SNL Takes it Easy On Embattled College Presidents in Stunning Sketch on House Anti-Semitism Hearing, Instead Skewers GOP’s Elise Stefanik

Ken MeyerDec 10th, 2023, 11:38 am
 

Saturday Night Live focused their cold open on last week’s congressional hearings about college campus anti-Semitism — and they drew heat for the sketch by appearing to position a Republican congresswoman as the primary villain in the controversy.

University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned on Saturday over the uproar from her refusal to say whether publicly calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate the school’s rules of conduct. Hours later, SNL satirized her, Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth for the widely-condemned statements the three gave while they were under intense grilling from Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

Chloe Troast portrayed the House GOP Conference chairwoman by screaming nearly all of her questions, starting with “Anti-Semitism yay or nay! Yes or no! Is calling for the genocide of Jews against the code of conduct for Harvard?!” The university heads gave meandering non-answers, prompting Troast to tell them in character that they should “keep in mind, if you don’t say yes, you’re going to make me look good — which is really, really hard to do.”

The college presidents didn’t get off scot-free in SNL’s spoof. One questioner at the hearing asked the three presidents, “what if someone on campus yelled ‘I poisoned the water supply?'”

“If they poisoned it with diversity, that could be wonderful,” said Ego Nwodim, in character as the Harvard president.

“Mmmm, diverse water,” said Heidi Gardner, playing Magill. “That sounds delicious.”

But despite Magill’s resignation and the bipartisan uproar over the university chiefs’ failure to expressly condemn anti-Semitism — including a rebuke from the White House — most of the skit focused on Troast’s performative diatribe as she exclaimed “Am I winning this hearing? Somebody pinch me.” This dumbing-down of Stefanik was called out on X (formerly Twitter) by critics who slammed SNL for making the congresswoman the main target of their sketch:

Watch above via NBC.

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