Kate McKinnon reprised her role as Rudy Giuliani during Saturday Night Live's cold open to ridicule his scene in the Borat sequel.
SNL's opening sketch, lampooning Thursday night's presidential debate, saw Maya Rudolph as debate moderator Kristen Welker, rather than in her usual role of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey reprised their roles as President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden.
McKinnon's appearance as Giuliani came as Baldwin and Carrey sparred over healthcare plans. "My plan is perfect, it's a beautiful, beautiful plan... I mean, this plan is an LA ten," Baldwin's Trump declares.
Responding to Carrey's Biden repeatedly asking for Baldwin to "show us the plan," he replies: "Excuse me, I'd love to show the plan, but I can't because it's under audit like my taxes. And if you don't believe me, you can talk to my lawyer, Rudy Giuliani...."
The camera then pans to a shot of McKinnon from behind, as her right arm moves up and down repeatedly.
McKinnon's Giuliani then turns around, saying: "What? What? No! No! It's not what it looks like! My microphone was stuck... on my balls. Is this another Borat? You gotta tell me if it's a Borat!"
Giuliani was roasted on social media this week over an apparently compromising scene that appears in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. The mockumentary, starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, began streaming on Amazon Prime on Friday.
The president's personal lawyer is seen in the film lying on a bed in a hotel room and reaching into his pants in the presence of Borat's teenage daughter Tutar, played by 24-year-old Maria Bakalova.
The scene starts with Giuliani sitting in a hotel room for an interview with Tutar, who acts nervous. Later, the pair move to the bedroom for a drink.
"You can give me your phone number and your address," Giuliani appears to say, although his back is to the camera at the time.
(1) The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment.
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 21, 2020
At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.
Tutar is then seen pulling up Giuliani's shirt and removing what appears to be a microphone pack. He is then seen leaning back on the bed and putting his hand in his pants—a moment that is extended with the use of multiple camera angles.
Moments later, a lingerie-clad Borat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, bursts into the room declaring: "She 15, she too old for you."
Giuliani this week insisted the scene was "a complete fabrication" and that he was only "tucking in my shirt" after taking off recording equipment.
In July, he told Page Six that he had called police on Cohen and claimed that the actor hadn't managed to prank him. "I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn't get me," Giuliani said.
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Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, ... Read more
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