Melissa McCarthy and Alec Baldwin return to SNL as Sean Spicer and Donald Trump

Melissa McCarthy and Alec Baldwin returned to mock White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and US President Donald Trump in the latest Saturday Night Live episode on Saturday (11 February).

McCarthy's rendition of Spicer — purportedly a cause of much angst for Trump last week — took aim at the administration's failed attempt to ban travel to the US from Muslim-majority nations and its ongoing attempts to undermine objective mainstream media coverage.

Holding another spoof news conference, McCarthy's Spicer announced to the White House press corps that "I'm calm now", in a far from convincing tone, soon struggling to keep emotions in check between the "new Spicey" and "old Spicey".

The centre piece of the sketch took jabs at Trump's "extreme vetting" measures, using a black doll and blonde barbie to recreating contrasting border check experiences and alludes to racism.

"We know she is OK, because she is blonde, and so she gets in. Easy. We understand that," said McCarthy, "But Moana, Uh oh. We are going to pat her down, and then we are going to read her e-mails and if we don't like the answers — which we won't — boom, Guantanamo Bay".

General chastising of the media followed, particularly references to recent real-life claims from Trump, since debunked, that publications had failed to report certain terrorist attacks.

But halfway through, McCarthy stopped to advertise jewellery and shoes by Ivanka Trump in an unflinching critiques of attacks on Nordstrom from within The White House.

But the hottest, most cutting line of the skit fell to Kate McKinnon as Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Performed against a backdrop of racism accusations, the Sessions character's claim that "we all know there are two kinds of crime: regular and black", only to be pushed off stage by McCarthy, provided a dark potential vision of the future.

A second sketch was afforded to Baldwin's Trump, as the actor switched briefly from his record-breaking hosting duties, to appear in a parody of The People's Court as part of attempts to reinstate his travel ban.

A judge played by Cecily Strong asked him, "Mr Trump, you understand this is a TV court, right?" to which he replied, "That's OK. I'm a TV president."

In a final stab, Baldwin then called Russian President Vladimir Putin, again played by a bare-chested Beck Bennet, as a character witness.

"Lay off President Trump, OK? This man is a great friend. He's my little American happy meal. He'd do anything for you. Go against his own country, just to make you happy," he testified.

Upon leaving the courtroom, Bennett added: "See you at Mar-a-Lago, baby."

This was perhaps not the most eye-catching instalment in the string of political sketches, but it nevertheless underlined the vital role comedy can play in holding the administration to account, at a time when political checks and balances appear under attack like never before.

So far there has not been any response from President Trump about the SNL sketches. But it's only a a matter of time.