Saturday Night Live Takes America Home for the Holidays and It’s Painfully Funny

Plus: Don’t miss Kate McKinnon as Greta Thunberg.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Saturday Night Live’s opening sketch this week once again managed to sum up the desperately divided state of American politics, in six painfully accurate minutes.

It takes place around three dinner tables: There’s an ultraliberal family in San Francisco, California, praying to “gender-neutral spirits,” a conservative family in Charleston, South Carolina, praying to “original American Jesus,” and a black family in Atlanta, Georgia, praying to “historically correct black Jesus.” 

In San Francisco, Trump has “violated the constitution.” In Charleston, he’s simply committed “the crime of being an alpha male who actually gets things done.” When a young Chris Redd suggests talking politics in Atlanta, Kenan Thompson responds, “Oh, you mean how Trump is definitely getting impeached and then definitely getting reelected? I’m good.”

Aidy Bryant’s snowman narrator finally chimes in to wrap things up: “Those three families may seem different, but, see, they have one important thing in common. They live in states where their votes don’t matter. Because none of them live in the three states that will decide our election. They’ll debate the issues all year long, but then it all comes down to 1,000 people in Wisconsin who won’t even think about the election until the morning of. And that’s the magic of the electoral college.”

Then: enter Greta. Watch the full sketch above.

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LET’S TALK ABOUT OPTIMISM FOR A CHANGE

Democracy and journalism are in crisis mode—and have been for a while. So how about doing something different?

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It won’t be easy. There are many exciting new things to share with you, but spoiler: Wiggle room in our budget is not among them. We can’t afford missing these goals. We need this to be a big one. Falling flat would be utterly devastating right now.

A First $500,000 donation of $500, $50, or $5 would mean the world to us—a signal that you believe in the power of independent investigative reporting like we do. And whether you can pitch in or not, we have a free Strengthen Journalism sticker for you so you can help us spread the word and make the most of this huge moment.

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