‘Saturday Night Live’ Cold Open Skewers University Presidents For Their Evasive Answers At House Anti-Semitism Hearing
‘SNL’ NBC
Just hours after Liz Magill resigned as president of the University of Pennsylvania over the evasive answers she and two other academic leaders gave at a House hearing this week, they were being mocked on the Saturday Night Live cold open.
The SNL skit, staged as C-SPAN coverage, the three university presidents gave even more opaque answers.
As an amped up MAGA star, Stefanik, played by Chloe Troast, shouts at the university presidents.
“Yes or no! Is calling for the genocide of Jews against the code of conduct for Harvard?”
“Well, it depends on the context,” answers Dr. Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, played by Ego Nwodim.
Stefanik replies, “That can’t be your answer: UPenn lady, same question, yes or no?”
Magill (Heidi Gardner) answers, “Well, we are serious about stopping all forms of hatred, anti-semitism, Islamophobia.”
Stefanik chides her, then turns to Dr. Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT, and poses the question to her. “And keep in mind, if you don’t say yes, you are going to make me look good, which is really, really hard to do. So I will ask you straight up. Do you think genocide is bad?”
“Could I submit an answer in writing at a later date?” Kornbluth, played by Chloe Fineman, answers.
Then, in a tone of surprise, Stefanik says, “Am I winning this hearing? Somebody pinch me!”
As the three university presidents express relief, then another member of the committee yields his time back to Stefanik.
“I am here today because hate speech has no place on college campuses. Hate speech belongs in Congress, on Elon Musk’s Twitter, in private dinners with my donors and in public speeches with my husband, Donald Trump.”
The hearing goes on for a bit, as the academics continue to give nuanced answers to Stefanik’s questions, as well as those coming from Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), played by Bowen Yang.
“To clear things up, what does violate the code of conduct at your schools. What about if someone on campus yelled, ‘I poisoned the water supply’?” he asks.
Gay answers, “If they poisoned it with diversity, that could be wonderful.”
“Diverse water. It sounds delicious,” Magill responds.
Later, a frustrated Stefanik asks, “Can you take a moral stance on anything? Can anyone here say yes to a single question?”
Then the president of the University of Phoenix online (Kenan Thompson), “and I am willing to say yes to anything.”
“See, see, finally. A real president of a real university,” Stefanik says.
“That’s actually our school motto: U of P: We are a real university,” he answers.
“And will you promise to eliminate all anti-semitism from your campus?” Stefanik asks.
Then he hedges. “My campus is the internet. Anti-semitism is kind of our most popular major and our mascot is porn.”
Stefanik asks, “Okay, well then will you offer a course explaining why anti-semitism is wrong?”
He answers, “Lady, we will offer a course on anything. The only mandatory courses we have are how to log in to the University of Phoenix online, and how to set up autopay.”
More to come.