'SNL': Chloe Troast's Elise Stefanik Hogs the Mic as 'the Hanukkah Gift No One Wanted' in Cold Open Roast of GOP Antisemitism Hearings | Video

SNL Parody of Antisemitism Hearings

“SNL” picked an extremely topical topic for the cold open of Saturday’s episode, roasting both sides of the congressional hearings on antisemitism, albeit in a tepid and meandering way that suggested the decision to make it the cold open sketch might have been last minute.

The sketch had something for everyone (except, perhaps, people looking to laugh.) On the one hand, it leaned in hard on the obvious showboating and bad faith on display during the hearings, particularly from NY Rep. Elise Stefanik, played here by “SNL” featured player Chloe Troast. It also sent up the disastrous appearances by the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT, emphasizing how incoherently academic and noncommittal — even in response to easy layups like denouncing pro-genocide speech — their testimony often was.

Alas, it came with halted pacing that kept most of the jokes from landing. Though Kenan Thompson’s brief appearance as the president of Univeristy of Phoenix was hilarious.

Watch the clip below:

Stefanik, played by featured cast member Chloe Troast, was as performatively angry and clearly teeing-up “gotcha” moments at the expense of real answers as her IRL counterpart. And Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardener and Ego Nwodim as the colleges presidents were nearly as incoherently academic as the real life versions.

The sketch came just hours after University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill resigned following backlash to her congressional testimony.

She appeared alongside MIT president Sally Kornbluth and Harvard President Claudine Gay on Tuesday during a hearing ostensibly about rising antisemitism on college campuses but also featured questions by Republican lawmakers that seemed to imply any criticism of the war is inherently antisemitic. Nevertheless, the three college presidents gave legalistic and wishy washy responses to the question of whether calling for the genocide of Jews constituted a violation of the universities’ codes of conduct, sparking an uproar that is still ongoing.

Following the relatively brief cold open, host Adam Driver performed a delightful piano song during his monologue. Watch that below: