Despite (or perhaps because of) becoming a lightning rod for juvenile homophobic/transphobic insults from GOP leaders, overt political censorship at the hand of Donald Trump’s pet FCC commissioner, and a veritable flood of Elon Musk-funded attack ads in the run-up to the midterm elections, James Talarico handily won the Texas senate race on Tuesday. And on Saturday, the senator-elect took an in-person swipe at Donald Trump (or at least his doppelgänger) by showing up in person on the live public airwaves the real Trump pressured one network to ban him from.
In the inevitable Trump-centric cold open on last night’s Saturday Night Live, James Austin Johnson’s Trump—having used his by-now predictable time-freezing abilities to halt presumptive Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries from ineffectually gloating—went off on a series of tangents, as is the sundowning head of state’s m.o. these days. Amidst ramblings about men’s asses (Colin Jost’s belligerent Pete Hegseth in this case) and speculating on how it took the entrance of Furguson the cat to really make best use of Lamorne Morris’ Winston on New Girl, JAJ’s Trump turned to Talarico, using one of his go-to middle school bully nicknames for the baby-faced Democrat.
“That’s Senator Talafreako,” the real James Talarico said, entering to the sound of extended and rapturous applause from the studio audience, and momentarily turning the tables both by reappropriating the insult and freezing Johnson’s Trump in an uncomfortable arms-wide pose. Brought back into action by Talarico apologizing for “texting you every day asking for $5,” Johnson’s Trump could only play along as Talarico referenced the public’s clear call for something “new and different,” starting with changing up Saturday Night Live‘s weekly Trump cold opens. After Trump boasted that there would be “infinity” more such sketches for the next few years, the only thing left for the Democratic winner to say was, “Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night!,” as the crowd once more exploded in some cathartic applause.
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