Amid an election year with promises of divergent visions of America, “Saturday Night Live” dove into the politics of 2024 to find punchlines.
The show opened with a satirical television special celebrating Easter, “The Resurrection,” which recounts the story of three women who witnessed the return of Jesus.
It was quickly interrupted by a flash of light and smoke, with one of the characters asking, “Is it Jesus?”
James Austin Johnson as former President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” on March 30, 2024. NBC News
“Basically, yes,” said James Austin Johnson as former President Donald Trump as he emerged from the flash.
He dismissed the three: “All right girls, you can go.”
Then he proceeded to peddle $60 Trump-branded Bibles, which the real Trump unveiled Tuesday. They include copies of the nation’s founding documents and lyrics from the Lee Greenwood country song, “God Bless the USA.”
“If you think this is a bad look, imagine how weird it would be if I started selling Bibles,” Johnson’s Trump said. “Well, I’m selling Bibles.”
He said God is the Beyoncé of the Trinity, presented a fit, muscular image of himself in the Garden of Eden (“My actual body,” he said), and said purchasers will receive a special Trump toaster.
It produces slices with the former president’s face on one side and the Hello Kitty logo on the other, Johnson’s Trump said.
Then he asked his audience to join him in a special, “Easter eve” recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, during which he skipped over lines by making nonsensical sounds before his conclusion.
“In the name of the father, the son and the Easter Bunny, amen,” Trump said.
Comedian and actor Ramy Youssef hosted “SNL,” performing a monologue that extended the show’s focus on politics and touched on the Israel-Hamas war.
He said he was in upstate New York recently for a gig and noticed many Trump campaign posters, banners and yard signs. It made him reluctant, he said, to speak in Arabic in public when his mother called.
“Mother, peace be upon you and the prophet you know,” he said he told her in English. “You know which prophet. The best one. The last one.”
Ramy Youssef performs the opening monologue on “SNL” on Saturday.NBC News
He wondered if someone from President Joe Biden’s campaign would call again, as they did in 2020, when he was asked to stump for the president in Michigan, which has a significant Arab American population.
“Tell the Arabs to vote for Joe and you could change the course of American history,” Youssef said the campaign aide told him.
The request, he said, had him fantasizing about going to Michigan and making a real difference.
“Is this up to me?” he said. “Am I the guy?”
In his fantasy, he went to Michigan and campaigned for Biden among Arab Americans, going where they would be easily found, Youssef said. “I’m in every vape shop,” he said.
But Youssef said he decided against it. The comedian said now he would like to see a trans woman campaign for the job.
He circled back to prayers — “That’s all I can do right now.”
He said his friends constantly ask him to pray for them, and he does, except sometimes the prayers are for vastly different goals. He has prayed for freedom for Palestinians, for the hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, for his friend whose family is suffering in Gaza.
Then there’s his friend’s dog, which has suffered in a custody battle after a breakup.
“Please free the people of Palestine, please,” Youssef said, recounting his prayers. “And please free the hostages. All the hostages. Please.”
He continued: “And while you’re at it, you know, free Mr. Bojangles. I mean, he’s a beautiful dog.”
“SNL” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
