It's two-and-a-half Bidens, as Jason Sudeikis returns for the SNL cold open

With Saturday Night Live all-star alum Jason Sudeikis coming back to host for the first time last night, viewers were treated to the Ted Lasso Emmy-winner’s signature effortless comedy professionalism. Busting out those Lasso dance moves for his track-suited What’s Up With That? dancer, and those dime-store horns and pitchfork for a recurring manifestation as The Devil on Weekend Update, Sudeikis also kicked off the show by bringing back the garrulous, glad-handing Joe Biden he memorably portrayed back when Uncle Joe was just “America’s wacky neighbor.” (And Vice President, if you want to be technical.) Appearing in the Oval Office to cheer up his mopier present-day self (ably played by fast-out-of-the-gate new featured player James Austin Johnson), Sudeikis’ Biden—of the baseball cap and aviator sunglasses vintage—came out firing finger-guns and wondering what all the long faces were about.

With Johnson’s President complaining about obstruction from supposedly Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema to his ambitious Build Back Better agenda, Sudeikis’ “2K13" Biden could only offer some playful gut-punches and some quickly disregarded advice about shoulder-rubs and uncomfortably close-quarters inhalations. “I hope this doesn’t sound sexist,” but you gotta smile more, sweetie,” past Biden advised, with present Biden explaining that “the last president ruined everything,” citing porn stars, fast food White House menus, and fights with the Pope. “Wow, Hillary got awesome!,” beamed an appreciative past Biden, with present Biden choosing not to clue him in on things.

More help was yet to come, however, as a peal of thunder and some spooky smoke heralded the arrival of that other Joe Biden. You know, the one from “March 2021"? The one played, in a couple of didn’t-quite-take appearances by Alex Moffat? The one who wasn’t Jim Carrey. “Who the hell are you?,” asked Sudeikis’ Joe, with Johnson’s Joe shrugging his shoulders in mutual bewilderment. Telling their other self that they were all set, Moffat left as nondescriptly as he’d arrived, with Sudeikis-Biden telling Johnson-Biden that, as bleak as things might seem in a country still reeling from not-Hillary’s time in office, they are both still “Joe-freaking-Biden!” Oh, and that other guy is, too, probably.