DISCLAIMER: This article was first published on October 10, 2024
When you’re a public figure, arguing with Saturday Night Live’s jokes about you is not generally a great idea.
When he was president in 2018, Donald Trump threatened to sue SNL over a relatively innocuous It’s a Wonderful Life parody, although Trump, who has hosted the show multiple times, did not follow through on the threat. In 2023, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) demanded SNL issue a “full-fledged apology” for a sketch based on Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)’s grilling of college presidents in Congress.
For the most part, though, public figures have rolled with the punches when it comes to what Saturday Night Live says about them, and they occasionally will appear on the show themselves, alongside their impersonator.
Now, the boyfriend of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has taken umbrage at a joke on last Saturday’s Weekend Update segment.
Yes they can control the weather.
Here is Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan talking about it.
Anyone who says they don’t, or makes fun of this, is lying to you.
By the way, the people know it and hate all of you who try to cover it up. pic.twitter.com/V0l0yts3dw
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 6, 2024
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Last week, amid hurricane season, Greene said on social media that “yes, they can control the weather. ” Later, she doubled down with references to technologies that either don’t exist or do things other than “control the weather.” Greene never said who “they” are, but considering her history of talking about the Rothschild family and space lasers, certain antisemitic implications were evidence.
And that’s where SNL’s Michael Che went with the joke, stating “I don’t know who ‘they’ is, but it has been a suspiciously nice Rosh Hashanah weekend.”
That might be the kind of joke that could be interpreted as antisemitism itself, but Brian Glenn, the radio host who is Rep. Greene’s boyfriend, was upset for another reason, stating “laughter is the product of their ignorance.”
Marjorie Taylor Green’s boyfriend attacked SNL for making fun of Greene over her hurricane weather control conspiracies.
Brian Glenn implied laughing at his girlfriend means that you’re ignorant. pic.twitter.com/5bkfYywwco
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 9, 2024
True, Che was technically wrong — Rosh Hashanah began at sundown Wednesday last week, and did not extend through the weekend — but I don’t think that’s what Glenn meant.
One aspect of this, however, is not a laughing matter. The Jerusalem Post reported last week that some Jewish public officials involved with hurricane response have faced antisemitic harassment. Such officials as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg “have been the subject of an onslaught of antisemitic abuse on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.”
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
