Dana Carvey trades “SNL’s” Joe Biden impression for Elon Musk

Saturday Night Live isn’t ready to lose Dana Carvey again.

Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris was absent from Saturday’s post-election episode of the NBC sketch show for the first time this season after Harris lost to former President Donald Trump this week. But his returnee Carvey, who has been portraying President Joe Biden since the premiere of the 50th season, was also back in Studio 8H, this time in the role of billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk.

The cold opening began with cast members Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernández and Colin Jost sarcastically insisting that they had all supported the president-elect all along. “We never wavered in our support for you, even when others doubted you,” Yang said on camera, addressing Trump. “We see you in you,” Nwodim insisted. “We look at you and think, ‘That’s me.'”

After explaining that the season’s three new leads – Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline – were the only staff members who voted for Harris, Sherman said the show was thrilled to debut a new impression: “Hot Jacked Trump.”

“They finally got the body right,” he said SNL’Resident Trump impersonator James Austin Johnson wears an exaggerated muscle suit. “From now on, we’re going to portray Trump in a very flattering way because, frankly, he’s my hero and he’s going to be an incredible president and eventually king. We love you, buddy.”

Thompson then offered some encouragement. “If our planet falls apart, we can all go to Mars with the other man we love and trust: Elon Musk,” he said. Then an energetic Carvey took the stage and skipped around the stage in an all-black outfit identical to the one the real Musk wore when he skipped across the stage at a Trump rally last month.

“Look at it, dark MAGA,” shouted Carvey’s Musk, pointing to his black “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. “But seriously, I run the country now. America will be like one of my rockets, you know, they’re super cool and super fun, but there’s a slim chance it’ll explode and everyone dies.”

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The cast closed out the cold open with a rendition of the Village People’s “Macho Man,” with Carvey’s Musk and Johnson’s muscular Trump joining in. This was a callback to Alec Baldwin’s Trump, who somberly sang a version of the song in the episode following the 45th presidential election. The 2020 defeat was, of course, a fallout from an earlier cold start, with Hillary Clinton being played by Kate McKinnon following the former Secretary of State’s defeat infamously played “Hallelujah” on a piano against Trump in 2016.

Carvey, a master impressionist who worked on the SNL Cast from 1986 to 1993, returned this season to play Biden as part of a political quartet that dominated the cold opens, including Rudolph’s Harris, Andy Samberg as Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff and comedian Jim Gaffigan as Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.

Like Trump, Musk once served as a controversial host Saturday Night Live, Legal action over the May 8, 2021 episode in which he falsely referred to himself as “the first person with Asperger’s syndrome to host.” SNL.” (Original cast member and 2003 host Dan Aykroyd actually holds this award.)

This week’s episode was hosted by comedian Bill Burr, along with Mk.gee, the first musical guest.

Watch the full cold open up above.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.