Kate McKinnon Hosts ‘What Still Works?’ With Surprise Guests in ‘SNL’ Cold Open

Alex Montrose
·2 min read
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Saturday Night Live returns this weekend after a holiday break for its first episode of 2021. John Krasinski hosts the show with musical guest Machine Gun Kelly.

The cast kicks things off by covering some of the biggest headlines of the past few weeks. In the cold open Kate McKinnon brings on a rotating cast of characters to talk about what still “works” in America. The answer: not much.

“It’s a new year and we have a new president so some things should work, but do they?” McKinnon says.

The opening skit features QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (played by Cecily Strong). McKinnon also invites Derrick Boner to talk about GameStop stock (Pete Davidson), and Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerburg (Mikey Day and Alex Moffat) to weigh in on the dark chaos of social media.

McKinnon later recruits O.J. Simpson (Kenan Thompson) to talk about COVID-19 vaccines, and John Krasinski plays Tom Brady ahead of next month's Super Bowl.

Back in December, SNL closed 2020 with an episode hosted by veteran Kristen Wiig. It opened with the perfect farewell to the Trump administration, beginning with a cold open poking fun at Mike Pence. While getting his COVID-19 vaccine, Pence, played by Beck Bennet, is joined by his replacement, now Vice President Kamala Harris played once again by Maya Rudolph. The cast portrayed Pence as a fervent BTS fan, before giving us the sweet satisfaction of showing Harris slap Pence across the face.

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