Both the U.S. and British versions of “Saturday Night Live” satirized the first lady’s unexpected remarks about Jeffrey Epstein in the cold opening.
First Lady Melania Trump denies relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
First lady Melania Trump has denied any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.
Both the U.S. and British versions of “Saturday Night Live” were on the same page when it came to choosing a topic for this week’s cold opening.
Like its American counterpart, “Saturday Night Live UK” began its April 11 broadcast with a skit mocking first lady Melania Trump’s recent statements denying knowledge of or being a victim of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein.
In the British version, three friends were playing “Never Have I Ever” at a cookout when the First Lady, played by Emma Siddy, suddenly appeared. “I’ve never been friends with Jeffrey Epstein,” she declared after emerging from the bushes, adding, “I’m here to stop nasty people spreading rumors about me.”
As the sketch continued, she continued to bring up Epstein without saying anything during other games, leaving friends wondering why she wouldn’t let the subject go.
“Your husband literally started a war to distract us,” one of them said.
When the friends were about to leave, the first lady begged for another chance to play with them, saying, “I don’t have any friends, because they all died randomly in maximum-security prisons.”
In a rare press conference this week, Melania Trump said she had “no knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s abuse of his victims” and that she was not friends with the convicted sex offender. “I’m not a victim of Epstein,” she said.
This remark was also parodied in the cold opening of the American version of Saturday Night Live, and on both shows the remark seemed to come out of nowhere.
In the American version, President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) receives a phone call from his wife (Chloe Fineman) in the Oval Office, telling him that she plans to “suddenly come out of nowhere and give a big bullshit speech and say I’m not a victim of Epstein.” The President expressed skepticism and told her, “Darling, I have to admit, that sounds a little insane. Who are you, me?”
Compared to the British version, the American version of the sketch puts a little more emphasis on the idea that the first lady’s statements actually made her seem more suspicious, with Feynman’s Trump also saying that she was going to say that she “never helped the Gilgo Beach serial killer” and “had very little to do with Diddy.”
“Saturday Night Live UK” is a British spin-off that follows a format similar to the American version, and was first broadcast in March with Tina Fey serving as host for the first time.
SNL UK has traditionally aired new episodes on the same days as the US version, but this was the first time the two shows had dueling cold opens on the same topic in the same week. Previous cold openings on SNL UK have focused on British figures such as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former Prince Andrew.
