SNL goes back to the Laura Ingraham well for the cold open

Saturday Night Live didn’t hold any punches by rolling out Kate McKinnon’s Laura Ingraham impression.

So far this season, the cold opens for Saturday Night Live haven’t been that notable outside the first of the year. Ever since we saw Matt Damon roll through as Brett Kavanaugh, the catharsis comedy hasn’t really been there.

Last week was a step in the right direction, with Kate McKinnon bidding farewell to her Jeff Sessions impression through a small song and a big cameo from Robert DeNiro. It was the next best open of the season, setting the bar high for this weekend.

Luckily, the Trump administration is never short on inspiration.

McKinnon may have retired her Sessions impression last week, but she flew right back into Laura Ingraham. Just like a few weeks ago, Cecily Strong brought back her Judge Pirro impression (which is spot on). There wasn’t a whole lot of reinventing the wheel here, but we did see Alex Moffat as Mark Zuckerberg which is always fun.

There was also a shot at the Vape God, who was an actual person that appeared on Laura Ingraham’s actual show this week. The Vape God was a Barstool Sports intern who was played on the show by Pete Davidson which is more than just the youngest castmember playing the 22-year old god of vaping. Barstool took a vicious shot at Davidson and his eyes a while back, which makes the fact that he then took shots at the website feel like it wasn’t accidental.

Over the last few years, SNL has been an Emmy winning satire on the state of American politics, but sometimes laughter isn’t enough. When it calls for it, Saturday Night Live doesn’t hesitate to ditch the traditional cold open to address the issues of the week. When the Las Vegas shooting happened, the show opened with James Aldean performing a tribute. Following Donald Trump’s election, the show opened with Kate McKinnon — in character as Hillary Clinton — singing a song of mourning and hope to a country in pain.