Dwayne Johnson hosted SNL this past weekend, reprising his role as a Hulk version of President Barack Obama — "The Rock Obama."
As Rolling Stone noted, it's become somewhat of a rarity on Saturday Night Live to have a cold-open skit featuring the guest host, and Johnson does a great job of imitating Obama's manner of speech in Hulk mode.
In the skit, Obama clashes with Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner, Sen. Tom Cotton, and presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. After speaking calmly to them about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to congress, the Letter to Iran, and last year's government shutdown, Barack Obama transforms into The Rock Obama and tears the GOP limb from limb.
As the AV Club put it, "Like most recurring bits, the spontaneity’s long gone out of it, but the addition of Leslie Jones as She Rock Obama, bursting out of Sasheer Zamata’s tasteful Michelle Obama dress and gleefully shouting 'Live, from New York' along with Johnson was a fun way to kick the episode off."
Still disappointing, however, is the SNL cast's unwillingness to spoof the world's most powerful man rather than coddle him, say some satirists.
Much, much better than the Obama skit was Johnson playing a live-action Bambi in a spoof of Disney's "Malificent" and "Cinderella."