‘SNL’ mocks Kanye West’s appearance at White House

Sometimes a “Saturday Night Live” cold open is a genuine surprise, a distillation of recent history that comes completely out of left field. And then sometimes the events of a past week are outrageous enough they demand an obvious approach. In his first “SNL” appearance of the season, Alec Baldwin returned to his recurring role as President Donald Trump to help recreate the strange Oval Office meeting that transpired Thursday between the president and rapper Kanye West.

Baldwin opened the meeting by announcing, “Thank you all for joining us today for this important discussion. It’s in no way a publicity stunt. This is a serious private conversation between three friends, plus 50 reporters with cameras.”

Chris Redd played West, who declared, “I flew here using the power of this hat.”

Also on hand was Kenan Thompson who played an embarrassed-looking Jim Brown. “I’ve been on coalitions with Bill Cosby and O.J. Simpson and this is the first time I have regrets,” he said.

This week’s episode, hosted by Seth Meyers and featuring musical guest Paul Simon, would go on to reference the Trump-West summit many more times.

Meyers cracked later in the show: “You know how crazy Thursday was at the White House? Kid Rock was also there, and no one cared. It was almost a relief to hear someone as reasonable as Kid Rock was in the White House. You know how hard it is to make Kid Rock seem like the adult in the room? His first name is Kid.”