Saturday Night Live opened up its latest show with a cold open skewering “touchy-feely” former Vice-President Joe Biden.
Mediaite reports,
Last week’s cold open was unusually short, this week, however, lacked such brevity clocking in at nearly 7 minutes and featuring a bumbling Biden who just didn’t seem to get what was wrong with his handsy antics.
“I’m a hugger, a kisser, and a little bit of a sniffer,” Jason Sudeikis as Biden says at the beginning of the sketch in response to a concerned aide bringing up “all the touchy-feely stuff.”
He added: “The last thing I ever want to do is offend anyone.”
A sensitivity training consultant — played by Kate McKinnon — is then brought in to try to get through to him.
SNL’s Biden gets creepily close, as he does to all the female Democrats the consultant brings in to express their concerns.
“Well, ideally when you meet a female stranger for the first time there would be no kisses or hugs of any kind,” the consultant advises him.
“That’s a human connection,” SNL Biden responds. “That’s my whole thing.”
At one point, clearly frustrated by her attempts to teach him, the consultant laments, “nothing is getting through to you.”
“So let’s hug it out, America, what do you say?” Sudeikis as Biden says towards the end of the sketch. “Biden and some woman in 2020, right? We can do this.”
“Are you making an official announcement right now?” the consultant asks, prompting the “Live from New York” that ends each open.