December 10, 2023
SCREEN CAPTURE/YOUTUBE
The latest episode of Saturday Night Live opened with a sketching parodying last week's congressional hearings on antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, which led to the resignation of University Pennsylvania president Liz Magill earlier that day.
"Saturday Night Live" used the cold open of its latest episode to poke fun at a Philly institution this weekend. Just hours after University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned from her role leading the Ivy League school, SNL opened with a sketch parodying the recent congressional hearing that led to her ouster.
In the six-and-a-half-minute opener, a Magill played by SNL cast member Heidi Gardner was shown alongside her fictionalized counterparts from Harvard University and MIT being grilled by Chloe Troast, who played an exaggerated version of Republican U.S. congresswoman Elise Stefanik – the real-life lawmaker whose pointed inquiries on Penn's policies on free speech and antisemitism yielded such uninspiring responses from MaGill on Tuesday.
"Can I just resign now?" Gardner's Magill interjected as her character was being introduced by the committee chairwoman, who promptly responded by saying, "Not yet."
The sketch goes on to mock both the evasiveness of the university leaders and the brash ineptitude of Stefanik, whose loud and persistent questions about the universities' policies on antisemitism – and specifically, whether calling or not for genocide against Jews would be in violation of those policies – continue to elicit vague responses and an apparent eagerness for the uncomfortable exchange to end.
In real life, it was indeed Magill's response to Stefanik's questions about whether such calls for genocide would be permitted on campus that led to a firestorm of criticism against the Penn president and, ultimately, her resignation.
When pushed to confirm whether calls for genocide against Jews would violate Penn's policies, Magill responded that the university's response would be "a context-dependent decision."
"That's your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?" responded Rep. Stefanik.
The tense exchange – and most notably Magill's failure to clearly condemn threats of genocidal violence as impermissible speech on her university's campus – sparked widespread condemnation, including from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
The university said on Saturday that Magill will stay on board as Penn's president until a replacement can be found.
The cold open SNL sketch poking fun at last Tuesday's highly consequential congressional hearing can be seen below.
