A steady and fierce backlash has been brewing against Saturday Night Live over its recent sketch lampooning the U.S. Congressional hearing with Ivy League university presidents about the growing wave of antisemitism on campus.
As Breitbart News reported over the weekend, the sketch often trolled the “consistently opaque answers offered by three academic leaders in their testimony at a House hearing on antisemitism” while also skewering Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik despite the fact she asked serious questions about calls for genocide against Jews on college campuses.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) also drew criticism on the SNL segment, even though she was the one actively challenging antisemitism, which featured Claudine Gay, Sally Kornbluth, and Liz Magill—the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively—who testified in front of Congress on Tuesday about the alarming rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses across America (including their own) since the Hamas-Israel war began on Oct. 7.
The sketch did not receive a warm welcome online, with people calling it offensive and wrong. Here are some of the hottest of the hot takes.
“Saturday Night Live is a place where comedy goes to die.” pic.twitter.com/gnrcMWcZeK
— TakingHayekSeriously (@FriedrichHayek) December 11, 2023
Saturday Night Live hates Republicans more than antisemitism 🤯
— heather nauert (@HeatherNauert) December 10, 2023
@RepStefanik#SNL #Harvard #MIT #UPennhttps://t.co/qL9MOvtYd1
Nothing short of full fledged apology from entire staff of SNL @nbcsnl is required. Attacking @RepStefanik instead of the antisemitic Progressive Presidents rings of their own antisemitism. Typical damn liberal hypocrisy.
— Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (@RepGregMurphy) December 11, 2023
SNL doesn’t know what to do. They’re very Jewish; they’re in New York, a city rife with antisemitic violence. But they can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that the left has turned against Jews. They can’t get out of their partisan rut.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) December 10, 2023
And aren’t they supposed to be funny? https://t.co/HMvt5o4zXi
SNL are you antisemitic??? https://t.co/Cg4NA76exo
— TheSkepticalPatriot (@TSPcorner) December 10, 2023
This isn't humor. It's mockery of a dire issue. SNL lost its way many decades ago & hasn't been funny since. SNL should've faded away years ago but didn't so here we are now watching this highly antiSemitic crap. Maybe the @FCC should investigate this antisemitism instigation. https://t.co/K6dlV3onzy
— Michael Plotsker (@mplotsker) December 10, 2023
This is so weird and unfunny it begs the question, was SNL ordered to do this cold opening to create some cover for antisemitic progressives? I'm serious. No one who wrote this or performed this can even pretend it's funny. It feels like forced propaganda. So who made them do it?
— Paul Bunch (@PaulBun03006566) December 10, 2023
@nbcsnl is no longer funny. The most recent skit mocking Congressman Stefanik was disgraceful. SNL must support the rights of Jewish students not being enforced. SNL is part of the antisemitic cabal.
— Jake ~ Big Dawg (@JakeGeorgia11) December 11, 2023
@nbcsnl this is fucking terrible, not even remotely funny, there was a lot from the hearings that could have been made into an SNL skit that may have been funny without making it look as though you sided with the antisemitic responses of the heads of those universities and you… https://t.co/sgRRqlqsdT
— CJ Simrak (@CSimrak) December 10, 2023
Elise Stefanik’s office released a statement as well, calling the sketch “unfunny” and “morally bankrupt.”
“SNL made history with the worst cold open ever because everyone knows there is absolutely no humor in the vile answers from the university presidents regarding their failure to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people,” said senior advisor Alex DeGrasse.
According to the Daily Mail, “a top advisor for the leadership Republican told DailyMail.com that although Stefanik did not watch the skit, her office has been ‘flooded’ with messages from Republicans and Democrats who were ‘appalled and disgusted by the antisemitic trash spewed by unfunny, morally bankrupt’ comedians.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
