Holy crap.
“SNL” came out swinging hard tonight with a succession of disses aimed squarely at Donald Trump. But the hardest punch of all was saved for last, with the first digital short of the evening (right after Kristen Stewart’s monologue) that blasted the Trump immigration ban with both barrels.
The premise: what happens when an instructional video, played for international passengers as they arrive in U.S. airports, is heavily edited in light of the ban. As it turns out, the result is haphazardly Orwellian propaganda that barely conceals the racist intent of restricting immigration from several majority-Muslim.
Starting with Cecily Strong as a well meaning TSA agent welcoming visitors to the USA, a message drops in informing viewers that edits have been made to reflect the new rules, then clumsily switches to Beck Bennett as a beleaguered Trump bureaucrat. Immigrants must fill out “a very detailed” questionnaire, says Bennett before holding up the single question: “are you a Muslim?”
“Let’s go over a few documents you’ll need,” Strong said. “First, your completed customs form. You’ll also need a valid passport from your country of origin–”
At which point Bennett interrupted with new restrictions from Trump’s travel ban, as well as his apparently tumultuous conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“Not including Iraq, Iran, Sudan or Yemen. And maybe Australia, we’ll see,” Bennett’s voice-over said.
“Once you’ve filled out forms c-9. w-8. and d-9-b. f-12, you’re just getting started,” Bennett went on. “Effective immediately, all visitors will be subject to extreme vetting procedures including a highly detailed questionnaire. we also need fingerprints, blood sample. urine sample. stool sample. and you will be required to eat a hot dog in front of us.”
It might be the meanest (and satisfying) SNL has been in decades, but don’t take our word for it – watch it above now.