This week Saturday evening live was proof that we are not yet ready to process the elections. It’s a subject that everyone is either sick of or getting sick of. Not talking about it feels weird and wrong; talking about it feels annoying, noisy and hopeless.

Presumably there was an online petition for it SNL not to follow the sad route it had taken during the cold open after the 2016 elections, when Kate McKinnon– who had played the Democratic candidate all year Hillary Clinton— sang a version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the piano. (I loved that performance, for what it’s worth, and equated it with its emotional impact SNL‘s first show after September 11 – when everyone’s then-favorite mayor, Rudolf Giulianiflanked by firefighters and New York police officers.) Would Maya Rudolfwho I hope at least had a good, tearful phone call with the vice president Kamala Harris appear this week? Would the open cold be gloomy or indignant or sincere? And what would even feel “right” since every response feels exhausting and wrong in the moment?

All things considered, the cold open worked for me. It started with veterinarians Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, Ego NwodimAnd Heidi Gardner they speak stone-faced into the camera, laying out the stunning premise of newly elected President Trump’s decisive victory, as if they were an HR department reading a script. But then they all flipped the script and started marveling at the emperor’s fabulous wardrobe. Whatever the lamestream media’s problem was with Trump, the SNL family has always supported him. (Anything but Michael Chewarned Colin Jostspelling out his co-host’s last name in case Trump wanted to get started on his enemies list.) “I was one of the proud 8% (of black women) who voted for you,” Nwodim promised . “If we find out that anyone here voted for Kamala, we will quickly betray him,” Yang said. Sara Sherman dangled their “three new disgusting cast members” as scapegoats so he could get his revenge.

Someone remained poor James Austin Johnsonwho I imagine was the drunkest cast member of them all on Tuesday, in a “hot, jacked Trump” muscle suit. “Hail King,” Marcello Hernández praised. The only big laugh from the open was Dana Carvey‘s linchpin of playing president Joe Biden to play Elon Musk. He jumped around and threw his arms in the air like a fool – I’m going to miss you the most, Governor Walz– and then the cast treated America’s disaffected young men to a rendition of “YMCA” Good, Tender Chaos.