‘SNL’ Video: — Bowen Yang Debuts as George Santos, Lying Politician

At long last, our national comedy nightmare is over. Following months of very dull politicians doing terrible things (but in a very dull way), in came George Santos swinging a sack of lies that would make classic Saturday Night Live character Tommy Flanagan blush. It’s a juicy target, and SNL‘s Bowen Yang this weekend made the most of it.

This week’s cold open is the NFL postgame show. Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson are played by Kenan Thompson, Molly Kearney, Mikey Day, Devon Walker and James Austin Johnson, respectively. They lob easy jokes at each other – including a fun segment with Cleatus the robot presaging the robopocalypse.

The gents then throw down to their new sideline correspondent, recently elected U.S. Representative George Santos. Of course, Santos has been all over the news for — among other things — check fraud, charity fraud, lying about his college career, his investment career, the death(s) of his mother, and that his grandparents escaped the Holocaust.

Naturally then, when Yang’s Santos first appears on-screen, he begins spinning tales about his amazing – and, in some cases, mathematically impossible – football feats. That leads to a bit based on another revelation from the real George Santos’ life: that he may have been the drag queen Kitara Revache in Brazil.

The glee with which Yang plays with the name “Kee-TAHR-ra Ree-VO-shay!” is only exceeded by the speed at which he quick-changes into a feathery red dress and commandeers the show after being kicked off. (His drag stats seem pretty legit though.)

Watch a clip below (the full video will be added once available), and weigh in on the segment.

https://twitter.com/nbcsnl/status/1617024918931005440/video/1