Saturday Night Live, NBC’s late-night comedy show, opened the new year by giving Joe Biden exposure for a foolish appearance and humiliating Rep. George Santos, a freshman representative from California (R-NY).
Since December 17 has passed since the last episode of Saturday Night Live, the cast decided that the case of Santos, who was elected the year before it was revealed he had fabricated. Exaggerated significant portions of his biography were far more interesting than Biden’s ever-expanding document scandal.
Even President Trump made a cheery pre-recorded cameo to assist in promoting guest presenter Aubrey Plaza’s opening monologue, completely ignoring the scandal surrounding President Joe Biden’s unlawful acquisition of confidential papers.
There was a brief mention of the Biden document crisis during the show’s “Weekend Update” fake news section, with a piece by Michael Che joking that “Barack Obama’s true birth certificate” was among the documents discovered at Biden’s Delaware house, “hidden in a copy of Black Tail Magazine.” Colin Jost then joked that the fact that both Trump and Biden have been accused of unlawfully storing classified emails as President and Secretary of State vindicates Clinton, who the FBI has already determined to have done so.
While less than a minute of “Weekend Update” was given to the Biden document crisis (without really hitting Biden), at least five minutes were spent savaging Santos’ more trivial troubles, with one-liners from the hosts and an imitation from cast member Bowen Yang.
Additionally, Yang’s performance as George Santos in Weekend Update was his second of the evening’s show.
In the first act, he dressed up as a drag queen to poke fun at rumors that Santos had performed as a drag queen in Brazil and depicted him as a Fox Sports journalist who lied on his CV to earn a shot as a sports reporter.
During guest presenter, Aubrey Plaza’s opening monologue, a small pre-recorded clip featuring Biden was shown in which he complimented her on being recognized as “the most famous person from Delaware.” The audience roared in approval.
The proximity of Santos’s Long Island district to the Manhattan-based NBC writers may explain why he has been given so much more attention than more significant lawmakers like Joe Biden. However, with few Republicans in his corner, SNL’s decision to mock a blundering lawmaker rather than a blundering head of state demonstrates how little interest the program has in mocking the powerful. If the target is a Democrat, no amount of gaffes or folly will get this generation of sketch writers excited.