he’s honestly my hero and he’s going to be an incredible president and eventually king. We love you mate.”

Thompson then offered some encouragement. “If our planet falls apart, we can all go to Mars with the other man we love and trust: Elon Musk,” he said. Then an energetic Carvey entered and bounced around the stage in an all-black outfit identical to the one the real Musk wore when he bounced around the stage at Trump meeting last month.

“Check it out, dark MAGA,” Carvey’s Musk yelled, pointing to his black “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. “But seriously, I’m running the country now. America is going to be like one of my rockets, you know, they’re super cool and super fun, but there’s a small chance it might blow up and everybody dies.”

Sign up Weekly entertainment‘s free daily newsletter for breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars and more.

The cast closed the cold open with a rendition of the Village People’s “Macho Man,” featuring Carvey’s Musk and Johnson’s ripped Trump. This was a callback to Alec Baldwin’s Trump, who somberly sang a version of the song in the episode following the 45th president’s inauguration. loss in 2020, which was, of course, a send-up of an earlier cold opening, in which Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton infamously performed “Hallelujah” on a piano after the former secretary of state’s 2016 loss to Trump.

Carvey, a master impressionist who was on SNL cast from 1986-1993, returned this season to play Biden as part of a political quartet that dominated the cold open, including Rudolph’s Harris, Andy Samberg as Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and comedian Jim Gaffigan as the Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz.

Like Trump, Musk once served as a controversial host for Saturday Night Live, holds court over the May 8, 2021 episode in which he inaccurately declared himself “the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL.” (Original cast member and 2003 host Dan Aykroyd actually holds that distinction.)

This week’s episode was hosted by comedian Bill Burr, joined by first-time musical guest Mk.gee.

Watch the full cold open above.

Saturday Night Live sent on Saturdays at 11:30 PM ET/8:30 PM PT on NBC and Peacock.