Saturday Night Live opens with Fox News’ Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular

The sketch was hosted by Kate McKinnon and Alex Moffat, playing Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson

Saturday Night Live kicked off its 5 March show with a pointed satire of Fox News’ enthusiastic coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, dubbed the “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular”.

Ostensibly broadcast from former President Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, the sketch was hosted by Kate McKinnon and Alex Moffat, who played Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson respectively.

“We got into a little bit of trouble for all the nice things we said about Russia and the mean things we said about Ukraine,” Moffat’s Carlson said. “I kept asking why do we hate Putin? Aren’t liberals in America even worse?”

The pair were joined by James Austin Johnson, who sang “My Funny Valentine” in character as Donald Trump, dedicating his performance to to Russian leader Vladimir Putin: “Vladimir, I want you to hear this from me. You is smart, you is kind, you is important. And here is a little song from me to you.”

The sketch also starred Bowen Yang as Steven Seagal, who claimed he was “Eskimo brothers” with Putin, while Mikey Day and Cecily Strong appeared as Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle to sing a reworked version of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow”.

McKinnon’s Ingraham added that their televised special would raise money for “the real victims of this invasion: the oligarchs.”

The 5 March episode of Saturday Night Live was hosted by Oscar Isaac, who was making his debut in the role. The musical guest was Charli XCX, who had originally been set to perform back on 18 December before that show, hosted by Paul Rudd, was drastically downsized due to the surge of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic.

XCX also appeared in a sketch, playing a singing meatball.