عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

'Saturday Night Live' Goes Political in 46th Season Opener

‘Saturday Night Live’ went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate. (AP)
‘Saturday Night Live’ went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate. (AP)
TT
TT

'Saturday Night Live' Goes Political in 46th Season Opener

‘Saturday Night Live’ went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate. (AP)
‘Saturday Night Live’ went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate. (AP)

“Saturday Night Live” went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate, Chris Rock's jab at President Donald Trump and Megan Thee Stallion's message supporting Black people during her performance.

The NBC late-night sketch series on Saturday night jumped into the reenactment of the recent debate between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The series opened its 46th season, returning to the studio this week after the coronavirus pandemic halted production.

Alec Baldwin returned to play Trump before the president’s COVID diagnosis, while Jim Carrey made his feature debut as Biden.

In the sketch, Baldwin’s Trump commandeered the debate in the same fashion as on Tuesday, trying to trip up Biden by interrupting and insulting him. Meanwhile, Carrey’s Biden tried to maintain his anger by breathing into a paper brown bag and talking to himself.

“Look man, I'm a nice guy, but you give anymore guff tonight, I'll rip your face off like a mad chimp," Carrey yelled before talking to himself again saying, “The country's counting on you Joe. Just stand here and look lucid."

Maya Rudolph made a cameo appearance as Sen. Kamala Harris calling for a WAP (Woman As President) — a nod to the hit song by Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B — before Carrey’s Biden pulled out a remote control to pause Trump.

“Let’s bask in the Trumplessness,” Carrey said.

The show was hosted by Chris Rock who stepped onstage with a mask before snatching it off to perform his monologue. He opened in front of a live audience, which included about two dozen first responders who all wore masks.

Rock joked about how the coronavirus pandemic has ruined much of 2020. The actor-comedian also sarcastically showed empathy toward Trump being hospitalized after his virus diagnosis.

“President Trump is in the hospital from COVID, and I just want to say that my heart goes out to COVID,” he joked.

Rock offered his thoughts on America needing to “renegotiate their plans” with the government.

“What job do you have for 4 years no matter what? Just show me one job. If you hired a cook, and he was making people vomit every day, do you sit there and say ‘Oh, he’s got a 4-year deal,’” he said. “We just got to vomit for four more years.”

Rock was once part of an “SNL” cast that included Chris Farley, Mike Myers, David Spade and Adam Sandler. Rock spent three years on the show before he left in 1993.

Megan Thee Stallion hit the stage as the musical guest performing her hit single “Savage.” While wearing a black-and-white ensemble, the rapper delivered a message calling for the protection of Black people, in addition to the words “Protect Black Women” flashing on the screen behind her.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

‘Joker 2’ Stumbles at Box Office amid Poor Reviews from Audiences, Critics

Todd Phillips, from left, Lady Gaga, and Joaquin Phoenix arrive at the premiere of "Joker: Folie a Deux" on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Todd Phillips, from left, Lady Gaga, and Joaquin Phoenix arrive at the premiere of "Joker: Folie a Deux" on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
TT
TT

‘Joker 2’ Stumbles at Box Office amid Poor Reviews from Audiences, Critics

Todd Phillips, from left, Lady Gaga, and Joaquin Phoenix arrive at the premiere of "Joker: Folie a Deux" on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Todd Phillips, from left, Lady Gaga, and Joaquin Phoenix arrive at the premiere of "Joker: Folie a Deux" on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

“Joker: Folie à Deux” is the No. 1 movie at the box office, but it might not be destined for a happy ending.
In a turn of events that only Arthur Fleck would find funny, the follow-up to Todd Phillips’ 2019 origin story about the Batman villain opened in theaters nationwide this weekend to a muted $40 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, less than half that of its predecessor. The collapse was swift and has many in the industry wondering: How did the highly anticipated sequel to an Oscar-winning, billion-dollar film with the same creative team go wrong?
Just three weeks ago, tracking services pegged the movie for a $70 million debut, which would still have been down a fair amount from “Joker’s” record-breaking $96.2 million launch in Oct. 2019. Reviews were mixed out of the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered in competition like the first movie and even got a 12-minute standing ovation, The Associated Press reported.
But the homecoming glow was short-lived, and the fragile foundation would crumble in the coming weeks with its Rotten Tomatoes score dropping from 63% at Venice to 33% by its first weekend in theaters. Perhaps even more surprising were the audience reviews: Ticket buyers polled on opening night gave the film a deadly D CinemaScore. Exit polls from PostTrak weren’t any better. It got a meager half star out of five possible.
"That’s a double whammy that’s very difficult to recover from," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “The biggest issue of all is the reported budget. A $40 or $50 million opening for a less expensive movie would be a solid debut."
“Joker: Folie à Deux” cost at least twice as much as the first film to produce, though reported figures vary at exactly how pricey it was to make. Phillips told Variety that it was less than the reported $200 million; Others have it pegged at $190 million. Warner Bros. released the film in 4,102 locations in North America. About 12.5% of its domestic total came from 415 IMAX screens.
Internationally, it's earned $81.1 million from 25,788 screens, bringing its total global earnings estimate to $121.1 million. In the next two weeks, “Joker 2” will also open in Japan and China.
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation's “The Wild Robot,” which added $18.7 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to nearly $64 million. Globally, it's made over $100 million. Warner Bros.' “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" took third place in weekend five, Paramount's “Transformers One” landed in fourth and Universal and Blumhouse's “Speak No Evil” rounded out the top five.
The other big new release of the weekend, Lionsgate's “White Bird,” flopped with just $1.5 million from just over 1,000 locations, despite an A+ CinemaScore.
Overall, the weekend is up from the same frame last year, but “Joker's” start is an unwelcome twist for theater owners hoping to narrow the box office deficit.
Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix have said they aspired to make something as “audacious” as the first film. The sequel added Lady Gaga into the fold, as a Joker superfan, and delved further into the mind of Arthur Fleck, imprisoned at Arkham and awaiting trial for the murders he committed in the first. It’s also a musical, with elaborately imagined song and dance numbers to old standards. Gaga even released a companion album called “'Harlequin,” alongside the film.
In his review for The Associated Press, Jake Coyle wrote that “Phillips has followed his very antihero take on the Joker with a very anti-sequel. It combines prison drama, courthouse thriller and musical, and yet turns out remarkably inert given how combustible the original was.”
The sequel has already been the subject of many think pieces, some who posit that the sequel was deliberately alienating fans of the first movie. In cruder terms, it’s been called a “middle finger.” But fans often ignore the advice of critics, especially when it comes to opening their wallets to see revered comic book characters on the big screen.
“They took a swing for the fences,” Dergarabedian said. “But except for a couple of outliers, audiences in 2024 seem to want to know what they’re getting when they’re going to the theater. They want the tried and true, the familiar.”
It has some high-profile defenders too: Francis Ford Coppola, who last week got his own D+ CinemaScore for his pricey, ambitious and divisive film “Megalopolis,” entered the Joker chat with an Instagram post.
“@ToddPhillips films always amaze me and I enjoy them thoroughly,” Coppola wrote. “Ever since the wonderful ‘The Hangover’ he’s always one step ahead of the audience never doing what they expect.”
“Megalopolis,” meanwhile, dropped a terminal 74% in its second weekend with just over $1 million, bringing its total just shy of $6.5 million against a $120 million budget.
Deadline editor Anthony D’Alessandro thinks the problem started with the idea to make the Joker sequel a musical. “No fan of the original movie wanted to see a musical sequel,” he wrote on Saturday.
The first film was also divisive and the subject of much discourse, then about whether it might send the wrong message to the wrong type of person. And yet people still flocked to see what the fuss was about. “Joker” went on to pick up 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director, and three wins. It also made over $1 billion and was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, until this summer when Marvel's “Deadpool & Wolverine" took the crown.