The 46th season of Saturday Night Live will be kicking off on October 3rd, but as the United States is about a month away from its presidential election, you can probably expect to see quite a number of politically-themed sketches. Alec Baldwin and Maya Rudolph will be back to reprise their respective roles as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and it was announced last month that Jim Carrey would be playing Joe Biden.
Saturday Night Live has released a short teaser showing Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph transforming into their characters that offers us our first look at Carrey as the Democratic presidential nominee. You can check that out above or on Twitter if the video isn't available in your country. Prior to Carrey taking on the role, Joe Biden had been portrayed by Woody Harrelson, John Mulaney, and Jason Sudeikis. SNL honcho Lorne Michaels said the switch happened when Carrey expressed an interest in the part. "It came down to discussions of what his take was," Michaels said. "He will give the part energy and strength, and [Laughs] hopefully it’s funny."
Lorne Michaels has also discussed that there will be a live studio audience for the taping of Saturday Night Live, but that it will be limited and socially distanced. "We need the audience, obviously. With comedy, when you don’t hear the response, it’s just different," Michaels explained. "With the kind of comedy we do, which quite often is broad, timing gets thrown off without an audience. And for me, what is most important is when you’re absolutely certain of some piece on Wednesday, and then the dress-rehearsal audience sees it on Saturday and tells you you’re wrong… I think us coming back and accomplishing the show will lead to — I hate to use the word normalcy — but it’s a thing that is part of our lives coming back, in whatever form it ends up coming back. So the physical problems of doing it — number of people who can be in the studio, number of people who can be in the control room, how you separate the band so that they’re not in any jeopardy — all of those are part of the meetings we’ve been having." The season premiere of Saturday Night Live will be hosted Chris Rock and feature musical guest Megan Thee Stallion.