The long-standing staple of American television, Saturday Night Live (SNL), appears to be losing its humor, particularly to its many viewers who lean to the political right. SNL’s recent tendency to skew towards leftist ideals has repeatedly shown itself in a series of awkward sketches, causing discomfort among conservative viewers. This was exemplified by the cringe-worthy spectacle that followed the 2016 elections – a make-believe requiem for America featuring Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton singing ‘Hallelujah’ with all the trappings of a funeral service.
The bias became even more blatant during the 2024 elections when Kamala Harris was gratuitously invited to the show just a weekend before the big day. Over the last decade, SNL’s routine of lampooning conservatives and supporters of MAGA has been a source of relentless controversy rather than comedy. It’s not the jesting of Donald Trump or conservatives that’s problematic per se, but the one-sidedness of their ridicule that’s difficult to digest.
In the realm of comedy, forbidding any person or idea from bearing the brunt of a joke violates the very essence of the genre. However, SNL has been consistently guilty of this sin, egregiously focusing its humor only on the right while abating jokes about the Democrats. Yet, there appear to be inklings suggesting that this unilateral mockery may be undergoing a shift.
A notable cultural reorientation appears to be in motion, demonstrated by voters’ decisive dismissal of Kamala Harris’s extreme leftist agenda. This is the emerging consensus – the ‘wokeness’ has overstepped its bounds. There’s a prevailing sentiment that we’ve strayed too deeply into a focus on pronouns and safe spaces, leaving the genuine concerns of everyday Americans largely unattended.
This sweeping shift in perspective was seemingly put on display in a recent SNL sketch. The skit featured two heterosexual couples interrogating a gay couple about the origins of their newly acquired baby. Played by Bowen Yang and a guest host, the gay couple, upon being questioned about their baby’s ‘source,’ retorts by accusing the straight couples of being prejudiced.
However, despite this seemingly balanced portrayal, it would be premature to declare SNL a comedy champion of bipartisanship. A solitary sketch scarcely establishes anything definitively, except that the show appears to be easing its previously rigid boundaries concerning what topics were available for mockery. This slight shift may arrive as a glimmer of hope to the disillusioned viewers, but the journey towards true impartiality remains long and arduous.
Should the show temper its partisan slant and opt for an even-handed approach, pricking both sides of the political spectrum with equivalent humor, it could potentially reclaim the interest of those viewers it’s lost over the years. Yet that still remains a distant aspiration. Currently, SNL finds itself stuck in a pattern of monotonous mimicry, choosing to lampoon only those with whom they politically disagree.