Ariana DeBose, star of Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story, hosted this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, which opened with James Austin Johnson’s President Joe Biden blaming the COVID-19 surge on the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“There’s one simple thing you can do to make this whole virus go away: Stop seeing Spider-Man,” Johnson’s Biden said at a press conference addressing the rise in COVID cases.
“Now think about it, when did Spider-Man come out? December 17. When did every single person get omicron? The week after December 17,” he explained, adding, “Stop seeing Spider-Man. That’s really all I have to say.”
During her opening monologue, DeBose shouted out Afro-Latinas and was joined by SNL‘s Kate McKinnon for a West Side Story medley featuring “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Something’s Coming” and “America.”
Later DeBose showcased her song and dance skills in a spoof of another popular musical, The Sound of Music, featuring appearances from McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Chris Redd, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman and Kenan Thompson.
SNL also poked fun at Peacock’s dark reimagining of the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with a parody that featured Redd as Jaleel White‘s Steve Urkell character from Family Matters given the same dark spin.
Musical guests Bleachers, subbing for scheduled Roddy Ricch, performed “How Dare You Want More” and “Chinatown,” from their 2021 album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
SNL alum Will Forte hosts January 22’s show with musical guest Måneskin.
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