“Saturday Nite Live” skewered Nicki Minaj’s support for Donald Trump in its Halloween episode, turning the rapper into a political parody and making her growing alignment with the president the punchline. Trump was played by James Austin Johnson and Minaj was played by Saidah Belo-Osagie on the Oct. 31 episode, where the sketch introduced her as the president’s “new friend and future Press Secretary.”

Before introducing the character played by Belo-Osagie, Johnson’s Trump interrupted the sketch in the cold open. The appearance gave “SNL” a chance to poke fun at Minaj’s political stance, which has continued to draw attention and criticism. Her support for Trump and alignment with her political campaign have reportedly been ramping up over the past year.

The sketch joked that Minaj was joining Trump’s inner circle in a high-profile role. The show turned her public support into a fictional political appointment by casting her as a potential press secretary. The depiction was part of a larger Halloween cold open, but Minaj’s appearance turned the bit into a pointed jab at her political position.

The episode was hosted by Inde Navarrette with musical guest Gracie Abrams. SNL’s Halloween broadcast had a timely backdrop for its political humour, with Trump and Minaj appearing together in the opening sketch. The detail doesn’t cover every joke or conversation in the segment, but the key target was clear. Minaj’s support for the president, and the public backlash that followed.

Minaj has continued to support Trump despite the backlash she and other celebrities who support him have received. The sketch used that alignment for parody, making her seem like someone who could be in the president’s administration. It was a comedic premise, not a report of any real appointment, and the portrayal was done by Belo-Osagie.

The cold open also shows how “SNL” uses recognizable public figures and current political conversations as sketch material. In this case, Minaj’s friendship with Trump provided a premise for a fictional scenario that could be read as reflecting her much-discussed political support.

Navarrette hosted the show’s Halloween episode, which aired Saturday, October 31, with Abrams as the musical guest. The cold open’s Minaj impersonation gave the broadcast a celebrity-politics angle, with her endorsement of Trump at the heart of the opening parody.

It is unknown how Minaj will react to the jokes and the info provided does not include any response from the rapper. But “SNL” made its position clear in the sketch, using the fictional press secretary intro to poke fun at her political alliance with Trump.

N.O.R.E. has taken his ongoing social media feud with Queens-based content creator and food reviewer Sober Facts to real life, and confronted him in person over his use of the N-word. The meeting is the latest chapter in a feud that has been brewing for months, with the two personalities trading barbs in the back-and-forth that has turned heads online.

The clash comes amid N.O.R.E. being involved in more than one conversation about his name. The rapper has been battling a lawsuit brought by Carmen Bryant for sexual assault and has been responding to narratives and disputes on social media. The situation with Sober Facts, however, is about the food reviewer’s use of the racial slur and N.O.R.E.’s decision to confront the issue head-on.

Sober Facts allegedly responded to the confrontation with a video of his own. The description says he posted a response video after the encounter, deleted it, and then posted another. Pulling down the initial response and posting a new one adds another layer to a debate that has already run for months.

The details provided don’t lay out what triggered each phase of the conflict, but the newest development puts the spotlight on the time N.O.R.E. came face-to-face with Sober Facts. The spat hasn’t been confined to one social media dust-up, and the face-to-face meeting appears to be a major milestone in the ongoing friction between the two.

For N.O.R.E., the clash also shows how online spats can run alongside other public matters. Carmen Bryant’s legal situation has been a topic of discussion around him lately, but the chat with Sober Facts is a separate matter that concerns the food reviewer’s choice of words. Based on available information, the lawsuit is not related to the confrontation.

Sober Fact’s response video suggests the debate is ongoing, but the information provided doesn’t give us the full content of either video or what, exactly, differed between the two. Without those details, it is hard to tell how the food critic handled the incident in his latest posting.

One thing is for sure, the beef between N.O.R.E. and Sober Facts has escalated past the previous exchanges on Twitter. The disagreement has stayed front and center, with N.O.R.E. and Sober Facts trading face-to-face exchanges and Sober Facts deleting his first response before posting again. For now, this is the latest development in another moment of a months-long conflict centred around the N-word.