Putin makes a surprise Christmas visit to Trump on 'SNL'

Alec Baldwin’s appearance on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend was no surprise – nor really was a shirtless Vladimir Putin arriving by chimney – so John Goodman provided the late-starting episode’s wake-up call: He played Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State pick and, in "SNL‘s" version, scheming buddy of the Russian leader.

The set-up: Baldwin’s Trump and Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway are going over inauguration plans (her list of potential entertainers fits on a Post-It note) and recent cabinet nomination Rick Perry (“I saw him on 'Dancing With the Stars,'” Trump says. “It’s just unprecedented!”) when down from the chimney comes Beck Bennett’s Putin: “We think you are the best candidate, the smartest candidate, the Manchurian candidate.”

Bennett’s Putin then gifts Baldwin’s Trump with an Elf on a Shelf containing a hidden spying device – the second-best late-night Elf on a Shelf/Trump joke in as many weeks.

The cold open’s pay-off came with Goodman though, as his Exxon CEO Tillerson barged into Trump Tower unexpectedly and quickly re-bonded with his old pal “Pootie,' making some quick oil deals while a befuddled Trump looks on. “And then we destroy Vanity Fair, right?,” asks Trump.

“Sure, buddy,” Goodman’s Tillerson mutters.

After the open, Goodman and Baldwin joined first-time host Casey Affleck during the monologue, with Goodman noting that “between the three of us, we’ve hosted 'SNL' 31 times.”

Watch the video below:

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