Bowen Yang's Georges Santos Impression Returned During Last Night's 'SNL' Cold Open

Christina Izzo

19 January 2025 at 7:44 am·2-min read

It's been over a year since Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang sadly said farewell to his hilarious impersonation of disgraced U.S. Representative George Santos via a parody rendition of the moving Elton John ballad "Candle in the Wild" — retitled "Scandal in the Wind" to honor the former politician's penchant for absurd lies, of course. But last night's Dave Chappelle-hosted edition of SNL not only saw the return of that fan-favorite impression, but also introduced even wilder falsehoods and fabrications from the congressman-turned-convicted felon.

The cold open of the Jan. 18 show saw MSNBC pundits Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman), Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim), Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes), Stephanie Ruhle (Chloe Fineman) and Ari Melber (Marcello Hernández) discuss President-Elect Donald Trump's second term, all while being continuously interrupted by Trump's incessant Truth Social posts. ("I LOVED Wicked!" he shared, adding of the Emerald City: "We need to buy this magical land already!!") Naturally, that prompted a cameo from cast member James Austin Johnson as the soon-to-be POTUS, who was holding a press conference from Mar-a-Lago to discuss the TikTok ban, The Rizzler and Mark Zuckerberg's glow-up. (The Facebook CEO is looking much cooler these days, "in regard to perm and chain," per Donald.)

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Among those myriad announcements was the appointment of Trump's “latest cabinet pick” — you guessed it, George Santos. Enter a bewigged and bespectacled Bowen Yang: “I’m so honored to be joining Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of Fact Checking and Ambassador to Sephora,” Santos declared. “I am part of the politician-to-Cameo-back-to-politician-and-eventually-to-jail pipeline!” George also erroneously revealed himself to be late President Jimmy Carter's son, the romantic partner of suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione, and the proprietor of super-fan social media handle Club Chalamet. (Next week's SNL host-slash-musical guest Timothée Chalamet might want to up security in Studio 8H for his own good.)

You can watch the entire cold open here:

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