During its five shows during the fall presidential campaign from September 28 through November 2, a Media Research Center study found that NBC’s Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che told a total of 38 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Of these, 34, or 89 percent, were about Trump.
Additionally, MRC analysts counted five jokes about JD Vance and one for Tim Walz, or 83 percent to 17 percent. Together, the 39-5 slant against the GOP ticket equates to 87 percent.
An early MRC study found that 98 percent of the daily late night comedy shows’ jokes targeted Trump, but that should not lead one to think SNL was lighter on Trump. A nearly 9:1 ratio is still wildly imbalanced and having a sample size of nearly 1,400 fewer jokes over 131 fewer episodes can give a false impression that SNL was fairer to Trump.
In fact,…
