SNL Video: Biden Braves a Ladder, Gets Help From Christopher Walken to Celebrate Halloween
Not a Halloween has gone by since 2016 that Saturday Night Live fans haven’t clamored for more David S. Pumpkins, and SNL has been chasing that Tom Hanks-fueled mainstream relevance ever since. Has “Any questions?” finally met its pop culture match in, “Lemme shmell those feet!”?
The first post-writers’ strike episode of SNL dropped last week and … it was fine. Nothing to write home about; pretty much status quo. This week’s cold open feels like a proper attempt to put on a comedy show – full of a vital new energy.
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Joe Biden is now being portrayed by Mikey Day. Previously it was James Austin Johnson handling those duties, which made it nearly impossible to have both Biden and Donald Trump in the same scene. It’s good to see the show planning ahead for the dumpster fire that will be the 2024 election cycle.
Jokes about Biden’s dog feel fresher here; even the old jokes about, well, being old, are hitting better. “When I was a kid, ladders was cutting edge technology; this was like an iPad,” and “The Grim Reaper, who I physically fight every single day.”
Michael Longfellow is new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Longfellow’s youth works well for the man who is now second in line to replace the president and thus is “excited to see more of this whole ladder thing.”
Oh, did we not mention the ladder? Biden spends the first half of the sketch climbing a rickety ladder. This hearkens back to one of the most iconic images in all of SNL history: Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford placing a star on top of a Christmas Tree before taking a heartstopping pratfall. It’s both an excellent callback as well as a fine opportunity to, again, put a new spin onto the old “old” jokes.
Then, inexplicably, Christopher Walken enters.
Not that seven-time SNL host Christopher Walken needs a reason to be anywhere. He is the Spirit of Halloween aka “Papa Pumpkin,” and his presence is every bit as baffling and welcome as David S. Pumpkins himself. He’s here to give Biden the true meaning of Halloween and he’s going to do it as Christopher Walken-y as he possibly can. You can see the twinkle in his eye as he drags out his dramatic pauses extra long just to the point that Day maybe thinks he’s forgotten his lines before saying, “I’m not finished!”
And yes, he also left us realizing that you can’t say Halloween without “hal-lo.”
Watch the video above, then weigh on in this week’s SNL hosted by Nate Bargatze:
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