For once, the President was nowhere to be found in SNL's opening sketch, and some of the show's harshest critics noticed immediately.
The cold open instead took aim at the biggest scandal of the week: former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair with an alleged Chinese spy. The Daily Mail reported that the shift drew rare praise from conservative viewers who have long accused the show of fixating on the President.
Cast member James Austin Johnson's impersonation of the President has been a fixture of the show recently. A recent episode centered on the Democrats' midterm wave and leaned heavily on that portrayal.
This time, host John Mulaney played a CIA official who gathered a group of famous tech executives to keep them from being duped by foreign spies. Ben Marshall played Sam Altman, Johnson played Peter Thiel, Jeremy Culhane played Elon Musk, Andrew Dismukes played Mark Zuckerberg and Jane Wickline played Dario Amodei.
Mulaney's character got straight to the point. "America needs you to learn the difference between a woman who would actually want to have sex with you and a woman who is clearly a spy," he said. The sketch skewered the executives as clueless eccentrics who could not grasp why beautiful women might suddenly take an interest in them.
"You all saw how former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned after this week after he was caught having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. What do you think the lesson is here?" Mulaney asked.
The answers only got stranger. "Never date a Chinese woman," Wickline's Amodei replied, while Dismukes's Zuckerberg offered, "Never date a human woman."
Johnson's Thiel went further still. "Never date anyone lest they become the Antichrist," he answered.
Mulaney then delivered one of the night's sharpest lines. "Never in the history of our species have people as pale and as strange as you, A, survived, and B, been given all the world's wealth and power," he said.
"Now all of a sudden, someone very beautiful is interested in you," Mulaney continued. "Why do you think that might be?"
"Because I have a great personality and normal, human mannerisms," Marshall's Altman said. Dismukes's Zuckerberg added, "Because she's comforted by my Meta Glasses recording her at all times."
"She's using me," Wickline's Amodei began. When Mulaney replied, "Ah, yes!" she finished, "For my body," prompting a flat "No" from Mulaney.
To drive the point home, Mulaney displayed a Venn diagram with "beautiful women" in one circle and "your interests and opinions" in the other. The word "spy" sat in the overlap.
The sketch saved its biggest surprise for last. Former cast member Bowen Yang, making his first appearance since leaving the cast, walked in as Huang and introduced himself as Jensen "Hide Your Wife" Huang.
Dressed in the executive's signature leather jacket, Yang's Huang boasted, "Ladies, when you invite Jensen over, you know what's about to go down - the S&P 500." He then turned to the assembled executives with some parting advice.
"Fellas, don't be like me. Remember, women don't like guys like us. That's how we became guys like us," Yang's Huang said before the show rolled on.
The change of pace won over many viewers, who praised the sketch on X. "Oh my god a Trumpless SNL cold open. I prayed for a day like this," one user wrote.
"Best cold open this season. Were done with trump. We want funny!" another posted.
A third wrote, "#SNL great opening because they finally did one that wasn't partisan hackery against President." "How refreshing to not see trump in the cold open on snl," a fourth said.
Another offered a recipe for success: "So, the formula to making a good episode of SNL: have John Mulaney write everything. Have Bowen Yang around. And don't have Trump in the cold open."
The show has even poked fun at its own habit. In a recent cold open, Senator-elect James Talarico asked, "How many of these Trump freezers are they gonna do?" before Johnson's President shot back, "Infinity!"
The real-life scandal behind the sketch is no laughing matter for Huang. He stepped down as Nvidia's CEO after admitting to an affair with the alleged spy, Alice Huang, who is not related to him.
Reports also surfaced that he had an extramarital relationship with fellow Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell and possibly a third, unidentified employee. Huang has confessed only to the relationship with Alice Huang.
Huang's two children both work at Nvidia. After leaving the company, he issued a public apology to his wife, Lori, and his family.
"I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did," he said.
"To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust," Huang added.
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