Saturday Night Live took aim at Super Bowl LV with their newest cold-open, spoofing a CBS hosted pre-game show that previewed ads that featured differing views on racial equality, COVID-19 vaccines and QAnon.
Hosted by cast members Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, Beck Bennett and Chris Redd, the program welcomed everyone to the game that had “four hours of television for 11 minutes of action.”
“This year has been anything but normal: the pandemic, racial and political division, Armie Hammer, but today we come together in the spirit of unity, and watch football and murder billions of chickens for their delicious wings,” said Thompson. “The league also dealt with so many COVID restrictions this year, but with hard work and vigilance, we were able to get through the season with only 700 cases! Hooray us.”
“And you know who’s feeling the COVID restrictions more than anyone this week is Tampa Bay’s famous prostitutes,” added in Redd’s character.
The skit began to play off several impassioned commercials to “reflect the importance of this moment in history,” starting with a clip of images in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which later turned into an ad for Cheez-Its.
One of the hosts then said they were going to be playing some of the more “conservative” ads in order balance it out with the “progressive ads,” with the program launching into a Papa John’s commercial with a QAnon spin.
“At Papa John’s, we know you want real ingredients, no additives, no preservatives and no child sex trafficking in the basement,” said the ad.
“Sorry Democrats, you’re going to have get your child sex pizza over at Hillary’s Pizzeria. It’s ‘Eh-OK’. Stop by with your Q-pon today.”
Next up were some ads dedicated to the ongoing vaccine effort in the U.S., which featured a Budweiser commercial that showed a horse kicking a vaccine into the arm of an elderly woman.
“But remember, there’s another side to everything and anti-vaxxers drink beer too, so that’s why Budweiser also released this ad,” said Moffat, with the screen transitioning to a video of a frog telling another frog to not trust vaccine developer Pfizer.
Cast member Aidy Bryant also quickly played both coaches of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the competing teams in this year’s Super Bowl.
Lastly, the show’s hosts made some final predictions for what they were going to see during the game, with COVID-19 predicted to address the crowd at the end of the event and thank them for an incredible opportunity and Cardi B doing a “disturbing” commercial called “Wet Ass Pepsi.”
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