White House

Ready for Prime Time, ‘SNL: Weekend Update' Kicks Off Limited Summer Run

"It's been a crazy year these last few weeks," co-anchor Colin Jost said to open the show

Unlike the Trump White House, "Saturday Night Live" has had a quiet summer.

But, with the late-night comedy tentpole still on hiatus, months worth of topical jokes have continued to pile up, unmade.

The show was on break when Sean Spicer, who owes some of his household-name status to Melissa McCarthy's recurring "SNL" impersonation, resigned from his post as White House press secretary and passed the briefing mic to his successor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

"SNL" even missed its opportunity in July to lampoon Anthony Scaramucci's brief but deafening tenure as White House communications director.

Relief came Thursday as NBC marked the first of four prime-time "Weekend Update" stand-alone episodes. Co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che welcomed Scaramucci — "The Mooch" — as one of their first guests of the summer (as played by former "SNL" star Bill Hader).

"Everybody loves The Mooch!" Hader's Mooch declared, before revisiting some of the colorful descriptors IRL-Scaramucci dropped in his now-infamous interview with The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza.

On his whirlwind tenure as White House communications director, "Update's" Mooch insisted his sacrifices were worth it: "All I did was sell my company, miss the birth of my child and ruin my reputation...to be king of 'Idiot Mountain' for 11 days."

The anchors quickly ran through some of the big news items they'd missed, including the president's recent exchanges of threats with North Korea. It was tough to take President Donald Trump's tough talk seriously, Jost said, as he delivered threats while sitting down during his 17-day working vacation at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

"Even FDR stood up when he was talking," Jost scoffed.

The show also welcomed Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. ("SNL" castmates Alex Moffat and Mikey Day), to talk about "some of the amazing things [their] father is doing" and to call Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer a "nothing-burger."

Finally, Jost and Che briefly touched on some of this summer's other hot topics: the Trump administration's proposed changes to U.S. immigration policy; LaVar Ball's incessant braggadocio; castmate Leslie Jones' summer beach bod; and fidget spinners.

As Jost said to open Thursday's show, "It's been a crazy year these past few weeks."

NBC is set to air its three remaining summer episodes of "Update" on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.

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