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Saturday Night Live: Jim Carrey debuts as Biden, fans wish they had real-life remote to keep Trump 'paused'

Carrey’s Biden took out a special remote and paused Baldwin’s Trump to 'bask in the ‘Trumplessness’, and said: 'Isn’t that satisfying? Just not to hear his voice for a single goddamned second'

The wait is finally over for ‘Saturday Night Live’ fans as the Season 46 premiered on October 3. Since the news broke of Jim Carrey taking up the role of Joe Biden, most people have been waiting to see how he fares as the former vice-president. SNL has been teasing fans about the premiere on its social media page throughout the week – posting photos of the socially-distanced table reads to unveiling Carrey and Maya Rudolph getting ready to portray Biden and Kamala Harris respectively.

The show began with, somewhat predictable, a parody of the September 29 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Biden. A narrator gave an introduction about the debate and said, “We thought it was important to see it again, since it might be the only presidential debate.” Beck Bennett portraying Fox News’ Chris Wallace didn’t need to introduce Alec Baldwin’s Trump because he did that himself "interrupting" the moderator. Soon Carrey’s Biden took stage in dark-tinted aviator sunglasses, and gesturing at the audience with finger guns. He also pulled took out a tape to measure the distance between the podiums. "You did take the COVID test you promised you’d take in advance,” Bennett’s Wallace asked Baldwin’s Trump. “Absolutely, scout’s honor,” he answered, holding up two fingers crossed. When asked if Carrey’s Biden was ready to debate, he said “absolutely not” but he did have “the beginnings of 46 fantastic ideas I may or may not have access to”.

As the debate began, even before either Bennett or Carrey could finish any of their sentences, Baldwin kept interrupting by saying words such as "liar". And Carrey did say the now famous phrase “Will you shut up, man”. Throughout the cold open, Carrey’s Biden kept giving himself pep talks to keep himself  calm, including “just stand here and look lucid”. Even Harry Styles popped up in a thought bubble as the character’s motivational speaker. Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris also showed up on stage by telling Baldwin’s Trump “my Joe” is a “nice boy” and needed an apology. She even got him to apologize and quipped, “I think if there’s one thing we learned tonight, it’s that America needs a WAP: woman as president. But for now, I’ll settle for HVPIC: hot vice president in charge.”

But the highlight was when Carrey’s Biden took out a special remote and "paused" Baldwin’s Trump. Yes, he paused him to “bask in the ‘Trumplessness’”. “I think we all needed a break. Isn’t that satisfying? Just not to hear his voice for a single goddamned second. Let’s wallow in it. Let’s bask in the Trump-lessness,” he said. “America, look at me. Look directly into my eyeballs. You can trust me because I believe in science and karma. Now just imagine if science and karma could some team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be.” Then he looked at Baldwin’s Trump, who was still "paused", and said, “I’m not saying I want it to happen. Just imagine it did. So this November, please get on the Biden train, which is literally a commuter train to Delaware. And we can all make America not actively on fire again.” This made fans really excited and they just couldn’t stop discussing the "pause button".

One user said, “What a great opening #SNLPremiere #Pausebutton haven’t laughed this hard in a while.” Another said, “And that pause button on the remote control is the perfect solution for the next debate, IF there is a next one!” One stated, “Science AND karma...AND the pause button! Yay for the pause button!” One opined, “The cold open started a lil shaky but they pulled it back together with the pause button!”

'Saturday Night Live' airs on NBC at 11.30 pm.