This week's "Saturday Night Live" re-imagined the 1994 film "Forrest Gump" with a portrayal of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the leading role.
Kate McKinnon returned as Sessions in a scene in which the attorney general is sitting on a bench talking to passersby about his "bad week" — a week in which the real-life Sessions came under fire for his past testimony about meeting with Russia's ambassador last year when he was a senator.
"Hello. My name is Jeff. Jeff Sessions," McKinnon as Sessions said cheerfully with a deep southern twang to cast member Leslie Jones, who sat behind him. "I'm the attorney general of the whole United States."
The real Sessions on Thursday said he would recuse himself in any federal probe of the Trump campaign. The announcement came after it was revealed that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last year, meetings he did not mention at his confirmation hearing.
"I was on the cover of the New York Times, you want to see?" McKinnon as Sessions said proudly to a passerby, played by Kyle Mooney. The passerby noted that the headline said Sessions might have committed perjury.
"Yeah, I had a bad week," McKinnon's Sessions replied. "Started out real good. President made a great speech. Folks was thrilled on account of it was real words in a row for a whole hour. We were all as happy as a monkey with a peanut machine. Then I went to bed, I got 800 messages and phone alerts saying I was a sneaky little liar."
"I didn’t know what to do so my lawyer said 'Run, Jeffrey! Run!'" McKinnon’s Sessions said. "So I started running and running."
Sessions then explained to Mooney how during the hearing he got confused, but emphatically said he "never talked to any Russians ever, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that."
The bus then whisked Mooney away, replacing him with Aidy Bryant. As Bryant appeared, McKinnon as Sessions blurts out, "I met with the Russians. Twice."
At another point the cold open took a crack at Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway over the now viral photo of her pose on an Oval office couch. McKinnon as Sessions produced a photo and said: "This is my best good friend Kellyanne. She ain’t got no legs," in a reference to the movie's Lieutenant Dan.
Host Octavia Spencer appeared as Minny in "The Help" and served McKinnon's Sessions a chocolate pie used as an act of revenge in that movie, in a nod to criticism of the real Sessions' record on civil rights.
"Saturday Night Live" has seen a surge in popularity amid the presidential campaign and the Trump administration, with ratings this season being the best in more than 20 years.
In Saturday's Sessions cold open, McKinnon as the attorney general tells Bryant that despite the Democrats wanting him to resign, he just has to prove he has no ties to the Russians.
The bus then reappears, removing Bryant and revealing a shirtless Vladimir Putin, played by Beck Bennett, who immediately declared, "This meeting never happened."
"I wasn’t going to remember it anyway," McKinnon's Sessions said in the sketch.
