A mall Santa found himself in a tight spot with kids, who not only wanted their Christmas wishes granted, but also information about the ever-growing number of prominent men accused of sexual assault and harassment.
On this week’s “SNL,” Kenan Thompson took on the role of a mall Santa with kid after kid asking questions about everyone from Al Franken to Donald Trump and Matt Lauer. Luckily, his mall elf, played by Kate McKinnon, was there to help field the tough questions.
“Could I get a Mega Blocks dinosaur and a laser tag?” the first kid asked, sitting on Santa’s lap.
“That can be arranged,” Santa answered.
“And can you tell me, what did Al Franken do?” he continued.
“Tyler, I guess you could say that Al Franken is on Santa’s naughty list this year,” Thompson’s Santa answered, struggling to keep his explanation clean.
“And what about Roy Moore?” Tyler asked. “Which list is he on?”
“It’s not really a list,” McKinnon said. “It’s more of a registry.”
Unluckily for Santa, the kids’ questions didn’t stop there.
“I wanted to follow up on Tyler’s question,” the next kid in line asked. “Is President Trump on the naughty list?”
Thompson’s Santa squirmed as he tried to give an inoffensive answer.
“Well, you know, Santa tries to stay out of politics,” he said. “Our president may have said or done a few naughty things.”
“Nineteen accusers,” McKinnon interjected. “Google it.”
“Okay. Can we not — can we just not, Amy?” Santa told McKinnon. “Look, Jessica, I’m sure we can all learn a lesson from what’s going on in the news.”
“We sure can,” Jessica replied. “I learned that if you admit you did something wrong, you get in trouble. But if you deny it, they let you keep your job!”
The kids kept coming, each with another tough question that Santa couldn’t quite answer. As the sketch wrapped up, the last kid didn’t even ask for a gift.
“This year I don’t want any gifts,” she said. “I just want everything to be OK.”
“Oh my goodness. Jenny, listen to me,” McKinnon told her. “I know that things seem particularly insane right now. Like truly mind-bendingly insane, and we seem to have lost all perspective on what’s naughty or nice.”
“I know. I’ve seen Fox News,” the girl returned.
“But as bad as things might seem, I promise you, Jenny, it will be OK. OK? Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not for another three years, 42 days and 24 minutes,” McKinnon continued, referencing the length of Trump’s remaining term in office. “But most people in America are good people, and eventually good people will fix our country.”
“OK, good. But just in case, I’m putting all my money in Bitcoin,” Jenny said.
Watch the entire sketch above.