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On Nov. 9, the cast of "Saturday Night Live" tackled the task of performing their first episode following the results of the presidential election, which elected Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. In it, the cast members gave a shoutout to the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The highly anticipated post-election episode often sets the tone and picks up on some of the news pieces that have marked the election. And the cold open often does so with an unmatched verve.
The setup of Saturday's cold open portrayed several cast members standing together in a quiet moment on stage to deliver a sincere message directly to the camera.
"On Tuesday, Americans went to the polls and elected Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States," Bowen Yang began.
"To many people, including many people watching this show right now, the results were shocking and even horrifying," Ego Nwodim said.
"Donald Trump, who tried to forcibly overturn the results of the last election, was returned to office by an overwhelming majority," Heidi Gardner said.
"This is the same Donald Trump who openly called for vengeance against his political enemies," Kenan Thompson said.
"And now, thanks to the Supreme Court, there are no guardrails," Yang said.
"Nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him," Nwodim said.
"And that is why we at SNL would like to say to Donald Trump, we have been with you all along," Thompson said.
And here the sincerity stops and the core of the sketch begins.
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Of course, the sketch is saying one thing and accomplishing another. They explain that in this next Trump presidency, he can exact revenge on any and all of his opposers. Though the cast is emphatic about their unwavering support for Trump, even unveiling a new character they call "Hot, Jacked Trump," their body language and tone of voice reveals a sense of fear and desperation.
The sketch, which received 3.5 million views on YouTube over the weekend, implies that those who have previously had the power to speak out against Trump are now fearful of their right to do so moving forward.
Later in the sketch, Marcello Hernández promises that every cast member voted for Trump. Gardner adds, "And I voted for you 50 times in Pennsylvania."
In October the Benedictine Sisters of Erie were accused of voter fraud by conservative activist Cliff Maloney, and founder of canvassing group, Pennsylvania Chase.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Maloney falsely claimed that 53 voters were listed under the monastery address but that no one lived there. In his tweet Maloney shared the names, ages, addresses, and political affiliations of the sisters registered at the Erie address.
However the community who lives at the monastery insists that no one visited to check the sisters' voter registration status.
Sr. Linda Romey*, spokesperson for the congregation, told Global Sisters Report that "There is not a single sister who would say no one lives here. Not a single guest would say that. I don't know where this person was, but it wasn't 6101 East Lake Road."
But in the SNL sketch, Gardner is saying that it wasn't in fact nuns who were the cause of any voter fraud. It was her.
The joke implied that something similar could happen to the members of SNL. They could come under fire and also have personal information shared widely if Trump apologists take notice of them.
Historically the cast of SNL has openly poked fun at Trump without fear of recourse. But in their appeal, the cast members insist that if Trump is keeping a list of his enemies, they should most definitely not be on that list. Simply put, SNL's schtick is that they feign support for Trump, for their safety.
Both the cast of SNL and the Erie Benedictines are groups of people who could very well be "on the list" for one reason or another. One group responds with humor and lightness and the other with love and fiery truthtelling.
*This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Sr. Linda Romey's name.
