‘Saturday Night Live’ Cold Open Takes on Dr. Fauci, Omicron Fears and Cuomo Brothers’ Woes

Mónica Marie Zorrilla

‘Tis the season for Dr. Anthony Fauci to not be jolly. “Saturday Night Live’s” cold open tackled rising fears about the spread of the Omicron variant while also skewering the Cuomo brothers’ recent travails.

Kate McKinnon reprised her bald-capped portrayal of Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director who has become a fixture of the pandemic. The Cuomos were played by Pete Davidson (Andrew) and Andrew Dismukes (Chris). Other disgraced politicos helping Fauci with the spoofed CDC PSAs included gun-toting House member Marjorie Taylor Greene (played by Cecily Strong) and Sen. Ted Cruz (Aidy Bryant).

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The penultimate “SNL” episode of the season skewed the rise of strict vaccination card requirements at dining establishments to absurd COVID-19 conspiracies to the recent arson attack on the Christmas tree outside Fox News’ headquarters in midtown Manhattan.

“Do people still think I’m sexy, or are we done with this,” McKinnon as Fauci asked from the familiar surroundings of the lectern at NIH headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Billie Eilish is doing double duty as host and musical guest on the first original “SNL” installment since “Shang-Chi” and “Kim’s Convenience” star Simu Liu’s master-of-ceremonies gig on Nov. 20.

The 19-year-old music superstar delivered the monologue in one of her signature oversized outfits— a white flowing number with a hoop skirt hanging over frilly pantaloons. She described the look as “Mrs. Claus going to the club,” and also cracked that after the show she was off to “get married in an anime.”

Eilish noted her penchant for wearing extremely loose and baggy clothing, in an effort to keep the focus on her music and not on her physique. She poked fun at that practice in her breezy monologue, casting it as a big confession.

“This is hard to say. For me the real reason I wore big oversize clothes— I was two kids stacked on top of each other trying to sneak into an R-rated movie,” she said.

Eilish observed that she was the musical guest on the show in September 2019 but never expected to be asked back as host as well. And she pointed to another milestone coming on Dec. 18.

“My birthday is one week from today. I am turning 20, or as the internet calls that, ‘middle age,’ ” she said.

Eilish popped up in a bunch of skits, including one sweet-turned-sour sketch parodying a Nextdoor app commercial with the tagline “Know thy neighbor before you love thy neighbor.” The fictitious advert featured a creepy neighbor (McKinnon)— who is maybe possibly absolutely is keeping her husband, “Rutger” (a zombified Day) ill — getting progressively more unhinged after Eilish invites her over to her Christmas dinner. At one point, McKinnon gets completely nude (or at least pixelated), flashing the singer from a window.

Eilish’s first set of the evening was her album’s titular song “Happier Than Ever,” on a stage that was set up to look like a generic hotel room. And though it wasn’t technically a set, Eilish caroled what will surely become a classic Christmas hit about “making it weird with Santa,” donning a glittery, Marilyn Monroe-inspired holiday look with silvery background singers McKinnon and Nwodim. (Basically, the Yuletide jingle’s lyrics were a “Santa Baby” gone south.)

The vocalist also appeared in a sketch about a hip-hop dancing Nativity play, and in a sketch about stereotypical Christmas cards, in which fellow pop star Miley Cyrus makes a surprise cameo with Punkie Johnson, and Yang and Thompson play a well-off, stylish gay couple with a horrifying puppet of a dog way past its lifespan. Throughout all of the skits, Eilish was seen in a slew of wigs with all sorts of colors and curls, perhaps a wink at the media’s frenzy over her change from blonde-to-brunette this past week.

Eilish closed out her “SNL” gig with a rousing, stripped-down version of the song “Male Fantasy,” another number from “Happier Than Ever.”

More to come..

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