Where does SNL stand politically and what do you do with Dave Chapelle

Orrin Konheim
5 min readNov 14, 2022

SNL has long had a history of threading the fine political line between various parties. Because the show’s been on a million years, there’s a pseudo-sacred sense of tradition to the show more than practically any other brand and, well, staying true to your brand is important.

But these are crazy times where bad characters are taking positions of power in this country they’re not qualified for and begging the rest of us to out them (even though a disturbingly large amount of people might be supporting them politically).

So how much can SNL maintain its neutrality on a show where it’s perfectly natural for the vast majority of its cast members to be repulsed by the extremes on the right that society is veering towards.

Still, objectivity matters. When Kate McKinnon went on the air the week after Trump won to play a mournful dirge, it did show partisanship and got some backlash from past SNL alumni.

Election Week Cold Open — SNL — YouTube

The problem is that cast members like McKinnon’s colleague, Beck Bennett, often preach neutrality:

Beck Bennett talks ‘SNL’s’ delay in addressing Harvey Weinstein — YouTube

The truth is that the more neutrality the show exercises, the more credibility they have when they need to hit hard.

Of course, 1) it’s not always easy when more Republicans are doing embarrassing things, 2) the…

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Orrin Konheim

Freelance journalist w/professional bylines in 3 dozen publications, writing coach, google me. Patreon: http://www.patreon/com/okjournalist Twitter: okonh0wp