‘Saturday Night Live’ pokes fun at Chinese spy balloon drama in cold open

Saturday Night Live had a ball — or shall we say, a balloon — with its latest cold open.

The skit begins with Chloe Fineman, as MSNBC’s Katy Tur, reporting that the “national nightmare” of the Chinese spy balloon has come to an end. The surveillance balloon, which moved across the country last week, was shot down by the U.S. military on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.

Fineman, as Tur, talks about the mixed reaction over the Biden administration handling of the incident before allegedly tuning into a live feed of the ocean, showing a special appearance by Bowen Yang playing the balloon’s floating remains.

“I entertain you people for four days but then get shot down by Biden! I can’t believe I’m Joe’s Osama,” Yang complains. When asked why he flew over Montana, the comedian jokes that he loves Yellowstone. “It’s like Succession, but outside,” he quips.

Yang also takes issue with the balloon’s estimated size being about three buses. “Ouch. I’m a balloon, so that’s my body. How would you like it if someone measured your width in buses?” he declares.

When addressing concerns that he was a spy balloon, Yang remarks, “Everyone is being surveilled constantly, but it’s always ‘Shoot the balloon’ and never ‘Unplug Alexa.’ If you care so much about your data, why do you all keep your bank passwords in the Notes app? You mail your literal DNA to a company to find out if you’re 10 percent French!”

Yang jokes that the quality of the photos he allegedly took were on par with “your aunt [taking] a concert video on her iPad.” He also alleges he was racially profiled because he’s Chinese. However, he eventually lets it slip that he really was spying on the U.S.

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