As the Hollywood Reported noted, when “Saturday Night Live” aired on October 14 “many Hollywood eyes were likely feasting on Saturday's show with expectations about how it would tackle the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal.” The show had been criticized for ignoring the scandal in the previous week's episode.
What viewers got during the show’s “cold opening” was Alec Baldwin doing yet another impersonation of President Trump.
SNL finally did get around to addressing Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood film mogul who has had a dizzying fall from grace in light of allegations about sexual harassment and assault.
In “Weekend Update,” Colin Jost, the co-anchor, began with a joke about emoji: “Apple has announced that it will add hundreds of new emojis to its iOS system, including a person at a spa, a vomiting face and a shushing finger — finally giving emoji fans the ability to describe what it was like to work for Harvey Weinstein.”
Jost added: “Weinstein, who has been accused of multiple counts of sexual assault, is reportedly going to Europe for sex rehab. Somehow I don’t think that’s really going to help anybody. He doesn’t need sex rehab. He needs a specialized facility where there are no women, no contact with the outside world, metal bars and it’s a prison.”
Michael Che, the other co-anchor of “Weekend Update,” noted that the Weinstein scandal put comedians in a “tough spot” because it was hard to make jokes about sexual assault. Then, with a photo of Mr. Weinstein on the screen, Mr. Che added:
“But it’s so easy to make jokes about a guy that looks like this. I mean, he looks like chewed bubble gum rolled in cat hair.”
Mr. Che also took issue with Mr. Weinstein saying that everyone makes mistakes.
“You assaulted dozens of women. That’s not a mistake — that’s a full season of ‘Law & Order.’ Your name’s a verb now, dude, as in, ‘If this guy tries to Weinstein me, I’m going to cut off his little Harvey.’ Doesn’t he look like a well-dressed skin tag?”
An earlier sketch also addressed the Weinstein scandal. Set at a panel during the New York Film Festival, the segment featured the “S.N.L.” cast members Leslie Jones (as Viola Davis), Cecily Strong (as Marion Cotillard) and Kate McKinnon discussing the topic of sexual harassment.
In April, SNL offered a five-minute sketch about allegations of sexual harassment against Bill O’Reilly, with host - again, Alec Baldwin - playing both O’Reilly and Donald Trump.
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