SNL Links Rise in Omicron Cases to Box Office Success of Spider-Man: No Way Home

Saturday Night Live has been on a holiday hiatus since mid-December. The long-running sketch comedy show returned Saturday, January 15, for its first episode of 2022, with host West Side Story star Ariana DeBose and musical guest Bleachers, who replaced rapper Roddy Ricch after one of the members on his team was exposed to COVID-19. The first sketch of the night addressed what's on everyone's minds, the rising number of COVID-19 cases due to the contagiousness of the new Omicron variant. During the cold open, SNL freshman James Austin Johnson's Joe Biden holds a fictional White House press briefing to give public health advice about the rising number of COVID-19 cases with the Omicron variant: "Stop seeing Spider-Man. Just stop seeing Spider-Man."