'SNL' skewers congressional hearing on college campuses

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The cast of Saturday Night Live satirized last week's congressional hearing about anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses.

Chloe Troast -- playing Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. -- grilled the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania about what they were doing to curb hate speech aimed at Jewish teachers and staff in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The show joked that Stefanik had been pacing the hallways listening to Eminem's rap-battle anthem, "Lose Yourself," before the hearing began.

"Now, I'm going to start screaming questions at these women like I'm Billy Eichner. Anti-Semitism, yay or nay?" "Stefanik" yelled.

Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner and Chloe Fineman -- playing Claudine Gay, Sally Kornbluth and Liz Magill -- then gave dispassionate, academic answers about how their schools' reactions would depend on the context of specific remarks or demonstrations and that their top priority is diversity on campus.

"Do you think genocide is bad?" "Stefanik" asked.

"Could I submit an answer in writing at a later date?" "Kornbluth" replied.

"Am I winning this hearing? Somebody pinch me!" "Stefanik" said.

"Gay" then said she planned to speak "not from the heart, but the thesaurus."

"That type of hateful speech, to me, is abhorrent," "Gay" emphasized, adding Harvard is taking precautions to protect "all students -- Jewish students, Muslim students..."

"Stefanik" interrupted: "Uh, uh, uh. Again, just the first one," demanding of the women, "Can anyone here take a moral stance on anything?"

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., played by Molly Kearney, eventually concluded the hearing, stating, "This was all very useless," prompting "Stefanik" to say she, personally, had a great time.

"I'm the Hanukkah gift nobody wanted," she said.

In real life, a group of 72 mainly Republican U.S. House members called for the presidents to be fired or resign over what they call their inaction in combating anti-Semitism on campus, following the hearing.

Magill resigned as president of UPenn on Saturday.