"Saturday Night Live" isn't what it used to be. Many years ago, it used to be funny. But that hasn't been true generally in some time, although sometimes it does seem to have a rare throwback moment and get things right.
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SNL has been suffering the affliction of the late-night comedy shows that have all become political and unable to be funny anymore. I largely ignore the show except for the rare times it manages to be funny.
But on Saturday night, SNL was unfunny, and you had to ask yourself, what were trying to say by their hot take by attacking Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in the skit? As Hollywood in Toto's Christian Toto framed it, SNL painted the Ivy League presidents' bad answers on antisemitism story as a "Republicans pounce" effort.
UPenn President Liz Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay, and MIT President Sally Kornbluth's responses shocked and outraged many people because of their bad responses to Stefanik's question about the calls for genocide of Jewish students and whether they were against the codes of conduct at their schools. They all seemed to hedge on the questions, with Magill saying it depended on the "context."
It looked like someone decided there's a Republican in the story so we have to take the opposite tack and attack her, even if she's the one calling out antisemitism and the harassment of students at elite colleges. Hey, SNL? Stefanik is the one doing her job and standing up for what is right in this matter.
After three university presidents were universally panned for their testimony about anti-Semitism on campus, SNL decided that @EliseStefanik was the one who embarrassed herself.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 10, 2023
pic.twitter.com/wSympwPfEj
It wasn't Stefanik who embarrassed herself, it was the college presidents. That's why Magill has now resigned, and there are calls for the others to get the gate as well. But SNL completely missed that.
UPenn President Liz Magill Steps Down After Outrageous Statements on Antisemitism
If SNL's skit was at least funny or a good imitation of Stefanik, I might give them some credit, but it wasn't either. It was just plain bad. They couldn't even get right which president went with which school, referring to UPenn when talking to "Kornbluth" and "MIT lady" when they were talking to "Magill," or which president said what. How much effort does that take? It was a lazy effort at best
Then they dismissed the true problem. According to SNL, the problem isn't the antisemitism we're seeing sweeping colleges or the failure to address the harassment of students. Here's what they had "Stefanik" say.
“I am here today because hate speech has no place on college campuses. Hate speech belongs in Congress, on Elon Musk’s Twitter, at private dinners with my donors and in public speeches by my work husband, Donald Trump.”
What was this effort? Are they trying to defend antisemitism and harassment, or the failure to properly address it by elite colleges? Whatever it was, there were hardly any laughs, and it was painful.
I'm in awe. They wrote this, rehearsed this, decided to open the show with this. Forget the tone-deafness of making Stefanik the butt of the joke. It is stunningly unfunny and awful.
— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) December 10, 2023
There are literally no laughs, no chuckles, not even a mlld guffaw. Just so painful to watch. https://t.co/pE3bXW7nXt
I’ve heard of comedy punching up. I’ve heard of comedy punching down.
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) December 10, 2023
I’ve never seen comedy punching itself in the face before. https://t.co/cXTl9HJ7N8
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