‘Saturday Night Live’ lampoons GOP Sen. Katie Britt’s SOTU response speech : NPR

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on December 7, 2023. Britt delivered the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on December 7, 2023. Britt delivered the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt received the Saturday Night Live treatment this weekend, after the Republican delivered her party’s response to President Biden’s State of the Union address.

Britt, 42, gave a dramatic rebuttal from her kitchen on Thursday, calling Biden a “dithering and diminished leader.” Noting that she was a wife and mother of two children, Britt suggested that Americans are fearful about record immigration and anxious about the state of the economy.

“There is no doubt we’re at a crossroads. We all feel it,” she said. “Well, I know which choice our children deserve — and the choice the Republican Party is fighting for.”

Just days later, the NBC sketch comedy show mocked Britt’s speech, with Scarlett Johansson making a surprise appearance to play the GOP rising star.

“I have the honor of serving the great people of Alabama, but tonight I’ll be auditioning for the part of scary mom,” Johansson quipped. “And I’ll be performing an original monologue called: This Country is Hell.”

Johansson repeatedly poked fun at the sometimes intense tone of Britt’s speech. “Kitchens are where families have the hard conversations, like the one we’ll have tomorrow about how mommy freaked out the entire country,” she said.

The State of the Union opposition response can transform a relatively unknown politician into a household name, but the task of speaking to an often empty room is also notoriously challenging.

In 2009, political analysts panned former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s reply to President Obama’s first State of the Union address.

And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2013 response is often remembered for the mid-speech moment when Rubio lunged for a water bottle and took a sip.

But other SOTU responses have been delivered by politicians who would one day end up in the Oval Office, including former Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and former Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.