Speaker Mike Johnson pays President Joe Biden a Halloween visit in SNL's cold open

I was already looking forward to tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live in 'SNL' satirizes Jim Jordan's losing bid for Speaker.

SNL will return on October 28th for a Halloween episode with Nate Bargatze hosting. I'm looking forward to it, as last year's Halloween episode spawned two posts. I should be so lucky this year.

Biden Halloween Cold Open certainly lived up to my expectations.

President Joe Biden (Mikey Day) delivers a Halloween message with the help of House speaker Mike Johnson (Michael Longfellow) and the spirit of Halloween (Christopher Walken).

All Christopher Walken needed was more cowbell. Also, Mike who? It's too bad we're going to find out, as his election provided part of the headline for Weekend Update: Mike Johnson Elected as House Speaker, Trump Testifies in Civil Fraud Trial.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Michael Cohen testifying against Trump in his civil fraud trial.

I was rooting for Elise Stefanik because she already had a label, so I'm a bit disappointed that didn't happen. Now that Johnson is Speaker, I'm repurposing the Liar for Jesus label, which I created for my former Representative Tim Walberg and last used in 2015, for Johnson. I expect him to live down to the epithet and I probably won't be disappointed.

I was a bit disappointed, but not terribly surprised, to learn that Mike Pence had dropped out. I was hoping to have more laughs at his expense before he figured out that he wasn't going to beat the former guy. Now he isn't going to beat Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley, either. Darn.

Speaking of TFG, I thought the depiction of him and Michael Cohen in conflict as rats fighting to be funny and fitting, if a bit unfair to rats and maybe Cohen. Weekend Updated missed TFG's reaction to Ivanka being called to testify, which the New York Daily News via Yahoo! Finance reported as Trump attacks 'unhinged judge' for requiring Ivanka to testify in New York fraud trial. This was after Judge Arthur Engoron fined TFG twice for violating the gag order. How much will the next fine be?

I've been refraining from mentioning Mitch McConnell's health problems, but I sincerely hope he's right that he's recovered. That written, I could see the Weekend at Bernie joke coming a mile away.

Enough politics. Follow over the jump for the clips that qualify today's entry as the Sunday entertainment feature.

Weekend Update continued with Colin's Agent J.J. Gordon on the Actors Strike.

Colin's agent J.J. Gordon (Sarah Sherman) stops by Weekend Update to discuss actors not being able to find work during the SAG-AFTRA strike.

That wasn't really about the SAG-AFTRA strike. It was just another opportunity for Sarah Sherman to tell jokes at Jost's expense. Fortunately, Sherman returned in a sketch that really was about the strike in Trick-or-Treat with Fran Drescher.

Fran Drescher (Sarah Sherman) shows a couple (Nate Bargatze, Ego Nwodim) some SAG-approved Halloween costumes.

It was time I returned to the actors strike, this time as a source of laughs. Here's to hoping the strike gets settled soon, just like the UAW strike, as the auto workers union has reached tentative agreements with Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). Two down, GM to go!

I return to Weekend Update for more entertainment news in Dwayne Johnson's Wax Figure, Southwest Airlines' Bag Tracking Feature.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like White Castle replacing its fry cooks with robots.

Having been a frycook, I'm not surprised, as it's easier cognitively than being a bartender, although it can be emotionally stressful. I wrote Andrew Yang talks about robot bartenders as an example of automation coming for our jobs four years ago. It's about time it came to fast food. As I wrote most recently in PBS NewsHour and CNBC explain 'Why artificial intelligence is a central dispute in the Hollywood strikes', "Welcome to the Singularity where the main effect is losing jobs to robots, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity."

For an encore, I'm sharing SNL making fun of entertainment in Hallmark Horror.

Two former classmates (Nate Bargatze, Chloe Fineman) reconnect in their hometown.

Pitch perfect parody!

I conclude with Secret of the Booze's Trick or Treat Inspired Cocktail in honor of the trick or treaters in the Fran Drescher skit.

Rim glass with purple sugar
4 oz orange juice
1 oz grenadine
top with pumpkin beer
garnish with orange lollipop

Drink responsibly and stay tuned for more Halloween posts through the end of the month. Trick or treat!