The latest episode of “Saturday Night Live” aired the night before the 95th Academy Awards, and it gave the show the perfect excuse for a celebrity impression-filled cold open.
This time, the sketch told E! K.’s Oscars red carpet coverage, which included some good and some, uh, need-work impressions. But as always, Bowen Yang proved he could salvage even the weakest of sketches when he showed up as serial-liar Congressman Jorge Santos — pretending to be Tom Cruise.
It started with Heidi Gardner and Marcelo Hernandez of E! Key while photographing Key’s red carpet talent, explaining that this year’s ceremony has updated security due to The Slap. “Last year there was the slapstick at the Oscars, which was terrible, I mean bad, really bad,” Gardner said, before Hernandez revealed that Mike Tyson had been hired to oversee security.
Tyson was played by Kenan Thompson, and he gave us a really funny line when talking to Hernandez, who played Mario Lopez, he called him “Mario Luigi.”
Mario Luigi. Yes, this year all the nominees have been given tasers, all the seat fillers have been given guns and Jimmy Kimmel has been given flamethrowers.
The hosts then briefly discuss the criticism that the Oscars are not diverse enough. “Remember, Oscar turns 95 this year,” he said, explaining that Oscar is less racist than any real-life grandparent of that age.
He then discussed Oscar betting odds – here’s the funniest moment when he gave odds that “someone who made $20 million last year would say the phrase ‘we are all Ukraine’.”
Then came Yang after a few more jokes. Of course he was introduced as Tom Cruise but when he came out he was dressed as a Congressman. “I’m definitely Thomas Q Cruise,” Santos insisted of Yang.
Yang left the sketch saying, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to be everywhere all at once.”
Check out clips from the sketch at the top of the page and below.