I’ve ripped the venerable late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live on numerous occasions because over the last decade or so, they’ve become a shrill, unfunny leftist propaganda machine that went in search of woke approval instead of actual laughs.
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But a funny thing happened this Saturday night – they aired a cold-open monologue skewering recently ousted congressman George Santos, and damn if I didn’t find myself laughing. While they in October did the unthinkable and did a bit making fun of Joe Biden and his mental decline, it was only sort of humorous, and while I applaud them for actually making fun of the other side for a change, it was a meh skit.
In many of their shows, especially the ones reaming Donald Trump when he was president, there was an inherent nastiness, a vitriolic tone that scrubbed any humor out of their efforts. Here, however, they’ve managed to mock Santos in a good-humored way, one that actually made me smile instead of cringe, which is what I usually do in the rare moments I tune in.
Watch as Santos fends off the Washington D.C. press corps before taking to the piano and singing an Elton John classic, albeit with different words:
I did not like the impression of of CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who appeared to be played by a woman; I don’t know if they were trying to send some gender-bending message or not (probably), but to me, she just didn’t seem like… Wolf Blitzer. What was the point, then, other than to send a message?
That being said, I thought the actor playing Santos, Bowen Yang, was great. He had some terrific lines:
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This entire country has been bullying me just because I’m a proud, gay thief.
America hates to see a Latina queen winning.
The skit was littered with other instances of “Santos” fibbing – he claimed to be an astronaut, a neurosurgeon, a professor, a major general, and more. Why it’s funny is because the former NY congressman did in real life make up all sorts of stuff about his past. In other words, it’s fair game.
The real fun, however, starts when Yang sits down at the piano and does a rendition of the classic “Candle in the Wind.” But his words were much different than Sir Elton’s:
“It seems to me like I’ve lived my life like a scandal in the wind / Never knowing who to cling to when the law closed in,” Yang sings as the disgraced congressman. In the next verse, he belts out, “It seems to me like I’ve lived my life like an evil Forrest Gump / I’m the guy who lied even too much for Donald Trump.”
Yes, that’s a dig at Trump, but it’s not a nasty one, and it’s funny. We need to be able to take good-natured ribbing on our side—it’s when they do things like try to absolutey humiliate former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in front of a live audience that they cross the line.
This sort of comedy is what brought SNL to prominence all those years ago. The skit mercifully lacked the mean-spiritedness and on-the-nose Democrat propaganda stuff they’ve normally been putting out in recent years.
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While it’s progress, it’s certainly not perfection—when are they going to take on a Democrat politician? They did softly mock Biden a few weeks ago, as I mentioned, but why isn’t Kamala Harris a weekly feature? Pretty much every time she opens her mouth, she creates an opportunity for satire, and it’s very noticeable that neither SNL nor any of the late-night “comedy” shows will take her on. It’s weakness and bias, plain and simple.
While I appreciate this effort, it’s still very clear where SNL’s loyalties lie, and if they want to bring in a larger audience, they need to get back to being this kind of funny instead of acting as an arm of the DNC.
See–>
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Watching Angry SNL Trans Skit Was About as Fun as Hitting Yourself Over the Head With a Mallet
Late-Night Comedy Is Dead—Woke ‘Comedians’ Embarrass Themselves Compared to Their Predecessors