MacGruber Gets Alt-Right Covid-Era Makeover In ‘SNL’ Return As Will Forte Jokes About Renewal

As former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte said in his opening monologue tonight, it took getting his MacGruber the series to launch on Peacock for him to finally be invited to host the late-night sketch program 12 years after he’d left.

In the monologue, Forte announced a Season 2 renewal for MacGruber, sort of. “I would like to officially announce that MacGruber has been picked up for a Season 2,” he said before adding, “I would like to announce that. But it hasn’t been picked up yet so I can’t. We’re waiting to hear.”

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While Peacock does not release viewership data, MacGruber is said to have done well, and there has been chatter for the last couple of weeks that the show would be renewed for Season 2.

MacGruber originated as a recurring SNL sketch before it spawned a 2010 theatrical movie and the current streaming sequel series. Tonight, the NBC show wasted no time welcoming the character back where he started — right after Forte’s monologue.

Replicating the way the MacGruber skits originally ran on SNL, there were three separate shorts tonight featuring MacGruber (Forte) as he tries to defuse a bomb with seconds left on the timer. Forte was joined by his co-stars from the Peacock series and the movie: Kristen Wiig, who originated her character Vicki St. Elmo on SNL alongside Forte, and Ryan Phillippe (Dixon Piper).

In the return to SNL, the MacGruber skits received a coronavirus pandemic update, with the title hero, as Phillippe’s Piper put it, “going down some kind of alt-right misinformation rabbit hole.” After conducting extensive online “research,” Forte’s MacGruber shares some pretty outrageous, QAnon conspiracy theory-influenced views on masks, Covid vaccinations, Ivermectin, Dr. Anthony Fauci as well as Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Hollywood celebrities, women’s rights, cancel culture and more. Watch all three sketches back-to-back above.

On YouTube, the video is accompanied by a link to CDC information about Covid-19.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=indnwMwNF6w?version=3&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://deadline.com&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

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