Last night, Saturday Night Live used its cold opening skit to wade into the Planned Parenthood scandal and the “stomach churning” undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. SNL opened with a skit featuring a recreation of Fox and Friends and cast member Vanessa Bayer initially tried to downplay the videos. While portraying Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Bayer joked that Planned Parenthood was “selling baby parts on Snapchat.”
Saturday Night Live
By Matthew Balan | May 11, 2015 | 7:16 PM EDT
The Daily Beast's Dean Obeidallah denied the existence of Islamism as an ideology during a segment on Monday's CNN Newsroom. Obeidallah, responding to conservative commentator Erick Erickson applauding Saturday Night Live's draw Mohammed skit as "a perfectly humorous way to point out the absurdity of radical Islam's refusal to let people draw Mohammed," wildly claimed that "the [SNL] writers'...goal was not to make fun of radical Islam – this made-up idea."
By Tim Graham | May 10, 2015 | 3:40 PM EDT
NBC's Saturday Night Live awkwardly made fun of things you just cannot depict at risk of death. In a TV game show called Picture Perfect -- that looked a little like Pictionary and a little like NBC's own Hollywood Game Night -- cast member Bobby Moynihan (complete with Chris Farley-esque hair) was asked to draw an image of "The Prophet Muhammad."
"Hilarity" ensued when he and fellow cast member Kenan Thompson (playing actor Reginald VelJohnson of Die Hard and Family Matters) refused to comply and risk being murdered by jihadists:
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 12, 2015 | 12:24 PM EDT
With Hillary Clinton set to officially announce her presidential campaign on Sunday, Saturday Night Live used the occasion to poke fun at her campaign, with a cameo from former President Bill Clinton, played by SNL alum Darrell Hammond.
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2015 | 11:39 PM EDT
One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.
On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is impossible to imagine the program putting on a skit showing Ronald Reagan doing to the same thing to Ted Kennedy — who, in an objectively treasonous act, sought the Soviet Union's help in the 1984 presidential election for the purpose of defeating Reagan.
By Jack Coleman | February 16, 2015 | 3:40 PM EST
The weather has been so brutal in the Northeast this winter that those involved in preparations for Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary special were apparently cut off from any news over the last two weeks.
How else to explain the show's laughable piety when it aired last night, and at the dead-whale weight of four and a half hours (including a red-carpet preview), and mocked what was deemed "fake news" from the Fox News Channel.
By Geoffrey Dickens | February 16, 2015 | 1:02 PM EST
Disgraced NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was the butt of several jokes on Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary Special. Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld and even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani got into the act during an interview on the red carpet.
By Geoffrey Dickens | February 16, 2015 | 12:13 PM EST
Stand-up comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld cracked up the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary audience with a joke at Brian Williams’ expense: “I just found out that one of the original cast members in 1975 was Brian Williams.”
By Kyle Drennen | February 15, 2015 | 10:57 PM EST
Appearing on the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special Sunday night, comedian Martin Short mocked NBC for the ongoing scandal surrounding Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, declaring to the audience of A-list celebrities: “Do you realize that if this roof were to collapse right now, it would be the least of NBC’s problems?”
By Curtis Houck | February 15, 2015 | 8:58 PM EST
During the red carpet show leading up to the 40th anniversary special of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, actor Jim Carrey ended his interview with Today co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on a rather awkward note by suddenly asking them where NBC is “hiding” suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Carrey interjected with: “Can I ask you guys a question? Where are you hiding Brian Williams? Where is he?”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 23, 2014 | 10:28 AM EST
Following President Obama’s decision to ignore Congress and issue an executive action on immigration reform, Saturday Night Live hilariously mocked the decision on their Saturday night broadcast. During the show’s opening, SNL did their own “School House Rock” segment featuring an immigration reform bill being shoved down the steps of Capitol Hill by President Obama, played by Jay Pharoah, in favor of his preferred choice, an executive action.
By Brent Baker | October 26, 2014 | 3:20 AM EDT
Out of sync with MSNBC, NBC’s Saturday Night Live opened last night with a skit in which “President Obama” acknowledged the ineptitude of his administration and “Ron Klain,” the Ebola Czar, conceded to a reporter that he has no medical expertise. Picking up on poor Democratic prospects in the mid-term elections, the comedy show then had Klain warning “if you live in a southern state, such as Louisiana, Arkansas, or Kentucky, you actually may want to avoid any large public spaces like, say, a polling booth.”