SNL mocks CDC mask rule mayhem with ‘patron saint of Purell’ Anthony Fauci
“Saturday Night Live” didn’t mask the confusion over current government guidance on face coverings — with a cold-open skit mocking the mayhem over when and where masks are needed.
The latest episode opened with “a message from Dr. Anthony Fauci,” with Kate McKinnon reprising her role as the often-controversial leading infectious diseases expert.
“It’s your boy, Fauci, the patron saint of Purell,” the fake Fauci said, inviting a group of doctors to act out different scenarios to try to teach Americans “correct mask behavior.”
“The CDC announced that people that are vaccinated no longer need to wear masks, outdoors or indoors. Pretty great, right?” McKinnon’s Fauci said. But “a lot of people had questions, such as, what does that mean? What the hell are you talking about? Is this a trap?”
The first pretend scenario had a couple walking into a bar — with Beck Bennett telling Aidy Bryant that the fact he was “entering a bar at 11 a.m.” should have been proof enough that he was not “vaxxed.”
In the next scenario, Bowen Yang played an airline passenger told that he had to keep on his mask when not eating or drinking — but instead being so sexually frustrated from lockdown he asks the flight attemndant to “bang,” telling her, “Hop on, let’s go for a real ride.”
“The lesson should have been, you need masks on planes. Not, everybody [is] horny now,” McKinnon’s Fauci complained.
The next scene saw Alex Moffat and Cecily Strong at a “pretty large gathering” with neither wearing a mask.
‘We don’t have to because we’re outside … the Capitol Building!’ Strong said, pulling out a gun as Moffat put on a MAGA hat. “Now let’s get ’em!” Strong said.
“Ok. That was a very specific example, but accurate in terms of masks,” the fake Fauci said.
In another scene, a store customer said they did not need a mask as they were gay, while the clerk bragged about being an “ally.”
Then Chloe Fineman played a woman on a date who was horrified when Andrew Dismukes finally took off his face and she saw his goatee.
“Oh no! I don’t like the bottom of his face. It looks like you grew mold under your mask,” she said, with her date telling her to wear the mask over her eyes instead.
Pete Davidson then played a New York subway perv who was more concerned about “where should I masturbate” because “buses, ferries and subways all sound like great options.”
“Don’t worry — I’ll put a mask on it first,” he said with a wink.
Highlighting the confusion over different scenarios, the final one showed four friends who were only half-vaccinated and traveling by train from Florida to the UK with one of them old and another a baby.
“How many of us should wear masks and in which order?” Kenan Thompson asked to the fake Fauci’s confusion.
The finale was titled “everything is good again, a vision with the future,” with a group dancing together now that everyone was vaccinated and never need masks again.
As they celebrated how much easier life was, Bennett ended the calm by saying, “Now, let’s talk about Israel.”
McKinnon’s Fauci ended by telling everyone to “please get the vaccine and enjoy life with no masks” — adding after a pause, “Except this audience, you gotta keep ’em on.”
