A whopping 91% of jokes delivered on “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update segment this season targeted conservatives, while 82% of characters during the show’s cold opens mocked President D…
A whopping 91% of jokes delivered on “ Saturday Night Live ’s” Weekend Update segment this season targeted conservatives, while 82% of characters during the show’s cold opens mocked President Donald Trump or fellow Republicans , according to a new analysis by Media Research Center’s NewsBusters.
The media watchdog examined SNL’s first 19 shows this season through May 9 and found a one-way political firing squad.
Of the 226 political jokes delivered by Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che, 205 targeted conservatives, only 18 slammed Dems and other liberals, and three were non-partisan. During cold opens, actors playing Republicans and conservatives appeared 49 times, lefty characters only 10 times, and one nonpartisan character was featured. Dumping on Trump — who hosted the show twice before being elected president — was the primary focus this year for NBC’s long-running, live-sketch comedy.
And ratings are up thanks to the Trump bump.
“President Trump dismissed weapons fire between the US and Iran as a ‘love tap,'” Che joked during the May 9 segment. “He also called gas prices gentle sodomy. ” And heading into the finale, Trump’s character — typically played by James Austin Johnson — had already made a dozen appearances this season during cold opens. During cold opens, actors playing Republicans and conservatives appeared 49 times, lefty characters only 10 times, and one nonpartisan character was featured.
Che sickly crowbarred the “joke” into a bit about the president attending a performance at the recently renamed Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
“President Trump attended the opening night of ‘Chicago’ at the Kennedy Center, and I think that’s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? ” said Che, referring to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
“‘Saturday Night Live’ hasn’t been a good television show since President Trump hosted it” in 2015, Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign and survived another attempt April 25 – three weeks after Che’s bit – during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s character finished second in cold-open appearances with nine, followed by ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s characters, with four each.
US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was second behind Trump as the target of Weekend Update jokes, receiving 14. He was followed by Noem , conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and Long Island’s lying ex-Rep. George Santos . In comparison, socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani — whose off-the wall socialist schemes could provide years of comic material — has so far been targeted just once by Weekend Update.
And his character has only been featured in one cold-open segment: when comedian Ramy Youssef played Mamdani in a November sketch about a NYC mayoral debate.
“I know some of you out there are scared about the idea of a young Muslim socialist mayor, so allow me to put you at ease by smiling after every answer in a way that physically hurts my face,” said Youssef, who drew laughs by mocking Hizzoner’s signature grin.and video of himself laughing with Youssef about the uncanny resemblance on a FaceTime call while the comic was still in costume.
A whopping 94% of the jokes delivered by late-night hosts during the first week of Operation Eric Fury slammed the United States and its allies instead of Iran and other adversaries,And a staggering 92% of jokes made by Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and the Daily Show universe targeted the right in 2025, and liberal guests outnumbered conservative ones almost 100 to 1, according to data the group shared with The Post in December. A whopping 91% of jokes delivered on “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update segment this season targeted conservatives, while 82% of characters during the show's cold opens mocked President Donald Trump or fellow Republicans, according to a new analysis by Media Research Center's NewsBusters.
During cold opens, actors playing Republicans and conservatives appeared 49 times, lefty characters only 10 times, and one nonpartisan character was featured.
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