The outrageous performances of the three “context” obsessed college presidents teed up satirical possibilities like few other public events. The skit virtually wrote itself. The day of SNL’s latest episode, one of the three, UPenn’s Liz Magill, stepped down in disgrace. So handed this rich and easy topic for parody and high comedy, what did SNL’s writers choose to ridicule?
Why, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose sharp questioning and refusal to accept non-answers led all three officials to unmask leftist academia’s ethics rot, what Bishop Robert Barron described as their “Collapse of Moral Reasoning.” Instead of performing the clarifying function that effective and objective satire can provide (and that SNL has provided in the past, if you have a good memory), the show defaulted to circling the progressive wagons. The theme of it’s satire was “Republicans pounce!” as if there is nothing amiss when the leaders of three prestigious universities make legalistic arguments to justify allowing Jewish students to be targeted and threatened on their campuses.
It is neither fair, not funny, nor bold , nor honest. By taking this approach, SNL isn’t skewering the establishment or speaking truth to power, It is pandering to its “side” at the expense of decency and truth, not to mention satire. Here’s SNL’s team…
Oh, they “tried” to put the three presidents on the defensive, did they? They and many more colleges have been “on the defensive” since the Hamas attack put in sharp contrast the results of far left indoctrination in American higher education. In the skit, however, it is the Republican Congresswoman displaying hypocrisy, not the three officials, especially Harvard’s Gay, whose university was suddenly extolling free speech after repeatedly curbing it when the speakers offended the campus woke. “I am here today because hate speech has no place on college campuses,” the skit’s Stephanik shouted. “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.”
Writes conservative Hollywood columnist Christian Toto:
Ignore college students ripping down hostage posters. Look away as university professors praise Hamas. The real villains in the post-Oct. 7 world are Elon Musk and Republicans, according to “SNL.”…“Saturday Night Live” has all but ignored the Left’s crazed reaction to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds more, including babies.
Babies.
When the show finally got around to exposing the stunning rise in anti-semitism it focused on the GOP figure who helped reveal it to a stunned nation. “Saturday Night Live” isn’t officially dead. It’s just as morally bankrupt as your average Ivy League academic.
Bingo.
Here’s the “cold open”:
Ethics Alarms 
I watched the actual questions and answers. I could not watch the whole skit. The depiction of Stefanik that I did see was about as disgusting as the real life answers to her questions.
Yes, she was forceful and passionate asking those questions. Watching the campus riots, I hope I would be as well.
I’m unfamiliar with Rep. Stefanik, so I don’t know how well the caricature of her mannerisms and opinions fits. I do think the skit manages to indict the college presidents pretty well. It did not look like the writers were going easy on them. If anything, making the college professors lose face to a Republican (as they lampshade–“Am I actually winning?!”) is even more meaningful to a Democratic audience. Remember how many Jewish people are in show business–political allegiance tends to lapse when one becomes another of the party’s scapegoats.
Good and studiedly fair comment, EC. Althouse wrote,while noting that the presidents were made to appear smug and arrogant, “The actual sketch is hardest on Elise Stefanik though, unsurprisingly.” Why “unsurpisingly”? She was the one doing exactly what her job was, and she successfully exposed the three academics as incompetent, hypocritical and ethically inert. Ann is a fan of SNL, which makes no sense if she expect its satire to be based on partisan and political bias rather than merit.
Seems to me the Leftist leaders in colleges were all super sensitive to a banana peel tossed into a tree during a Greek retreat ant Ol’ Miss. Exactly how do these administrators define context. It appears that context means whatever meaning they find useful.
Wow. I was embarrassed watching that SNL clip-
They don’t even have a live audience do they? That was a packaged laugh track…
The inimitable Babylon Bee: Powerful: SNL Makes Unfunny Sketch To Show That Antisemitism Is No Laughing Matter
PWS