Senator Katie Britt’s overdramatic reʙuттal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address expectedly became the ʙuтт of a joke featured on Saturday Night Live (SNL) this weekend.
With the help of actress Scarlett Johansson, the late-night sketch show featured highlights from Ms Britt’s speech in their cold open: an empty kitchen, Ms Britt’s wide emotional range, her questionably re-telling of a graphic human trafficking story, a noticeably shiny cross necklace, and of course, a lot of drama.
“Tonight I’ll be auditioning for the part of scary mom and I’ll be performing an original monologue called ‘This country is hell’,” Johansson said playing Ms Britt.
Aired directly from a “strange, empty kitchen” Johansson maintained unsettling eye contact with the camera while playing up the dramatics in parodying Ms Britt’s speech about the future of the country and the border crisis.
“Republicans wanted me to appeal to women voters and women love kitchen,” Johnᴀsson joked.
Sen. Katie Britt delivers the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union Address pic.twitter.com/x7mDzO1sWP
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) March 10, 2024
Johansson’s emotions moved quickly from happy, to fearful, sad, angry and excited – a nod to much of the criticism Ms Britt received about her reʙuттal being “insincere”.
The sketch also poked fun at Ms Britt’s misleading use of a human trafficking story to criticise Mr Biden’s border policy. An independent journalist reported that Ms Britt omitted details of the story, like when it took place and where to make it appear as though it happened recently. However, the events really occurred in the mid-2000s.
“Rest ᴀssured every detail about it is real except the year, where it took place and who was president when it happened,” Johnᴀsson said.
SNL writers spared no joke about Ms Britt’s delivery, at one point changing her speech to appear like a QVC segment selling Ms Britt’s “bejeweled cross necklace” and then to appear like a portion of Jordan Peele’s psychological horror movie Get Out.
“Kitchens are where families have the hard conversations. Like the one we’ll have tomorrow about how mommy freaked out the entire country,” Johnᴀsson joked. 
