Watch ‘Saturday Night Live’ Skewer Super Bowl Sunday

On the Saturday Night Live before Super Bowl Sunday, the show began with a cold open sketch that parodied pregame shows, brands’ politically charged Super Bowl ads and the head coaches hoping to lead the Kansas City Chiefs/Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory.

The sketch, which also mocked studios overstuffed with football commentators and analysts, noted that the Super Bowl would be simulcast on Nickelodeon (which is true) as well as Bravo, where the matchup between quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes is being advertised as “Old Hag Vs. Young Slut.”

The pregame crew then showed a pair of faux-Super Bowl ads, including an unnecessarily woke Cheez-It commercial and a Papa John’s ad that fully embraces Pizzagaters. The famed Budweiser ads with the Clydesdale horses was then skewered with one of the horses kicking a vaccine shot into an old woman’s arm, plus another with the Budweiser frogs croaking “Pfizer.”

The cold open closed with an interview with Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians and Kansas City coach Andy Reid, with cast member Aidy Bryant amply doing double duty to play both roles.

Later in the Dan Levy-hosted episode, the “Super Bowl Pod” sketch poked fun at the idea of people gathering together to watch the big game amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But as a reminder to conduct your own Super Bowl responsibly, it all ended with a public service announcement from Dr. Anthony Fauci (Kate McKinnon), who offered his own sourpuss take on friendly gatherings of any sort: “At home, in a mask, lights off, no friends.”