"Saturday Night Live," a show that has resorted to dark humor to mark the discord of recent years, tried optimism and religious lore for a brighter note this weekend.
The show opened with a vignette titled "A Message From the Easter Bunny," in which a furry-suited Bowen Yang introduced himself and noted that, yes, what the audience was seeing was a giant hare.
"Either that," he said, "or you’re at Coachella and the shrooms are kicking in."
Yang called spring the season of renewal and rebirth and welcomed to the episode "folks from all walks of life to share their hopes for this Easter season."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, appeared, played by Kate McKinnon, he wasn't so upbeat.
"Covid cases are a lot like Jesus," he said. "They've risen again."
"Fauci" offered some solace to the majority of people who are vaccinated. "If you're vaccinated, you're going to be fine," he said.
"And if you’re not vaccinated — I'm not supposed to say this — I honestly don’t care what happens to you," he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., played by Cecily Strong, showed up to complain about the pastel candy and toys associated with the Easter holiday.
"This holiday has gotten a little too LGBQRST for me," she said.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, played by Chris Redd, celebrated the arrest of a suspect in the shooting of 10 people on a subway car Tuesday.
"This Easter I got the best, best news of all, New York," he said. "We got him. We got the shooter. Sure, it took 30 hours, and he turned himself in, but we got him."
Elon Musk (Mikey Day) showed up, too. He joked that he wanted to "officially buy Easter" by offering 43 billion Peeps, the candy. The audience gave a muted response.
He spoke about the negative reaction to his goal of taking over Twitter.
"You're afraid I'll make Twitter bad?" he said. "What are you scared I'll buy next, the Oscars?" he said before laughing robotically. "Ha-ha-ha-ha."
Former President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) crashed the presentation to complain he hadn't been invited.
"This is very, very unfair," he said. "Another example of how whites are being treated horribly in this country."
He continued to talk, meandering until he reached an anecdote about how he's the one who told Little Caesar to say, "Pizza, pizza."
The "Weekend Update" news segment took on the issue of ghost guns, firearms that can be made almost entirely with 3D printers. Biden last week announced that, homemade or not, they'll face the same regulations that cover traditional firearms.
"I mean, look, I don't like the idea of people having ghost guns, either," co-host Michael Che said. "But if there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?"
Lizzo was the episode's host and musical guest.
“Saturday Night Live” and NBC News are part of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast.
